Which zone is Denver actually in??

[iggle_traveler]

Looking at the zone map, I can't really tell - it looks slightly like it has an edge over into the western zone but I don't know if I trust that. Same is true of El Paso, Albuquerque and Wolf Point.

 

[Bob Dylan]

It's in the Twilight Zone! LOL

Actually they are all in Both the Central and Western Zones so depending on which way and how far you're traveling it can be a 1 or 2 Zone Award Trip!

 

[iggle_traveler]

:-D Having lived there once, I'd say your first answer was pretty accurate.

So whatever uses the most AGR points on the trip determines the zone, then?

 

[oregon pioneer]

Hey Iggie, it's actually whatever uses the LEAST points that determines it, when you are going to a "zone boundary" city. For example, if you are going from Chicago to Denver, it's one zone. If you are going from Seattle to Denver via Sacramento, it's one zone.

And you can use zone cities to your advantage on longer trips. For example, I am scheming up my next AGR awards trip to try and get from coast to coast (a three-zone trip) via certain routes I have not taken before, like the Cardinal. If the routing via Cardinal is not shown on a simple point-to-point trip, I can force the routing by going from the west cast to Cincinnatti ( a zone boundary city on the Cardinal's route), and then from there to my destination. That would be West Coast to CIN = 2 zones (20,000 points in a roomette), and CIN to east coast = 1 zone (15,000 points in a roomette). 20,000 + 15,000 = 35,000 (same as just doing the three-zone on a point-to-point award). How cool is that? I hope they are not thinking of changing it...

 

[the_traveler]

It is in the zone of the direction you're traveling. For Denver, if you're going east (like to Chicago) it's in the Midwest Zone but if you're going west (like to CA) it's in the Western Zone. This is also true of all border cities - if you're headed west it's in the zone to the left, if you're headed east it's in the zone to the right.

 

[iggle_traveler]

Thanks, Oregon Pioneer! I didn't expect them to do it that way but it sure helps!