Longest Three-Zone Trip?

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sechs

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Here's an academic exercise for you: What is the longest valid three-zone AGR award?

What is "valid?"

If Arrow doesn't spit it out, it's not valid. However, an itinerary would be valid if it breaks into a one-zone and a two-zone at a border station (e.g., NYP-WPT, WPT-LAX)

How do you measure length?

Reasonable measures of length that I see are:

1. Total travel time (end-to-end trip length);

2. Total time on trains;

3. Distance traveled;

4. Number of days on trains;

5. Number of nights on trains; and

6. Total number of meals expected on the trip.

If anybody thinks he has another good way to measure length, let us know!
 
I'll proffer the fairly obvious (Key West) - MIA - WAS - CHI - LAX via Eagle/Sunset - SEA - (VAC). You can book a two zone from Florida to the zone boundary for the Sunset, and I presume a one-zone from there to Washington state is perfectly valid. That's...6 nights on the train?

I'm sure others can do better. Extending this routing to the zone boundary in Montana would get you a seventh night.
 
I'll amend my previous post and say SEA to MIA.

That trip is 110 hours on four trains: CS, CZ, CL, SM.

This would be a good trip for Pennyk.
 
One I found is Miami-Wolf Point by way of the Silver Meteor, Lake Shore Limited, California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, and Empire Builder. I came up with 132 hrs, 25 minutes total time spent on trains, 152 hrs 13 minutes total time including layovers between trains, 7 days and 6 nights, though part of that includes that lovely near 10 hr layover in Sacramento. This coming July my uncle and I are taking a trip very similar to the above, starting in Ft. Lauderdale and ending in Spokane, using the same five trains. That trip totalled 118 hrs and a minute on the train alone. I redeemed the two zones from Ft. Lauderdale to Denver and my uncle the one zone from Denver to Spokane. I only get to travel Amtrak once or twice a year so might as well make it count when I can!!! :lol:
 
Texas Sunset said:
I live in the middle of the country so three zone awards are not necessary for me. Is there any consensus on the longest two-zone award?
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NOL to SEA via CONO/SWC/CS? Three trains, four nights. I'm sure there are longer ones out there, though.
 
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JayPea said:
One I found is Miami-Wolf Point by way of the Silver Meteor, Lake Shore Limited, California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, and Empire Builder. I came up with 132 hrs, 25 minutes total time spent on trains, 152 hrs 13 minutes total time including layovers between trains, 7 days and 6 nights, though part of that includes that lovely near 10 hr layover in Sacramento. This coming July my uncle and I are taking a trip very similar to the above, starting in Ft. Lauderdale and ending in Spokane, using the same five trains. That trip totalled 118 hrs and a minute on the train alone. I redeemed the two zones from Ft. Lauderdale to Denver and my uncle the one zone from Denver to Spokane. I only get to travel Amtrak once or twice a year so might as well make it count when I can!!! :lol:
Click to expand...
:hi: Think you "nailed it" Jeff! :cool: That traveler inspired routing reminds me of the old long,lost "Loophole" trips! :( Of course lots of people will be thinking that it's crazy to want to spend that much time on Trains :wacko: , but what do they know?? :lol:

As to Chris' question about the "Longest" Two Zone Award Trip, I'd think that ELP-CHI-CVS-RVR-MIA would be in the running as would ELP-LAX-PDX-CHI-TOL on days that the Sunset doesnt run East! MIA-WAS-CHI-ELP would also be in the running IINM! :wub:
 
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jimhudson said:
JayPea said:
One I found is Miami-Wolf Point by way of the Silver Meteor, Lake Shore Limited, California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, and Empire Builder. I came up with 132 hrs, 25 minutes total time spent on trains, 152 hrs 13 minutes total time including layovers between trains, 7 days and 6 nights, though part of that includes that lovely near 10 hr layover in Sacramento. This coming July my uncle and I are taking a trip very similar to the above, starting in Ft. Lauderdale and ending in Spokane, using the same five trains. That trip totalled 118 hrs and a minute on the train alone. I redeemed the two zones from Ft. Lauderdale to Denver and my uncle the one zone from Denver to Spokane. I only get to travel Amtrak once or twice a year so might as well make it count when I can!!! :lol:
Click to expand...
:hi: Think you "nailed it" Jeff! :cool: That traveler inspired routing reminds me of the old long,lost "Loophole" trips! :( Of course lots of people will be thinking that it's crazy to want to spend that much time on Trains :wacko: , but what do they know?? :lol:
Click to expand...

Ah, there's no accounting for taste! :lol: I didn't go anywhere on any long-distance train between 1965, when I along with my mom and sister traveled on the GN's version of the EB from Spokane to Chicago (then down to Bloomington) and 2004, when my uncle and I made the first of our long-distance trips (Chicago-Reno on the CZ). I gotta make up those 39 years between long-distance trips somehow!!! :lol:
 
JayPea said:
One I found is Miami-Wolf Point by way of the Silver Meteor, Lake Shore Limited, California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, and Empire Builder. I came up with 132 hrs, 25 minutes total time spent on trains, 152 hrs 13 minutes total time including layovers between trains, 7 days and 6 nights, though part of that includes that lovely near 10 hr layover in Sacramento.
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Impressive.
It's too bad that Arrow won't give the NYP connection for the Crescent. Starting in Slidell would add a couple hours.
 
It occurs to me that, if the goal is simply to circle the country by train, it should be fairly easy to redeem a "five zone" award that saves points over a pair of three-zone awards.

What I mean is that you start on one coast, book a pair of two-zone awards to zone boundaries—one to the north, one to the south—and bridge with a one-zone award. For example, MIA-ABQ as two zones, WPT-MIA as two zones, and a one-zone bridge ABQ-WPT. In a roomette, the "five zone" award totals 55,000 points. A pair of three-zone awards is 70,000 points.
 
Isn't that basically the same thing as JayPea's, except going via the Chief rather than Zephyr, and adding the return?

P.S: That appears to be almost eight hours longer.
 
I think that I have the longest one yet. With the schedule change on the Sunset Limited, the following is possible: MIA-WAS-CHI-(ELP)-LAX-PDX-WPT. That's the Silver Meteor, Capitol Limited, Texas Eagle, Coast Starlight, and Empire Builder.

1. Total travel time: 7 days, 8 hours, 13 minutes

2. Total time on trains: 6 days, 19 hours, 9 minutes

3. Distance traveled: 6378 miles

4. Number of days on trains: 8 days

5. Number of nights on trains: 7 nights

6. Total number of meals expected on the trip: 20

With the zones lines being drawn north-south, it seems clear the most mileage is had by going as far north and south as possible within each zone before getting to the next.
 
I think that's about as good as it gets. If you were able to route via NYP you could possibly do better, but I don't think Arrow would permit it. That dogleg into Montana is icing on the cake of a very long routing.

Plus you can get a half-decent two-zone award from there back to Miami, even along the most direct route!
 
gatelouse said:
I think that's about as good as it gets. If you were able to route via NYP you could possibly do better, but I don't think Arrow would permit it. That dogleg into Montana is icing on the cake of a very long routing.

Plus you can get a half-decent two-zone award from there back to Miami, even along the most direct route!
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I have, at the very least, been able to route via NYP on reward trips going RVR-NYP-CHI-ABQ-[FLG]. Arrow allows the RVR-NYP-CHI connection and NYP-CHI-ABQ, so generally I think that either the Lake Shore or the Cap is allowable for trips such as this.
 
We are going from Cincinnati to Seattle using two zones..the long way..The Cardinal to Chicago, Southwest Chief to LA and the Coast Starlight to Seattle. All by roomette. We are leaving from Washington DC in coach to get to Cincinnati where the two zone reward kicks in. We're leaving at the end of April. Can't wait!
 
gatelouse said:
I think that's about as good as it gets. If you were able to route via NYP you could possibly do better, but I don't think Arrow would permit it.
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Frankly, I'm surprised that it's an option going via the Southwest Chief or California Zephyr. It would also be nice to be able to take the Cardinal, but Arrow forces the connection in Virginia -- just reshuffling layover time.
 
sechs said:
What is "valid?"

If Arrow doesn't spit it out, it's not valid.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. Often it depends on the person you talk to at Amtrak and perhaps how you approach the request.

In December, using rewards (3-zone Bedroom or FBR), I went from Orlando-NYP-CHI-LAX-SEA. Arrow did not include NYP.

But, when I called in the rezzie, I told the gal I 'preferred' to go via NYP. No problem. She booked it. But, due to a foul-up on departure day,

I missed the train and had to rebook my trip to Seattle.

Again, I requested the NYP routing. He wouldn't stating Arrow didn't allow it even though he could see the NYP routing given before. He booked it

via WAS. Hours later, I called Rewards back. I asked to modify my ressie thorugh NYP as I 'preferred' to go that way. No problem. She did it via NYP.
 
GoldenSpike said:
sechs said:
What is "valid?"

If Arrow doesn't spit it out, it's not valid.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. Often it depends on the person you talk to at Amtrak and perhaps how you approach the request.

In December, using rewards (3-zone Bedroom or FBR), I went from Orlando-NYP-CHI-LAX-SEA. Arrow did not include NYP.
Click to expand...
I don't know what your routing was; but if you could book it as a two zone plus a three zone, then representatives will book it, since it is a valid reward when done like that.
As mentioned earlier, Arrow will show going via NYP from the Silver Meteor to the Lake Shore, but only when connecting in Chicago to the California Zephyr or Southwest Chief.
 

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