Amtrak Guest Rewards - Board Train One Stop Along Line?

Hi all,

I have an Acela booked from NYP to PHL. It looks like I'm going to be in New Jersey rather than in the city as I had expected. I already printed my ticket last week at another stop.

Can I simply board the train at the Newark stop rather than having to go through all the hassle of changing my ticket (which would cost a lot more at this point anyway).

Thanks!

- boat9781

Hi all,

I have an Acela booked from NYP to PHL. It looks like I'm going to be in New Jersey rather than in the city as I had expected. I already printed my ticket last week at another stop.

Can I simply board the train at the Newark stop rather than having to go through all the hassle of changing my ticket (which would cost a lot more at this point anyway).

Thanks!

- boat9781

In theory, no. In practice, yes. Chances that anybody checks tickets and, if they do, raises the NEW rather than NYP boarding are slim.

Should not cost you anything to change the ticket from NYP-PHL to NEW-PHL.

In theory, no. In practice, yes. Chances that anybody checks tickets and, if they do, raises the NEW rather than NYP boarding are slim.

Should not cost you anything to change the ticket from NYP-PHL to NEW-PHL.
I am not sure of the exact policy here since the OP is not switching to a new train but rather just originating in a different station. Is there a fare difference that will be charged? The OP purchased the ticket well in advance so it may be $50-100 cheaper than the current price of a NWK-PHL Acela ticket.

In theory, no. In practice, yes. Chances that anybody checks tickets and, if they do, raises the NEW rather than NYP boarding are slim.

Should not cost you anything to change the ticket from NYP-PHL to NEW-PHL.

NEW is Newton, KS; I assume the OP is referring to NWK (not to be confused with NRK).

I do something like this all the time when riding PVD-NYP on Acela; I pay a few bucks more and buy a ticket RTE-NYP to get the 500 AGR points rather than the 2 points per dollar I would receive out of PVD (netting me an increase of about 300 points for ~$5-10).

Don't bother changing your ticket (unless the prevailing fare bucket is lower). For any kind of corridor train, it's no problem to ride short within your ticketed city pair. The conductor might not even know that you didn't board in NYP since they often wait until after NWK to lift tickets. Either way, it shouldn't be a cause for concern unless you're trying to go farther than the ticketed city pair. :)

As a regular rider, I do this all the time when I originate at a station without a Qwiktrak; I buy the station before it that has a Qwiktrak as my origin so I can choose QT delivery option, and print my ticket at a QT on the preceeding trip, and off I go... very flexible.

It's one of the advantages of train travel to be able to board elsewhere.

If this were an airline, people would be telling you that you may be ripping off the airline by traveling on a different city-pair than you contracted for. Amtrak doesn't care about this and has no practical approach for enforcing it. As was pointed out, the crew lifting your ticket will likely be completely unaware that you boarded at a different place. Indeed, if the crew was aware of it, they might be worried that you paid too much.

Two data points to support this:

1) I ride between San Jose & Sacramento a lot and usually pickup my tickets in advance and use them when I want (to get the AAA discount). I've used these same tickets to go to SFO (Amtrak to Richmond then BART to SFO) and back. Not even a blink from the conductor. I did remember to pull my tag as I left at RIC.

2) There are many stops between SJC and SAC. Several times we've been leaving Davis (last stop before SAC) and they are just getting around to collecting my ticket! They'd have no clue of when I actually boarded.

I would say you are fine to do what you're thinking. Just never get caught trying to short ticket them, that can be costly. Short tripping is fine. I haven't seen bizarre airline-pricing where it's cheaper for a longer trip.

As a regular rider, I do this all the time when I originate at a station without a Qwiktrak; I buy the station before it that has a Qwiktrak as my origin so I can choose QT delivery option, and print my ticket at a QT on the preceeding trip, and off I go... very flexible.It's annoying that the website only allows ticket-by-mail for an itinerary that starts at an unstaffed station.

You'll definitely be fine, but it might be worth seeing if you can get some Amtrak credit back by changing the ticket (tickets usually don't cost anything to change) but you need to do it at the station.

It's annoying that the website only allows ticket-by-mail for an itinerary that starts at an unstaffed station.

Yes, it would be nice if the online system allowed to override, but for now you can call Amtrak and they can do the override for you. And be sure to ask them to submit the request when you call.

As an alternative, price your ticket a stop or two before where they do have at least a QuikTrak kiosk and you should be good to go. And, by the way, you don't need to use that kiosk. If there is one closer up trip you can go there before your trip too.

I haven't seen bizarre airline-pricing where it's cheaper for a longer trip.

That's because Amtrak isn't competing with another carrier on specific city pairs. There isn't AmeriRail running between LAX and BFD along the Tehachapi sub offering sale fares of $19ow that Amtrak has to match but route up the coast and down the San Joaquin Valley.