CateyBeth

And a note - if you want cheaper snacks and adult beverages, take that same exit, head east across the river, and there's a fully stocked Walgreens right there.

dhammer53

Now there you have it. The best tip on Flyertalk. I'll report back in 2 weeks. Taking my second trip CHI/WAS/NRO (New Rochelle).

dh

dogemperor

Agreed there

Also, I'll note that if you're transferring between plane to train (or between trains, or between bus to train) and have enough of a layover, Greektown is not that far of a walk away (good gyro places on the cheap end, and good sit-down Greek on the more moderate end)--that's actually been my bit of a "tradition" on train layovers, along with museum trips. For shorter layovers, the little bakeries and the Walgreens may be better options (or consider getting food at MDW or ORD if one is flying in).

dhammer53

I'm meeting Flyertalkers for lunch on May 16. Check out the Community forum for that lunch. You're invited.

dh

davesam12

I haven't done an overnight train trip since college days, but I do the Amtrak east coast corridor and Pacific Surfliner for work and leisure regularly.

So, just booked the Southwest Chief Superliner Bedroom - one way Chicago to LA - just for fun. Not on a rigid schedule, know the train often runs late, etc.

Question, can someone fill me in on the Premium boarding at Chicago. So, I will go to the Metro Lounge at Union Station. I assume check in with an agent there and show my printed ticket I downloaded. How does boarding work? Does one board from the lounge? Do they issue you a separate boarding pass? I assume they make some kind of announcement. How do you know which car and bedroom to go to? Thanks!

AlanB

Correct, there is an agent as you enter the lounge. They'll explain things to you at checkin and point to where you can leave your bags if you wish to go explore the city a bit or get some food.

You'll walk from the lounge to the track area, assuming that you don't want a redcap to take you out to the train. Generally, they tend to send you out between 15 to 20 minutes before departure, but I've gone out to trains as early as 1 hour before.

If you stored your bags in the luggage room, I recommend getting them out at least a half hour before departure, if not even a bit sooner around the 45 minute mark or so.

No.

Yes, they'll make several announcements telling people what track and how to get there.

Your ticket tells you which car & room you are in. Once at the train, you can look to the side of the door to see the car number. It's a movable sign that shows a 4 digit number for your car. Or you can ask any Amtrak employee too.

Once you reach the correct sleeper, usually the attendant will confirm your name on their manifest and then tell you where to put your luggage and how to find your room.

davesam12

Alan. Thanks much!

jackal

FWIW, I somehow completely missed this thread when it first came up, and so I got to get confused by the CHI boarding experience myself last month when taking the SWC from CHI to KCY.

I returned my Hertz rental car to the station about 50 minutes before departure. After walking from the garage into the station and dropping the keys off, I wandered the station for a few minutes to orient myself and ended up in the Great Hall. I then saw the new Legacy lounge and popped my head in to inquire. This was now about 40 minutes before departure, and the lounge attendant said he had already taken his group out to board the train, and so I decided against paying the $20 lounge entrance as there seemed to be no reason to (early boarding had already happened, and I couldn't have stayed long enough to even look at, much less enjoy, the amenities).

I then started to wander around and look for the regular boarding area. The signage was pretty poor, so I ended up in the accessible traveler boarding area, where I was more or less yelled at by an Amtrak dragon that I was in the wrong place. I went out around the corner and ended up noticing and joining the mass of people headed out to my track number--there was no enforcement or anything preventing me from just going directly to my train, so I did.

The rearmost car of course had a long line of elderly people who were taking forever to board, so I skipped the line and went to the next car up that was open. I got on board and went upstairs and promptly got yelled at by the car attendant that I was in the wrong car if I was going to KCY. So, I walked back to the rear car and found a nice seat one row ahead of the railfan window. After boarding was mostly completed (and about half of the rows in the car had filled up, the same car attendant came up to me and said I would have to move, because he had a group of boy scouts boarding downline and needed to keep them together. Nice of him to tell me that after the rest of the car had filled up and there were no more window seats available. I protested and eventually he relented and I ended up getting to keep my seat (and the boy scouts ended up in another car, anyway, and spent most of their time being boistrous in the Sightseer Lounge Car).

My interactions with Amtrak were unfortunately about as poor as is usual and expected. Station staff were unfriendly and unhelpful; the boarding process (or, more clearly, the fact that it's different from the normal process of boarding a train) was not clearly outlined, and on-board staff were confrontational and unhelpful.

I love train travel, and I love and support Amtrak and hope that it continues to exist and perhaps even someday thrive, and I'm in general a pretty easygoing traveler, but sometimes they test even my limits.

wolf539

I had a similar experience with some of the staff in Chicago not too long ago. Unhelpful and surly pretty much covers the most of the employees I encountered; and it's not like I'm high maintenance! If time permits, I would contact Amtrak and let them know about the attitude and "service" you received.

ibrandsguest

On my trips on the Crescent, the staff ranges from surly/insulting to irritated to neutral. Surely it wasn't that way when it was run by the Southern Railway, was it?

How come US Airways and American Airlines had and have such nicer customer-facing staff?

TribalistMeathead

Ancient Aviator III

I had a ticket for a roomette for Train 21 and was waiting in the Metropolitan Lounge for boarding. The call for Sleeping Car passengers was late because when I arrived at the departure doors there were passengers already walking towards the sleeping car and the lead for the group saying "Sleeping car passengers boarding". As I moved towards the platform door it was closed in my face with the Amtrak employee shouting "move to the right and make one line". I told her I was a sleeping car passenger and was ignored. Standing beside the coach passenger line, after 4 minutes I was finally able to get another Amtrak employee to notice my ticket who exclaimed "Why are you here, you should be boarding with the sleeping car passengers" and let me through to the platform.
I proceeded down the platform, past those coach passengers waiting to board, until I reached Conductor Nick. As I neared him he blocked my path and began screaming at me to "go back to the end of the line". I explained I was a sleeping car passenger and he screamed more loudly "I don't care, go back to the end of the line". I tried to show him my ticket and pointed to the sleeping car passengers boarding the cars down the platform. He refused to look at it and screamed if I didn't go to the back of the line he would call security and have me thrown out of Union Station and banned from riding Amtrak trains. I then asked him to call his supervisor, he refused, and screamed again that "Did I want him to call security and have me thrown out of Union Station."
I did not go to the back of the line and I did eventually board the train, but it was my last trip on Amtrak. When I wrote Amtrak about this experience I never got a reply. I used to be a semi-frequent rider, now my hope is Amtrak goes out of business.