How do I book The SW Chief if looking for 2 day stop over?

[Joe2311]

Hello all,

I wanted to know if I can book a stopover on the SW Chief at the price of a trip straight through?

We are looking to go from CHI-LOS, but would love to visit Sedona for 2 days (getting off in Flagstaff). Definetly a big cost difference, but I'm not sure if Amtrak has any vacation packages that allow for this.



Roomette from CHI-LOS for 2 people $836.00

Roomette from CHI-FLAGSTAFF for 2 people $781.00

Roomette from FLAGSTAFF-CHI FOR 2 PEOPLE $330.00

Meaning To get off in Flagstaff and back on 2 days later would cost $1111.00, an additional $275.00 dollars.


Any help appreciated!!!

Thank you!

 

[pennyk]

It generally costs more to break up your trip rather than travel through.

You could check Amtrak Vacations to see if they have any package deals, but usually booking yourself will cost less.

 

[zephyr17]

That is the way the pricing works. You are not going to get a through fare if you are not going through. Also, the difference in travel days might have only higher buckets available.

 

[flitcraft]

That's also true for most air travel. A few airlines--mainly international--will give you a free stopover, but by and large, if you break up your travel, it's gonna cost you.

 

[Joe2311]

That's also true for most air travel. A few airlines--mainly international--will give you a free stopover, but by and large, if you break up your travel, it's gonna cost you.

That's actully where my thought came from as "Iceland air" had a free stopover program. I just thought I'd ask!

 

[ehbowen]

That's actully where my thought came from as "Iceland air" had a free stopover program. I just thought I'd ask!

It is worth asking. When I flew back from Whitefish (Kalispell) to Houston in 2014, Alaska Air allowed me to work in a three-day stopover in Seattle at no extra charge over the normal through ticket cost. Sorry that Amtrak can't be as reasonable.

 

[AG1]

Yes, you might get a through price if you use the "Multi-city" ticketing option(one ticket) for the two day stop over, you might save money over the regular ticketing for the two segments.
I just did a test booking using roomettes for your cities in December and saved $133 using "Multi-city" versus regular tickets( 2 separate tickets)
Enter "Multi-city" in the search box for the Multi-city page.
I am surprised some experienced travelers above did not know about this.

 

[bratkinson]

If your planned schedule is flexible, use Amsnag <http://biketrain.x10.mx/amsnag2.0/amSnag.php> and enter CHI & FLG for city codes and then a starting date and number of days. Then do the same for FLG and LAX for the same date range. You should be able to find some low price 'pairs' that work for you. Maybe an extra day at Flagstaff? Maybe do the trip in the reverse direction? It may pay to try multiple variations if that's an option.

As AG1 noted, booking as a multi-city ticket MIGHT get a 'conjunctive' fare for the two segments which is lower than each one separately.

 

[ehbowen]

Yes, you might get a through price if you use the "Multi-city" ticketing option(one ticket) for the two day stop over, you might save money over the regular ticketing for the two segments.
I just did a test booking using roomettes for your cities in December and saved $133 using "Multi-city" versus regular tickets( 2 separate tickets)
Enter "Multi-city" in the search box for the Multi-city page.
I am surprised some experienced travelers above did not know about this.

Actually, I had the same thought but my test booking was for mid-March. No saving with multi-city over separately booked segments, so I kept it to myself for the time.

 

[iliketrains]

Why do airlines and Amtrak charge more when you don’t travel through and have a stopover? Does it cost them more to accommodate such a situation? Does it prevent them from servicing other passengers? I think they look for reasons to charge more. I maybe entirely wrong. So please educate me.

 

[neroden]

It has to do with offering discounts on longer continuous trips, and frankly I'm still unsure why they do *that* in many cases; I suspect they do it substantially more often than they should.

 

[user 6862]

Why do airlines and Amtrak charge more when you don’t travel through and have a stopover? Does it cost them more to accommodate such a situation? Does it prevent them from servicing other passengers? I think they look for reasons to charge more. I maybe entirely wrong. So please educate me.

For LD train travel it may be the second section of the journey is unsalable due to being too short for a roomette sale, so Amtrak lose revenue for the entire journey. And or that they have to clean and prepare the room twice for one journey and of course everyone deserves to be paid for extra work?

 

[joe1123]

Yes, you might get a through price if you use the "Multi-city" ticketing option(one ticket) for the two day stop over, you might save money over the regular ticketing for the two segments.
I just did a test booking using roomettes for your cities in December and saved $133 using "Multi-city" versus regular tickets( 2 separate tickets)
Enter "Multi-city" in the search box for the Multi-city page.
I am surprised some experienced travelers above did not know about this.

I didn't know that. Definetly will ask about that. Thank you!

 

[RSG]

For LD train travel it may be the second section of the journey is unsalable due to being too short for a roomette sale, so Amtrak lose revenue for the entire journey. And or that they have to clean and prepare the room twice for one journey and of course everyone deserves to be paid for extra work?

That would make more sense for Amtrak. I will note that in the days before deregulation of the airline industry such trips were more doable as the ticket prices between city pairs were universally the same.

 

[me_little_me]

I would suggest you look at other travel days as you might find the cost is significantly different. Unless you are restricted as to date, use amsnag.net to find other travel days around your selected date. On one trip, we found that by staying an extra night in the intermediate city, the cost of the train became lower than the cost of the hotel for the extra night.

 

[the_traveler]

A multi-city booking will only give you a lower thru fare if the stopover is under 23 1/2 hours . Thus it will not work on one a day trains, since the next train will depart 24 hours later.