New person here, some questions about AGR redemption.

[Laser1987]

Hello,

I'm a new person here and have some questions about AGR redemption.

I'd like to travel from Chicago to Los Angeles with my friend during this Christmas holiday. As I found that the blackout date for this year is December 20-22&28-29, I plan to board the train at Dec.27 (According to the discussion here, I think the blackout date only apply to the date I start, correct?).

My questions are listed below:

1. Most important, if I can not take the train for some reason, can I cancel my reservation in advance and get a refund? How much I need to pay for refund fee? (I can get 100% of points back or partially?)

2. I have not given AGR a telephone call, just wondering if the redemption is difficult? (As when I redeemed American Airlines miles before, it was hard for me to get a 12500 miles discount economy seat. I do not know how's the difficulty for AGR.).

Looking forward to your answers.

Pretty thanks O(∩_∩)O

 

[the_traveler]

Welcome aboard! :hi:

Answer A) You can not board a train on a blackout date (including any connections) but if you're on a train it's fine.

Answer 1) If you cancel anytime before the train departs, you get 100% of your points reapplied to your AGR account.

Answer 2) As long as there is a seat or room available on the train, you can redeem the same number of points for it! Example: The 1st Roomette for a 1 zone redemption costs 15,000 points. The last Roomette on that train costs 15,000 points also!

 

[Laser1987]

Welcome aboard! :hi:

Answer A) You can not board a train on a blackout date (including any connections) but if you're on a train it's fine.

Answer 1) If you cancel anytime before the train departs, you get 100% of your points reapplied to your AGR account.

Answer 2) As long as there is a seat or room available on the train, you can redeem the same number of points for it! Example: The 1st Roomette for a 1 zone redemption costs 15,000 points. The last Roomette on that train costs 15,000 points also!

Thanks very much for your answers.

Just gave a phone call and made the reservation pretty easily (finished in 10 mins). The lady answered my phone call was very polite and I had no problem in communication. Pretty good experience!

 

[fairviewroad]

Thanks very much for your answers.

Just gave a phone call and made the reservation pretty easily (finished in 10 mins). The lady answered my phone call was very polite and I had no problem in communication. Pretty good experience!

Excellent! The AGR folks are pretty good and efficient when you have a straightforward type of redemption. Special requests can throw them into a tizzy, though!

That said, you only said you were traveling from CHI to LAX and didn't mention if you were in a room or in coach. If you were in coach, you could have redeemed

online since (presumably) you were not making any connections. Anything more complicated than a non-connecting coach ticket does have to be booked over

the phone, though. Fortunately AGR recently expanded its call center hours to make that process much more convenient.