Into Training for Detroit

[kevin_standlee]

This morning I bit the bullet and redeemed 80,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points (most of which are actually transferred from my Diner's Club card representing years of purchases with it) to buy a round-trip Superliner Bedroom (the big room with its own integral shower/toilet compartment) on the California Zephyr between Emeryville and Chicago on our way to/from Detcon 1. That's a $3780 ticket, so I feel pretty good about buying it on points.

Chicago-Detroit will also be by train. In theory we could tack on coach seats on Amtrak's Wolverine for no additional cost, as Detroit straddles a zone boundary and for point-redemption purposes is the same place as Chicago. However, it would mean trusting the four-hour connection at Chicago and arriving in Detroit at 12:18 AM, and also require that we be on the train at Detroit at 6:28 AM in order to meet our connection at Chicago. Now train stations don't require airport-style, arrive-two-hours-in-advance security, but I still don't like being up that early the day after a convention if I can avoid it, so we'll go ahead and spend the extra money (only $123) to purchase the other tickets and for the extra hotel nights at Chicago coming and going.

We could of course catch the train at Reno if we wanted to spend $200 on taxi fares to and from Reno from Fernley, but we'd miss one of the major scenic highlights of the trip. We can park long-term at Fremont and catch the Zephyr out of Emeryville as we have done previously. Also, I have commitments in the Bay Area on the days at the end of the trip, so it's just as well to end the trip there instead of Reno and Fernley.

A reassuring element of train travel over air is that these tickets are fully refundable until the departure of the booked trains; that is, if we change our minds, we get the points back. It's not like air travel where if you make one mistake, your money evaporates and you're stuck.

I'm looking forward to this trip. It will be our third (and fourth) times on the Zephyr. It's the first time we've gone east and west on the same route, but we couldn't work out a routing that would take us over one of the other routes (the only big east-west route we haven't done is the Empire Builder) and still fit the needs of the rest of our schedule.

Comments

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Now I really am envious.

I love long sleep-over train rides. I miss them. Amsterdam to Athens - in th old days, when there still was a Yugoslavia, Trieste through the lakes and up to Paris, Tallinn - Warsawa when we still had Baltic passenger trains, even Tallinn - St Petersberg. THAT was an interesting trip.

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I haven't ridden long-distance on Amtrak in a number of years, mostly due to schedules, even though the Zephyr comes through Omaha (route not too far from my house, although of course not nearly as close as it is to Fernley House). I have a question: I thought either the accommodations or the travel portion (can't recall which) of an Amtrak ticket was fully refundable, but not both. Has that changed, or did I have that wrong?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

It's apparently different for each of the different kinds of ticket classes; there are classifications for which you get no refund (but a travel voucher so you don't lose the value entirely) and others that are fully refundable. But the tickets purchased with points are apparently fully refundable, so you can retrieve the points if you change your plans, as long as the train hasn't left the origin on the day of travel. If you miss the train, you're out of luck.

[delosharriman]

I just booked my tickets to go to Los Angeles for the ISDC (with return) and to go to Detroit (without return, as I plan on continuing to Toronto). I did the midnight arrival in Detroit last year in February on my way to Toronto -- whatever else is true, it won't be snowing in July!

I booked sleeper class this time, partly because of the special lounge in Chicago, & not having to get off the train immediately upon arrival in LA.