To Europe... by Train?
Our Worldcon trip starts in just a few days, and in fact it now starts a day sooner than we originally planned, due to Amtrak cancelling a portion of our trip.
We are flying to the UK on IcelandAir, whose nearest-to-us entry point is Denver. Yes, of course we could fly to Denver or another gateway on one of their partners, but from a previous trip, we discovered that IcelandAir doesn't play well will their so-called partners. Among other things, they don't interline luggage, so you have to claim your luggage, go groundside, then go to the other carrier and re-check the bags and re-clear Terrorization.
IcelandAir cut their service out of SFO, so we decided to start our trip by driving to Reno and taking Amtrak's California Zephyr from Reno to Denver (using my Amtrak points to buy a bedroom), spend the night there (IHG points, ho), then take the train out to Denver Airport the next day to catch a flight to Keflavik Airport in Iceland. There, we will take advantage of IcelandAir's free-stopover policy to take a bus from Keflavik to Reykjavik spend four nights in Reykjavik in the same hotel where we stayed on our previous trip. The City Center Hotel has been completely renovated since our last stay, apparently, and we hope that doesn't mean they ruined it.
Yesterday, Amtrak emailed me to inform me that the portion of the Zephyr between Grand Junction (GJT) and Denver (DEN) had been cancelled and replaced by a motor coach. While I have not been able to find a specific reason for this, I assume that Union Pacific has imposed some sort of maintenance shutdown, and I can't blame Amtrak for this. But even after having my points refunded for the GJT-DEN portion of the trip, Lisa and were not happy about having to spend many hours on a bus on I-70 instead of relaxing in our cabin on the train.
We considered canceling the train trip entirely and flying RNO-DEN. This would have shortened the trip by one day, and we could still do it while giving four hours between arrival at Denver and our next flight to Iceland, which should be enough to to the do-si-do out and back through the airport, although it would not have been much fun. But the airfare was around $900 one-way, which seemed pretty high.
While considering alternatives, Lisa complained that in the old days (before our time), in a case like this there should have been an alternative route available. (For example, SP from Reno to Ogden, UP from there to Cheyenne, then UP down to Denver.) As we were talking of this, suddenly a light bulb went off over both our heads.
Why not go earlier?
I got online and checked the schedule. Yep, the previous day's Zephyr still went through to Denver, and there were still bedrooms available. It was too lake to call Amtrak Guest Rewards that night, however. As I'd used AGR points to book the original trip, and because AGR's agents are generally more competent than the run-of-the-mill Amtrak agents, it would be best to talk to AGR. AGR's service hours are 8 AM to 8 PM Eastern Time.
This morning, I was on the phone at 5 AM PT sharp and got straight through to an AGR agent, who rebooked our trip to leave one day earlier. We changed from one bedroom to another, but it wasn't the dreaded Bedroom A. (That one is smaller and oddly shaped due to the way the aisle curves around it.)
I then went to the IHG website and booked a second night at the same hotel in Denver (and same type of room). Because of the offer on which I booked the first night, I couldn't change that, but I now have an end-to-end reservation in the same room type at the same hotel, so I hope that there will be no need to change rooms just because the reservation numbers are different.
I did have to book an extra day of time off. The original plan was for us to leave on Friday afternoon after I got done with work that day, arriving Saturday evening. Now we leave on Thursday afternoon, so we'll be in transit on Friday. There's no way for me to work remotely, even though I'm taking my work machines because I'll be working remotely part of the time I'm in the UK. The are through which the train travels has little to no cell service, and there's no wi-fi on the train. Glenwood Canyon, the centerpiece of that day's travel, is mostly inaccessible to all outside communication, and indeed there are no roads: only the train and people floating down the river (and traditionally "mooning" the train as we go by) can access it. Fortunately, I did have a little bit of PTO left, so I booked that Friday off.
It was rather surprising that I could make the pieces fall back into place like that. I might not have even thought of it if Lisa hadn't made the comment about how things worked in the pre-Amtrak days when there were multiple routes between the West Coast and Denver.
This is a complicated trip, and I've only explained the Reno-Denver-Iceland leg of it. There's more to come, and I hope nothing else breaks.
We are flying to the UK on IcelandAir, whose nearest-to-us entry point is Denver. Yes, of course we could fly to Denver or another gateway on one of their partners, but from a previous trip, we discovered that IcelandAir doesn't play well will their so-called partners. Among other things, they don't interline luggage, so you have to claim your luggage, go groundside, then go to the other carrier and re-check the bags and re-clear Terrorization.
IcelandAir cut their service out of SFO, so we decided to start our trip by driving to Reno and taking Amtrak's California Zephyr from Reno to Denver (using my Amtrak points to buy a bedroom), spend the night there (IHG points, ho), then take the train out to Denver Airport the next day to catch a flight to Keflavik Airport in Iceland. There, we will take advantage of IcelandAir's free-stopover policy to take a bus from Keflavik to Reykjavik spend four nights in Reykjavik in the same hotel where we stayed on our previous trip. The City Center Hotel has been completely renovated since our last stay, apparently, and we hope that doesn't mean they ruined it.
Yesterday, Amtrak emailed me to inform me that the portion of the Zephyr between Grand Junction (GJT) and Denver (DEN) had been cancelled and replaced by a motor coach. While I have not been able to find a specific reason for this, I assume that Union Pacific has imposed some sort of maintenance shutdown, and I can't blame Amtrak for this. But even after having my points refunded for the GJT-DEN portion of the trip, Lisa and were not happy about having to spend many hours on a bus on I-70 instead of relaxing in our cabin on the train.
We considered canceling the train trip entirely and flying RNO-DEN. This would have shortened the trip by one day, and we could still do it while giving four hours between arrival at Denver and our next flight to Iceland, which should be enough to to the do-si-do out and back through the airport, although it would not have been much fun. But the airfare was around $900 one-way, which seemed pretty high.
While considering alternatives, Lisa complained that in the old days (before our time), in a case like this there should have been an alternative route available. (For example, SP from Reno to Ogden, UP from there to Cheyenne, then UP down to Denver.) As we were talking of this, suddenly a light bulb went off over both our heads.
Why not go earlier?
I got online and checked the schedule. Yep, the previous day's Zephyr still went through to Denver, and there were still bedrooms available. It was too lake to call Amtrak Guest Rewards that night, however. As I'd used AGR points to book the original trip, and because AGR's agents are generally more competent than the run-of-the-mill Amtrak agents, it would be best to talk to AGR. AGR's service hours are 8 AM to 8 PM Eastern Time.
This morning, I was on the phone at 5 AM PT sharp and got straight through to an AGR agent, who rebooked our trip to leave one day earlier. We changed from one bedroom to another, but it wasn't the dreaded Bedroom A. (That one is smaller and oddly shaped due to the way the aisle curves around it.)
I then went to the IHG website and booked a second night at the same hotel in Denver (and same type of room). Because of the offer on which I booked the first night, I couldn't change that, but I now have an end-to-end reservation in the same room type at the same hotel, so I hope that there will be no need to change rooms just because the reservation numbers are different.
I did have to book an extra day of time off. The original plan was for us to leave on Friday afternoon after I got done with work that day, arriving Saturday evening. Now we leave on Thursday afternoon, so we'll be in transit on Friday. There's no way for me to work remotely, even though I'm taking my work machines because I'll be working remotely part of the time I'm in the UK. The are through which the train travels has little to no cell service, and there's no wi-fi on the train. Glenwood Canyon, the centerpiece of that day's travel, is mostly inaccessible to all outside communication, and indeed there are no roads: only the train and people floating down the river (and traditionally "mooning" the train as we go by) can access it. Fortunately, I did have a little bit of PTO left, so I booked that Friday off.
It was rather surprising that I could make the pieces fall back into place like that. I might not have even thought of it if Lisa hadn't made the comment about how things worked in the pre-Amtrak days when there were multiple routes between the West Coast and Denver.
This is a complicated trip, and I've only explained the Reno-Denver-Iceland leg of it. There's more to come, and I hope nothing else breaks.