Connection between 2 AGR awards

[crescent2]

A friend and I have an upcoming trip which involves two 2-zone AGR awards with no hotel overnights. We should be arriving in CHI early in the day to end the first award, and then departing on the same day 9 hours later on a different train to begin the second award. The trips are on two separate reservations, so to Amtrak, the connection is not a connection at all and is therefore not guaranteed.

In discussing this in the main forum, I was advised to call and get the reservations cross referenced, which i did. However, the agent said she would cross reference them but the connection would nevertheless not be a guaranteed one. (Despite my pleas of "But a green maned lion said....!") I then asked if the reservations could be combined into one reservation and was told no, but that even if they could be, the connection would still not be guaranteed, "because you are arriving and leaving on the same day." I inquired if there was any way to obtain a guaranteed connection, and she said no and repeated the quoted reason.

I am not necessarily disputing the impossibility of getting a guaranteed connection between the two awards (and not really worried with a 9-hour layover), but the reasoning makes no sense to me. The layover is nine hours so that's not a factor, and the connection is between two different trains as is the norm. The other connections in the trip are also "arriving and leaving on the same day," as are many if not most connections that people routinely make.

Can anyone shed more light on this?

 

[the_traveler]

With a connection between the CL and Cardinal being so long, I wouldn't worry about it. The CL would have to be VERY late for you to miss it. Even if that were to happen, i think Customer Relations in CHI would help you out

The only way to easily combine them is to make one award to end somewhere like Toledo, then get another award to like CIN then another back home, but that would be more points. A routing like that works on some trips for no extra points, but not for your trip this time.

 

[crescent2]

Thanks, traveler. It's not that we're worried about the connection (although stranger things have happened). Since the second part is already a separate award, I shouldn't lose any points as long as we know in time to call and cancel, so that's not a worry. At that point i suppose we would have to book a new AGR award on the Cap Ltd. I'll cross that bridge if I come to it.

I posted because I was wondering if anyone could explain why "arriving and leaving on the same day" prevents a guaranteed connection. That makes absolutely no sense to me. Many connections including our others do arrive and leave on the same day, and the connections are guaranteed. ??

And, GML suggested phoning to have the reservations crossed referenced in response to my post in the other thread, and he's pretty knowledgeable about Amtrak, so that was another reason i was surprised at the response to my call.

(I guess I was around second graders a bit too long--I always want to know "why"! And the info might come in handy later or for others.) Thanks-

Edit: Oh, and thanks for the tip about a booking split differently being advantageous in some cases. I hadn't even thought about booking to Toledo and then trying to go on from there or something. I'm not very creative when it comes to such!

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I'm frankly baffled by It. Hold on ... Load of BS.

IND to TOL is a guaranteed connection 51->30, for instance. With the res cross referenced, if something goes wrong, you have a leg to stand on for bullying a room out of them.

If it was me, I'd tell them that the agent who cross referenced it had told me it was guaranteed. Believe me, the CS rep has the authority to put you up in that circumstance. It's just a matter of the right mix of firmness and politeness and sad puppy eyes and you'll likely be able to snag it.

Irrespective, the reason they told you is hooey.

 

[crescent2]

Thanks, GML. The reason they gave certainly made no sense to me. I even reread the redemption guidelines on the website.

From others' posts, they seem to now make notes whenever one phones, so I'd bet it's written in my record that the connection is not guaranteed. If by some weird Amtrak thing we miss it, though, I would certainly try to persuade them to change their mind and take care of it. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me, with the reservations cross referenced as you suggested. Actually, I usually have pretty good luck getting people to do the right thing by just being up front with them, but no guarantees of course.

On another note, traveler's post got me to thinking--sometimes not a good thing. I could pay for coach Anniston-ATL (4:00 p.m. to 7:45 ish), and then do a 1-zone BR redemption ATL-Toledo, then pay for coach (5:22 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.) for TOL-CHI, for a total of about $181 for both my friend and me plus two breakfasts, unless we were running late enough to get sleeper breakfasts.. (I think we could get sleeper dinners after ATL?) My friend gets up before dawn routinely; I don't but i could. I would save 15,000 AGR points by doing so. I would have to trust I'd get an agent who didn't mess around and lose my sleeper accommodations ATL-TOL in the process.

Hmmm.... But the last time I bought points, I got 15,000 for $275, with the 50% bonus. If (?) I could do that again next year, I'd really only be saving about $75-$95 depending on breakfasts. Of course I could buy points next year regardless and have 13,000-15,000 more at the end of 2015 if I change our reservation. Meh....probably not worth the hassle at this point? (I have far too much free time to spend on the computer this week!!)

We could also travel from and back to ATL instead of ATN, but I KNOW that hassle is not worth saving $75 minus what we'd spend on parking!

 

[the_traveler]

I agree with GML. The agent that said "same day" is pulling a line of BS! Any guaranteed connection is "same day".

If you wanted to do the multiple redemptions, do this:

1) Buy coach tickets ATN-ATL

2) Redeem a 1 zone award ATL-TOL (via WAS)

3) Redeem a 1 zone award TOL-CIN (via CHI)

4) Redeem a 1 zone award CIN-ATL (via CVS - Charlottesville)

5) Buy coach tickets ATL-ATN

Each 1 zone award for the Roomette will be 15,000 points.

 

[crescent2]

Thanks, traveler! The most tempting reason to think about changing at this point is that I could accumulate more points toward later travel, which I may or may not be able to work out. I can't get in touch with my friend (I would pay all the difference but I hate to change things without talking with her), and at this late date I've about decided to leave well enough alone. KISS, my checkbook says. But if I do get to make other AGR trips, I'm definitely going to consider all options relating to zone breaks. I really wasn't paying attention when I booked this trip. Thanks for pointing out the significant difference it can make in points needed.

Re the CHI connection: So both of you think with cross referenced reservations, it might actually be guaranteed? (Probably a moot point with the long layover, but good info to know for the future, and just in case Murphy is on the Cap.)