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Hello: We are planning a trip this summer to Glacier National Park via The Empire Builder. Chicago - East Glacier Couple of questions: 1) I have Guest Reward points to use. Do I book that portion of the trip through Guest Rewards and the rest via one line reservations? 2) Any suggestions for specific activities/tours during our stay....4 nights at the Glacier Park Lodge. Thanks for everyone's help. HAPPY NEW YEAR! -Amtrak Fan
Jerome Nicholson Member # 3116
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Certainly a trip on Going-to-the-Sun Road in a Glacier Park "jammer" bus would be a top priority!
notelvis Member # 3071
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What station you're starting from would be helpful in suggestions for how to use AGR points.
I can say that you will find it difficult to get the same room if you're wanting to transfer from regular fare to AGR on the same train. However, you may want to look at booking a sleeper with your Guest Rewards Points as far as Wolf Point, MT (the western edge of the central zone) and then paying for coach seats for the daytime trip from Wolf Point to Glacier.
Doing this would cost you only one zone of Guest Rewards Points starting from Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, all Texas points, Birmingham, and Atlanta among others. From Atlanta you could actually get three nights on the train in a sleeper for the price of a single zone IF you leave your sleeper in Wolf Point.
Final thought - I'd make sure the coach seats from Wolf Point westward are avaiable before booking the AGR portion.
City of Miami Member # 2922
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I don't think you can use AGR points from TX to MT because there is no same day connection in Chicago - in either direction.
sojourner Member # 3134
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Of course we have no idea where Passenger Rail Fan is departing from, but from the post, I assumed it was Chicago!
However, David ("Not Elvis") Pressley's post and City of Miami's response bring up an interesting issue--to me anyway. City of Miami means he or she doesn't think you can use ONE ZONE'S WORTH of AGR points for sleeperettes from TX to Wolf Point MT (as David suggests) because there is no same-day connection in Chicago in either direction. Obviously, you can always use AGR points if you are willing to use more points.
I don't know what AGR's policy on this would be. Perhaps they would still charge only the 15,000 points, since the person from Austin would be traveling to an end point in the same zone, regardless of the overnight in Chicago. Perhaps AGR would charge 20,000 points, counting it as 2 zones because of the layover. Or perhpas AGR would charge 30,000 points--15,000 for the 1 zone from Austin to Chicago, and another 15,000 for the one zone the next day from Chicago to Wolf Point, Montana. (Plus one would have the hotel bill in Chicago, regardless.)
However, if AGR does try to charge more than 20,000 points for sleepers on this trip, my advice is forget about Wolf Point, and forget about Chicago. Instead, go with sleeperette from Austin to Springfield IL on the TX Eagle, then catch the Amtrak bus connection from Springfield to Galesburg to pick up (still with sleeperette) the westbound CA Zephyr there, then take the CA Zephyr to Sacramento to pick up (still with sleeperette) the northbound Coast Starlight, and head north to Seattle (or perhaps just Eugene or Portland). That would be 20,000 points, or 2 zones. Then overnight at the Best Western Pioneer Square or another place in Seattle (or overnight cheaply in Eugene or perhaps at that good hotel I forget the name it's near Powell's Bookstore in Portland and leave on a morning Cascades train from Eugene or Portland to Seattle, if you prefer) and that next afternoon, catch the Empire Builder eastbound to Glacier Park, paying cash for that last leg (and possibly going coach overnight on the EB, if the sleeper charge is too expensive).
It is also possible that the AGR points won't include the bus connection and one would have to pay some extra cash for that as well; I seem to remember when I used AGR points from Santa Fe home back east it did not include the minibus shuttle from Santa Fe to Lamy. Still, I don't think this would be a whole heap of money.
notelvis Member # 3071
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My 'rule-of-thumb' understanding was that if the Amtrak website would ticket you as a 'direct trip' then it would count as one trip for AGR purposes and I would then go pitch my plan to the AGR representative on the other end of the telephone.
City of Miami is correct however - I had forgotten that there is no same day connection from Texas to the Empire Builder (at one point there was.....before the LD's got elongated schedules) anymore. You can use AGR points BUT you would have to book as two separate trips and include an overnight layover in Chicago.
And Sojourner, I was once told by an AGR agent that they have to book the more direct routing offered by the computer to count as a 'single trip'. Your 'everywhere west' trip may not get a thumbs up at AGR Central.
Liberty Limited Member # 4300
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Along the same lines, I was exploring the possibility cashing in 20,000 points to ride from El Paso back to Baltimore, as I might return from Tucson.
Would I even have an option?
Sunset to the Crescent has no same day connection in NOL.
Texas Eagle to the Cardinal is not the most direct trip.
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