Introduction

It had been more than five years since Chestnut last did a serious long-distance train trip in the U.S., and on a whim this year I decided to spend Christmas in New Orleans. On the way back, I could also finally try Amtrak’s flagship train, the Sunset Limited.

Once I decided, I moved fast. First, I basically dropped a “nuclear bomb” of nearly 70,000 Amtrak points to book a Bedroom sleeper on the Sunset Limited. I had originally wanted the smaller Roomette, but thanks to my procrastination, the roomettes were OOS, so I had no choice but to book the larger Bedroom with its own toilet and shower.

As it turned out, there was only one Bedroom left. Right after I booked it, the system showed the sleepers as OOS... Wait... why were there so few sleeping-car rooms on this train? I later learned that the current Amtrak Sunset Limited consist includes only one through sleeping car. Great. After spending close to 70,000 points on this redemption, my remaining points balance was basically sent straight back to zero.

With the main problem for the return trip—the train ticket—taken care of, the next step was booking flights for the outbound. I used DL miles and spent two 22,000+两个 $5.6 Tax & Fee to redeem the nonstop flight from LAX to MSY.

As for lodging, I really didn’t expect hotels in New Orleans to be this cheap. The Intercontinental there was under 30,000, and even the FN from Chase could be used for it—at least according to the system. But after thinking it over, I ended up redeeming a Kimpton instead of the Intercontinental. The reason? The Kimpton just looked newer.

Here’s a little joke: I’d had the new Chase IHG card for almost two years and had only been using the free FN. It wasn’t until this point that I realized one of the card’s Benefit—if you redeem for three nights, the fourth night is Free... Am I late to the party or what?

A “Christmas Morning Surprise”

After everything was booked, all that was left was to wait for Christmas. But on Christmas morning, while I was eating breakfast, Delta Air Lines sent a push notification straight to my phone: Your flight was cancelled... What? The food instantly lost all flavor. I quickly got on my computer and checked my email, only to find that Delta had automatically moved me to the next day, 12.26. That timing was completely unacceptable, and after checking the news, reports of widespread Delta cancellations were everywhere. Who knew whether it would even fly the next day?

I checked the Delta website and tried to find other same-day options, but it was basically useless. First, the site was painfully laggy; second, all the results it showed were for the next day anyway.

So I decided to act first and sort it out later: find same-day tickets on another airline first, then contact Delta to get a full mileage Refund!

In the end, I decided to book with my old friend American Airlines using miles. But by then, there were no free seats left on the first flight, AA1331, so I had to pay extra to select two exit-row seats on the 777 -200, costing two 76 USD seat selection fees (PS: I later Claim ed it through insurance and got reimbursed).

At that point I realized my “procrastination” had actually provided another little Benefit. Back in May earlier that year, I hadn’t downgraded my Citi AA card, which meant I could still check bags for free now... one for Bunny, one for Chestnut!

Setting Off

With two hours left before departure, I left home to catch the Fly Away airport bus. It had been a long time since I’d ridden one of the big Fly Away Bus coaches. Back when I went to UCLA, the Westwood Line used those sneaky little mid-size buses!

Before long I arrived at LAX Terminal 4. American Airlines has been using this terminal for N years now—at least it was already that way the first time I came to LAX in 2011.

If I remember correctly, that domed area is where the Admiral Club lounge is. I got in once back in the day when I was flying A321T first class. But these days I no longer have a Pass, so no entry for me.

Then I suddenly noticed that my aircraft’s inbound flight had already arrived, so it looked like this one would not be Cancel ed after all!

This was probably one of AA’s oldest 772ERs. Unfortunately, the interior had already “fallen” to the cramped 3-4-3 economy layout as well (more complaints later). Honestly, I’d rather they had changed nothing and kept the old 2-5-2.

There was still plenty of time, so I power-walked over to TBIT to wander around a bit and find something to eat.

On the way, I discovered that the Centurion Lounge was closed too (not that it mattered much—I don’t have a Platinum card anyway, so I was only there to look).

Once it was about time, I came back to board. Honestly, the legroom in the exit row was very generous, but AA really charged a lot for it. As for width... a 343 layout with ten seats across in economy is just ridiculously cramped. On that point, let me once again call out the airline that started this whole trend: everyone’s favorite so-called luxury carrier, Emirates. So from now on, whenever you see an Emirates plane, take a photo with a pencil in the foreground to create forced perspective. Abbreviation—“pen view” (a pun on “disdain”)!

One more thing: when people in the group chat saw the photo I posted and noticed the aircraft was a 777, some of them thought I must be flying a long-haul route. They clearly don’t know me well enough—I often go out of my way to choose a long-haul widebody for a short flight.

As a train fan, I used to do the same thing in China: riding long-distance trains for short hops. From Nanjing to Shanghai, I took K289（成都——上海）, Z95（太原——上海）; from Beijing to Tianjin, I took K27（北京——丹东）, T31（北京——杭州）, T39（北京——齐齐哈尔）.

A close-up of the exit row!

Christmas-themed mood lighting!

Because this was the first row, my PTV wasn’t mounted in front of me; instead, I had to fold it up from under the seat to use it!

Since this was just a flight from LAX to DFW, the overall flight time was not very long. But honestly, the weather was terrible all day, and we did not see the lights on the ground until we were close to DFW!

After getting off the plane, I also snapped a couple of photos of the 2-4-2 seat layout up front in Economy Plus and Business.

After deplaning, we originally wanted to head to Terminal C and check out the only PPS Lounge at DFW, but the result was about what you would expect.

There is a saying that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. During a period like this, it was already not easy for even one Lounge to be open, so demand was completely overwhelming and the place was packed. The lady at the entrance did not flat-out refuse us, but she told us the wait would be about 45min... forget it. If we had waited that long, we would have missed our onward flight!

Very reluctantly, I picked up the camera and took a quick photo of the outside of the DFW Lounge... there is always next time. See you next time (...if there even is a next time... I do not even want to think about it...)

It was about time to catch the next flight. By the time we got to the gate, it was exactly our Group 5 Boarding. The timing could not have been more precise.

The aircraft was the all-too-common A321 in a non-three-cabin configuration. The Business seats up front were basically just big recliner-style domestic seats (it seems only transcontinental routes like the ones to JFK get the nicer product).

After all the running around that day, I was already exhausted and fell asleep shortly after takeoff... the flight was really short, and about an hour later they were already announcing that we should prepare for landing!

After landing, there was another little hiccup: the captain said our Gate was not ready yet, so he would make a U-turn and switch to another Gate for deplaning, and asked everyone to wait a few minutes... no matter what, American Airlines, Lizi's old friend, got Lizi and Rabbit safely to NOLA in the end!

We even saw a rather odd ad here: DuckDuckGo!

Checking into Kimpton

You could say this Christmas Day trip was full of one “surprise” after another. First came the “big surprise” in the morning that forced Lizi to change flights at the very last minute, then the DFW PPS Lounge was so overcrowded that we could not experience it, and even after we finally got out of the NOLA airport, there was one last surprise waiting for us: we had already booked an Airport Shuttle, but... there was nobody at the Kiosk! We called, and nobody answered... at that point, enough was enough. We switched to calling a Lyft to the hotel instead! The Lyft driver was very happy; he had just dropped off one fare at the airport and immediately got our ride request, so business was pretty good that night O (∩_∩) O

Since it was too late at night, I could not get a good shot of the big Kimpton sign, so I am borrowing one taken the next day instead!

PS: We ultimately disputed the Airport Shuttle charge and had it removed through the CSR card. If a problem can be solved by going straight to the nuclear option, there is no need to waste time with conventional weapons!

Check-in itself went very smoothly. As usual, here is the key card first!

A few shots of the room setup:

And we will end with this nighttime view of NOLA from the window!

Summary

This trip was truly full of twists and turns, with one major problem after another plus plenty of smaller ones. The biggest issue was the morning “Christmas gift” from Delta Air Lines: massive flight cuts that nearly caused the entire trip to fall apart. Fortunately, Lizi reacted quickly and stopped trying to fight it out with Delta Air Lines, decisively switching to an AA award ticket and heading out right away.

In the end, the conclusion is simple: you can never have too many miles and points. At a critical moment, they can save you at the last second! As for the devaluation issue people in the group are always talking about... as long as you earn them faster than they devalue, it is not that big a problem (as long as it is not like the Italian kind, with 100% inflation hitting out of nowhere with no warning!).

To find out what happens next, stay tuned for the next installment!