Great story of customer service, and congratulations on yours and Katy's upcoming trip!

But, have you done a long-distance trip on Amtrak? We did our first this month as a one-zone from Chicago to Fort Worth. Following a tip from one of your blog readers we converted Continental miles to Amtrak for the 40,000 point/mile roundtrip for two in a Superliner Bedroom car–outstanding point value! The ride was 24 hours, plus a connecting trip on a small train, and boy were we ready to get off by the time we hit Fort Worth. This just wasn't for us. The train (including the bedroom) wasn't very clean, the toilet in the bedroom malfunctioned all night, and the cabin service was so-so, and the food in the dining car was not very good (though it was included in the sleeper car fare). The worst part was trying to sleep on the table-hard bunks with a 1" mattress and constant jiggling from the train's motion; we were nearly weeping by morning. I actually priced out air tickets for the return trip but it was way too expensive and we resigned ourselves to hitting the Fort Worth Walmart for a mattress pad before having to board the train home.

Not to throw a damper on your or other readers' plans, and if you have traveled by Amtrak happily, fabulous! If you haven't, and are not the "can sleep anywhere or on a rock" variety, I would test the water first with a relatively short trip. We were very relieved that we didn't make a week-long ride to the West Coast and back as our first Amtrak outing. These trains are not like European trains.

I could transfer Freedom UR points to my parents Sapphire accounts. I don't think you need Sapphire Card in order to receive/transfer points. Unless this is new change.

Hi FTG, you mentioned that the Chase Freedom card doesn't have sign up bonus but if I'm not mistaken there's currently a 30,000 points or $300 cash back link going around. Just thought you might like to know. Love your site!

I am a little confused why you were unable to combine Katy's Ultimate Rewards points with your own using the Chase web site. I do this all of the time to send my Freedom points to my husband's Sapphire Preferred card.

Login to Katy's UR account, select "Manage Ultimate Rewards" and then "Combine Points".

Select her Freedom account for the account that you want to transfer the points from, and then "Other" for the account that you want to transfer the points to.

Enter the full card number of the Sapphire Preferred account, the last name of the cardholder, and the amount of points you want to transfer. Hit Next to confirm.

The points transfer instantaneously.

I've had nothing but arrogrant CSR's with Chase. Always. Chase is the most incompetant bank I've ever dealt with, and I've dealt with plenty including Citi.

Transfer: I've tried three times and in each case the website says unable to complete your request at this time. Frustrating after hearing all your success stories?

Rick, you should have been able to transfer points from either your UR account or Katy's to the same AGR account…or at least I didn't have a problem doing so with Continental's Service Center. CO was a bit hesitant, saying that they didn't want our miles to get lost somewhere in cyberspace, but we had no problem transferring from two external accounts into a single AGR account.

I am the reader that Ingrid A referenced, and I agree with basically everything she said, but I'll add a couple of caveats:

1. I traveled from LA to Chicago on Coast Starlight and California Zephyr — both of which offer fantastic scenery. The scenery, including several canyons through the Rockies which are totally inaccessible except by train, is breathtaking, and is THE reason why we elected to travel by train. Try to work Coast Starlight into your itinerary; it's Amtrak's "premier" route, including wine/cheese tastings and such.

2. You'll be on the train for thousands of miles with the same 100-200 people, and you'll be eating with quite a few of them. Train travelers are interesting folks. You'll meet lots of interesting people: lot's of retirees, lots of foreigners, and lots of people who just prefer to travel by train because it's so relaxing.

3. Our train was re-routed because of the horrible flooding on the Upper Missouri in June. We were originally routed through Portland (longer trip = more scenery, more time on the train, more free meals for the same "price"), but were routed through Emeryville(San Francisco) — where they put us up in the Four Points overnight — and Denver instead. I wrote to Amtrak CS to complain about our routing, the so-so service on the train, and a broken bathroom, and they gave us $460 in Amtrak vouchers — which is nearly enough to get us to Vancouver. So for 20,000 CO OnePass miles, we will have traveled 3 nights/4 days (including one night in a Four Points) to Chicago and 1 night/2 days to Seattle/Vancouver.

4. We packed a suitcase full of wine and drank plenty of it in our room. You CANNOT take personal alcohol out of your room (I think they're encouraging you to buy it onboard), but it makes the evenings more enjoyable.

Take home message: Don't expect Lufthansa first class, but expect to be relaxed among incredible scenery and delightful conversations at a terrific value. It is what you make of it. And don't forget that in many ways the trip is the destination.

Chris S, thanks for posting on this! And thanks for the suggestion–I am glad we tried it once despite not really caring for the experience, and really glad we did it at such a great value with the One Pass to AGR conversion.

I wistfully regret that we won't see the scenery that you enjoy on a West Coast run. To be fair, not adding to the enjoyment of our trip was the rain and the bland scenery of the Texas Eagle route–that stretch of central IL before hitting MO and the St. Louis Arch is pretty awful to drive through and not really better on the train. Though inviting Captain Morgan to travel with us did help

I do rather like the sounds and motion of the train (except when trying to sleep on a table) and tried sitting in an empty roomette to see if I would like that better than the bedroom. Though smaller and lacking a private bathroom (not a huge loss, especially with a "malfunction" strobe light flashing all night), it has the advantage of a lower point/fare price and both people can sit at the window on the most comfortable seating the darn thing offers while rolling.

And I agree, there is a different cross-section of society riding the train compared to flying. We met a very nice elderly couple and shared two meals with them but also had some other really unsavory seatmates–a mixed bag on the train!

Thanks again for the idea, and congrats on another comped trip–THAT is really a great award value!