Is it better to put your whole trip in separate reservations?

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Gingee

OBS Chief
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Nov 21, 2004
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Kicking around taking the train next June. I thought I remembered someone saying that it is better to make your reservations separate. For instance - Bloomington to Chicago (one reservation), then Chicago to Washington D.C. (second reservation) and Washington D.C. to Fort Lauderdale (third reservation) versus the three segments all on one reservation. Does this make sense? What is the advantage to separating it?

Already seeing a price of close to $2000 for two people.
 
The advantage is related to Amtrak's policy of automatically cancelling later legs of a trip if you miss the first leg (or the conductor screws up and fails to pull your ticket). They can't do this to you if the legs are on separate reservations.
 
I generally put each direction into a separate reservation just in case I need to change one but not the other. That makes any future changes much easier and avoids some of the potential for confusion and mistakes. Likewise, if you're stopping in each of these cities and might want to change one segment, but not the others, then by all means feel free to separate them into individual itineraries. Otherwise if you're not stopping there is no need or benefit to breaking everything up like this. Just make sure the conductor pulls each ticket with their iPhone app and you'll be fine.
 
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If you are not stopping wanting an overnight stay in the connecting cities, you should make each direction as one reservation so your connections will be guaranteed. Also, in the sample booking I did from Bloomington to Fort Lauderdale, it appears to be cheaper if you book it straight through as a one-way ticket instead of the three separate segments.
 
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I do my trips as one ways,not roundtrips. In that scenario you mentioned above, since it is a one way involving three separate trains, I would book it as one reservation.
 
Gingee said:
Already seeing a price of close to $2000 for two people.
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Best way I've found to minimize fare costs is to be flexible with your travel start date and book as early as possible. F'rinstance, not knowing your travel start date I just compared starting on 13 Jun 2016 for two adults in a roomette one way for BNL - CHI - WAS - FTL. When booking an all-in-one guaranteed ticket the total was $962. When each leg was booked separately (using the same dates given on the all-in-one ticket) the total was $1114 - $52 more.

If all of your travel will be in June of 2016 and your travel dates are not set in stone, I'd recommend using Amsnag... http://biketrain.net/amsnag/amSnag.php ...to obtain 30 days worth of fares for each leg of your trip. Print each of the three and then search them to find a suitable dates with the lowest fares for going to FTL and then for the return to BNL. You may discover significant fluctuations in the fares from day to day. Using those fluctuations to select the lowest cost travel dates can result in significant savings.
 
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I generally place all segments that are involved with guaranteed connections in a single reservation. Other than that I keep everything separate to minimize hassles if a Conductor screws up.
 
Here's a sample of an Amsnag query done today for one leg of your trip - assuming you're taking the Meteor:

Clipboard01.jpg

The individual fares don't fluctuate very much or very frequently, but you can see that the date you eventually select to travel does make a difference in the fare. And there's no reason to assume if this same query is made tomorrow the result will look like this.
 
Even if you book separate reservations, you should ensure the conductor lifts your ticket. This is necessary to get the AGR points. Also, as a conductor told me recently while lifting my ticket, if he hadn't done so, my accommodation could have been resold down the line.
 
Reminds me of the time that an italian Conductor decided to try to sell off my berth even before the train departed the originating station (Roma Tiburtina enroute to Zuerich). As a matter of fact he did, and was displeased to see that I was there to claim my berth. He had to find some other space for the bloke that he probably pocketed some money from. Now of course Amtrak has managed to set up a scenario wherein the Conductor's screwup enables a berth to be resold. oh well....

Specially when I am traveling on AGR award, I do not bother checking whether the Conductor has done his job or not, unless of course a transfer is involved and this is not the last leg in the itinerary. Doing his job is shall we say his raison de etre and I am sure he can take care of it.

OTOH, when I am doing a 5 minute points run, I make sure to chase a Conductor down and get the ticket lifted. :)

In the last 5 LD segments I have not seen any sign of a Conductor. I just asked the SCA if hte Conductor has me marked off in those cases where I needed to ensure that a continuing segment remained effective. This in my view is a bit of a nuisance though, an unintended consequence of E-tickets..
 
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willem said:
Even if you book separate reservations, you should ensure the conductor lifts your ticket. This is necessary to get the AGR points. Also, as a conductor told me recently while lifting my ticket, if he hadn't done so, my accommodation could have been resold down the line.
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On a one of segments on a recent multi-segment AGR run I never did see the Conductor regarding scanning the ticket, but rather than chase him down, I just figured ne cleared me through the Sleeper Attendant. Sure enough my reservation stayed intact. Though I am usually more comfortable when I actually see the Conductor and he scans the ticket.

On that same run, I had a separate paid ticket as the very last segment, Ft. Worth to Norman as a quirk in the AGR system did nopt allow that otherwise natural connection. When my Texas Eagle lost 12 hours right at the get-go, I got on the horn with AGR, explained what was going on and they without hesitation coupled the 2 reservations together to give me protection in FTW, in this case a nice Limo ride home :)
 
Nice story jis! I ran into the same thing on the old Aztec Eagle in Mexico!

In those days there was a Dragon Senora that ran the Reservations in Nuevo Laredo, SRA. Gomez de Zavala, I made my Rez through her the day before ( the Train ran twice a week in each direction). It was all hand written and involved much paperwork and propinas ( tips), which was the Mexican way!

The Conductor punched my ticket as I boarded in Nuevo Laredo, the Porter ( they called them that in those days) took my stuff to my Bedroom ( it was in an old 10/6 MOPAC Pullman) and I settled in await the Highball signal.

All of a sudden the Conductor shows up with a Family and a couple of Porters carrying their large amount of baggage!

He pretended to not understand English although we had conversed when I boarded. ( I was fluent in Espanol)

Knowing how the Mordida System ( bribes) works in Mexico, I knew they had probably boarded with Coach tickets, but without a Pullman Reservation, and "tipped" the Conductor to take them to the Sleeper.

I showed him my Rez confirmation and the ticket he had punched and explained, very diplomatically, that someone must have made a mistake and how could this be resolved?, while slipping him 100 pesos! ( the Peso was 12.5 to the US Dollar in those days)

He smiled, apologized to the Family for bringing them to the "Wrong Room", and had the Porters take them to someone else's room that hadn't yet boarded! Sort of a Mexican version of Musical Chairs and the early bird gets the Room! LOL

Later on I ran into the family in the Diner ( the Meals and Drinks were very good and very cheap) and after talking with them found out they had "tipped" the Conductor 200 Pesos for the "Upgrade!" ( the Fare from Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City in Coach was $4.50 2nd Class/ $7 1st Class/a Section Bed was $12 Upper/$15 Lower/ a Bedroom was $22!! Those were the days my friend!!)
 
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Gingee said:
Kicking around taking the train next June. I thought I remembered someone saying that it is better to make your reservations separate. For instance - Bloomington to Chicago (one reservation), then Chicago to Washington D.C. (second reservation) and Washington D.C. to Fort Lauderdale (third reservation) versus the three segments all on one reservation. Does this make sense? What is the advantage to separating it?

Already seeing a price of close to $2000 for two people.
Click to expand...
Did you see my mention of this in a post I did last week on the Amtrak Fans Facebook group? Just curious.
 
I will have to check to see how many points we have. I looked up flying. $1200 for both of us. Train Almost $2000.
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
I had a separate paid ticket as the very last segment, Ft. Worth to Norman as a quirk in the AGR system did nopt allow that otherwise natural connection. When my Texas Eagle lost 12 hours right at the get-go, I got on the horn with AGR, explained what was going on and they without hesitation coupled the 2 reservations together to give me protection in FTW, in this case a nice Limo ride home :)
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That's good to know. Thanks for sharing the information.
 
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