Surfliner to Southwest Chief Options

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printman2000

Engineer
Joined
Nov 9, 2005
Messages
3,785
Location
Amarillo, Texas
Been a while since I did this connection. I am going to book it on AGR 1.0. However, when I look at the trip on amtrak.com (San Diego to Lamy), it only gives me three options. Two are transferring in Fullerton and one in LAX but only arrives 30 minutes before the Southwest Chief departure.

Because these are the only three showing up, is AGR going to limit me to these three choices? Or will they be able to choose an earlier Surfliner to LAX for us?
 
printman2000 said:
Been a while since I did this connection. I am going to book it on AGR 1.0. However, when I look at the trip on amtrak.com (San Diego to Lamy), it only gives me three options. Two are transferring in Fullerton and one in LAX but only arrives 30 minutes before the Southwest Chief departure.

Because these are the only three showing up, is AGR going to limit me to these three choices? Or will they be able to choose an earlier Surfliner to LAX for us?
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In the past, I have asked to change to an earlier or later Regional train to/from BOS. It has never been a problem. I would expect the same with your request.
 
What day of the week are you traveling? I just last week booked San Diego to ABQ in early February, arriving LAX 5:05PM (and leaving on the SWC at 6:15PM), on a Saturday.

We weren't looking to spend any time in LA, so didn't investigate whether an earlier train was possible.
 
I called to book, sure enough she said she could only use what came up. So only the one option through LAX with only a 30 minute layover.

We are traveling on a Tuesday. Lots of other Surfliners but only one comes up when you search.
 
I don't know the restrictions, but the Surfliners in coach are unreserved. So I think you can take any Surfliner I coach. (BC is reserved, and you can only take that specific train.)

Please correct me if I'm mistaken.
 
the_traveler said:
I don't know the restrictions, but the Surfliners in coach are unreserved. So I think you can take any Surfliner I coach. (BC is reserved, and you can only take that specific train.)

Please correct me if I'm mistaken.
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There are holiday periods where the Surfliner is reserved coach. In 2014 I helped someone with reservations on the Surfliner around Thanksgiving. The tickets clearly said reserved coach.

However, they were heading back to Southern California on a bus, and that bus was delayed by traffic due to bad weather. The Surfliner didn't wait for them at LAUS, and but they were allowed on the next one. I believe customer service met the bus and arranged for the substitute travel.
 
the_traveler said:
I don't know the restrictions, but the Surfliners in coach are unreserved. So I think you can take any Surfliner I coach. (BC is reserved, and you can only take that specific train.)

Please correct me if I'm mistaken.
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That is correct expect for TG which becomes all reserved, and during other Holiday's you can jump on any train as long as you pay the holiday higher price difference. Your limited to specific trains for TG weekend only.
 
printman2000 said:
Since we are doing sleeper on the SWC, we are Business Class on the Surfliner. Seems really ridiculous that I cannot choose a different Surfliner.
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Amtrak's system seems to really lack some flexibility here. Its odd like that and can't seem to accomadate the special situation for the Surfliner. For example, if I buy my ticket ahead of time in business class, I get a discount of 10% which is the same for coach. Now if I decide not to use the coach ticket on the day I made the original reservation, I can jump on any train outside of the blackout period without loosing the 10% discount. In business class, if I decide to change trains, then now I have to pay the 10% back if its less than 3 days.
 
I had this very issue this morning. The rep said that we could change trains at FUL if and only if I terminated the SWC trip at FUL and did another point redemption for the SAN leg. That would save three hours, though, and might have been worth the small points hit - from what I can figure out, the Surfliners are apparently "special" trains for ultra-low points redemption.

I agree about the lack of flexibility, however. I could book the trip manually with the multi-city as a normal contiguous trip, but the AGR agent could not do it the same way. I've gotten around this before, where the "normal" fare system would book an interesting/unusual routing but the AGR system said "no", but it involved a lengthy chat with a supervisor.
 
C855B said:
I had this very issue this morning. The rep said that we could change trains at FUL if and only if I terminated the SWC trip at FUL and did another point redemption for the SAN leg. That would save three hours, though, and might have been worth the small points hit - from what I can figure out, the Surfliners are apparently "special" trains for ultra-low points redemption.

I agree about the lack of flexibility, however. I could book the trip manually with the multi-city as a normal contiguous trip, but the AGR agent could not do it the same way. I've gotten around this before, where the "normal" fare system would book an interesting/unusual routing but the AGR system said "no", but it involved a lengthy chat with a supervisor.
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It's a "special route" under the old rules. 1500 points. However, I checked and FUL-SAN is $29, which should be about 1000 points under the new rules.
 
printman2000 said:
Since we are doing sleeper on the SWC, we are Business Class on the Surfliner. Seems really ridiculous that I cannot choose a different Surfliner.
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Aren't BC reserved on Surfliners, unlike Coach which is unreserved. So what you cannot do is by design, not by chance.
 
jis said:
printman2000 said:
Since we are doing sleeper on the SWC, we are Business Class on the Surfliner. Seems really ridiculous that I cannot choose a different Surfliner.
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Aren't BC reserved on Surfliners, unlike Coach which is unreserved. So what you cannot do is by design, not by chance.
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What I think is ridiculous is that there is no option for any other earlier Surfliner.
 

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