Tag Archives: Amtrak

Transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points from the Chase App

Chase-Ultimate-Rewards

Transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points from the Chase App

Chase recently updated their smartphone app for iOS and Android with the ability to transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points to their travel partners.  I will show you how I recently transferred Chase Ultimate Reward Points to Southwest Airlines on my iPhone.  The process should work the same on an Android phone.  You can follow these steps to transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points to any of their travel partners.  Without further ado, download the Chase app to your smartphone and log into your Chase account.

Log Into Chase App

Navigate to the Chase account that has Chase Ultimate Reward Points – either a Chase Sapphire Preferred (personal account) or a Chase Ink Bold/Plus (business account).

Select Chase Account

To read the entire post, please click here.  Have a great Thanksgiving holiday everyone!

Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Day Trip and my Confusion with Orange County Metrolink and San Diego Coaster

Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Logo

Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Day Trip and my Confusion with Orange County Metrolink and San Diego Coaster

Last month, I shared my experience riding the Amtrak Coast Starlight from Seattle down to Los Angeles (link).  A few weeks ago, I shared my thoughts on taking public transportation (buses and Amtrak) from Orange County to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and San Diego International Airport (SAN) (link).  Today, I will share my experience booking the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner and some of the scheduling roadblocks I ran into.

The first thing you should know is that the Pacific Surfliner is part of Amtrak’s special routes, where it costs only 1,500 Amtrak Points per person each way, regardless of how long or short the ride is.

Amtrak Special Routes

The Pacific Surfliner runs multiple times every day from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, a 5 hour and 45 minute journey if you go end to end.  Along the way, the train passes through 29 stations.  Important: not every Pacific Surfliner train stops at every stop.  This partially screwed me up on my trip from Irvine (IRV) to Carlsbad Village (CBV) to visit a friend on Tuesday afternoon, I’ll explain later.

Pacific Surliner Maps and Stops

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Trains and Buses from Orange County to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and San Diego International Airport (SAN)

Train Bus Airplane Public Transportation

Trains and Buses from Orange County to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and San Diego International Airport (SAN)

This post was inspired by my recent Amtrak trip from Seattle to Los Angeles on the Coast Starlight (link).  I was curious if/how it were possible to get from Los Angeles Union Station to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).  After doing some research, I found out how to get to LAX from Orange County.  Then I figured out how to get to San Diego International Airport (SAN) from Orange County.  There are several airports in SoCal, but I did not look into flights out of Long Beach (LGB), Burbank (BUR), Santa Barbara (SBA), Ontario (ONT), San Diego McClellan-Palomar (CLD), or Palm Springs (PSP).  This particular post is probably only useful for SoCal readers, but the thinking process can probably be applied to many other regions of the country.

To start, I looked at the Pacific Surfliner Amtrak train route.  Since the train travels between San Diego and San Luis Obispo several times per day, you can probably use this train to get to and from LAX and SAN.

LAX Union Station to Irvine to San Diego

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Amtrak Coast Starlight Trip Summary and my Train Traveling Thoughts

Sheldon Cooper Train

Amtrak Coast Starlight Trip Summary and my Train Traveling Thoughts

For those of you not following along at home, here are the 5 parts of my Amtrak Coast Starlight journey:

I promise this is my last Amtrak post for a while.  While on the train, I had a lot of free time so I passed the time looking out the windows, taking pictures, and writing blog posts.  The journey took me from Seattle down to Los Angeles and stopped several times (sometimes for 2 minutes, sometimes for 45+ minutes), it just depends on the train traffic and if we are ahead of schedule or not.  Train travel is not for everyone, but it is worth considering a trip across this great country.  Here is a map of the journey:

Amtrak Coast Starlight Train Stops Map

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Amtrak Coast Starlight Trip – Part 5: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner in the Dining Car and Parlour Car

Parlour Car Logo

Amtrak Coast Starlight Trip – Part 5: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner in the Dining Car and Parlour Car

If you like looking at pictures of food, this post is just for you.  First things first, you need a reservation for lunch and dinner in the dining car and the parlour car.  Both restaurants are in adjoining cars and serve different meals.  You need to make a reservation otherwise you will not be able to eat at either restaurant.  The Amtrak attendant will walk through the parlour and sleeping cars and make reservations for everyone.

Lunch Reservation

The dining car has 16-18 tables while the parlour car has only 8 tables (so the parlour car reservations fill up faster).

Parlour Car Table Parlour Car Table 2

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