100% Green

I'm looking through my point history, and I don't see a bonus 500 TQP for my Acela trips. Is this no longer offered? Am I reading the rules incorrectly?

Help me do the math:

$259 Acela ticket x 2 = 518 TQP

+500 Acela Bonus = 1018?

100% Green

Nevermind, re-read the rules on amtrak and it says x$2 or 500. This seems like a pretty silly item since Acela is rarely under $250 (and when that's the case, it's only a few dollars short).

AlanB

Actually Acela is often below $250 if you are booking far enough out. And especially if you're booking north of NY.

And it used to be you only got 500 points for booking Business and 750 for booking First. But with rising prices people started to have an issue where the 2 X $ would have been more than the 500/750 points.

But it was never 2 X $ plus a 500 point bonus. It was always just 500 points period.

Triley

To back up what Alan said, and just as a reference point, I have had plenty of tickets booked BOS-NYP on the Acela for $109. NYP it appears the cheapest is $152. Even BOS-WAS can be done for $171, which seems like a great deal, although you'd still only get the 500 points.

CMK10

I have BWI-PHL booked for $91. Sadly, that's not a qualifying city pair

Triley

And gone are the days of booking from WAS and boarding in BWI, to get the bonus points. Just about the only negative of e-ticketing, huh?

mab

Huh? I've boarded at BWI with an eticket from WAS with no problem. (I wasn't sure which station I'd be departing from, so I played it safe and booked from WAS, but ended up getting a ride to BWI). I'm not sure where this could be a problem, assuming your train actually stops at BWI (not all do).

Triley

Not sure on the time window allowed for e-tickets to be scanned (and this may be why it worked), but Amtrak.com is worded in a way that makes it seem like you can not board from a different station, as the ticket will be cancelled as if you're a no-show. For example, the cancellation/refund policy for advanced purchase fares:

"If canceled before the scheduled departure from the origin, the ticket value may be saved as credit in a non refundable eVoucher that can be used for future Amtrak travel. If not canceled before the scheduled departure from the origin ("no show"), the entire amount is forfeited and cannot be applied toward future travel."

So in other words, it seems like it may be okay for stations with short distances between them, but I wouldn't try it stations with longer distances between them (buying a WAS-NYP ticket and showing up in WIL for an example), or else you may find your ticket cancelled as a no-show.

mab

'

It's very common for conductors to take a long time scanning tickets. For example, I've had my NYC-WAS ticket scanned between PHL and WIL a few times. I suspect this policy refers to the refund-ability of tickets, not their validity on the actual train for which they were issued.

Triley

I thought one of the pluses of e-ticketing was being able to mark someone as a no-show and be able to open up a seat for a potential rider down the line?

RailCommuter

Sorry for the bump, but this is relevant:

The system automatically flags you as a no-show and dumps your ticket 60 minutes after the train is reported as having departed from your origin station. (Then it becomes a giant PITA where you've got to call one of the support lines and have it re-issued, etc., etc.)

In other words, if your ticket has you out of PHL at 9:05, your ticket becomes invalid at 10:05. However, if the train doesn't depart until 9:13, your ticket would become invalid at 10:13 instead of 10:05.