Amtrak Guest Rewards - General questions

I have almost no experience with Amtrak, so I have a couple general questions.

(1) If I redeem points for Acela one-way tickets, will they send me paper certificates, or is it done electronically? How long in advance do I have to do this?

(2) If it's paper certificates, can I just keep them around and use them whenever I want, or are they subject to a lot of restrictions? How long are they valid? Are they transferrable?

(3) Can I use upgrade certificates on Acela award travel?

(4) What kind of availability is there on Boston <-> New York Acela routes? Do I need to plan ahead?

(5) How nice is Acela, really? I hate traveling by bus, but the Chinatown bus is $10.

Thanks

I have almost no experience with Amtrak, so I have a couple general questions.

(1) If I redeem points for Acela one-way tickets, will they send me paper certificates, or is it done electronically? How long in advance do I have to do this?

(2) If it's paper certificates, can I just keep them around and use them whenever I want, or are they subject to a lot of restrictions? How long are they valid? Are they transferrable?

(3) Can I use upgrade certificates on Acela award travel?

(4) What kind of availability is there on Boston <-> New York Acela routes? Do I need to plan ahead?

(5) How nice is Acela, really? I hate traveling by bus, but the Chinatown bus is $10.

Thanks

1) It's a paper ticket. IME they usually are mailed in about 2-3 days, and arrive within in a week (NYC).

2) I've only ever used them on unreserved trains in the NE Corridor. I don't feel it's worth paying 3x the points for a train that's only marginally faster, especially on NYP-BOS, or NYP-PHL, for example. Fulls T&C's for blackout dates (and times) are here (https://www.amtrakguestrewards.com/index.cfm?category=info&loc=TandC.html), section D3.

4) AFAIK, rewards are not capacity-controlled, but rather are simply blacked out fully for weekend travel in the NE corridor for some services (Acela, for example).

I have almost no experience with Amtrak, so I have a couple general questions.

(1) If I redeem points for Acela one-way tickets, will they send me paper certificates, or is it done electronically? How long in advance do I have to do this?

As already mentioned by Nerd, you will receive paper tickets.

(2) If it's paper certificates, can I just keep them around and use them whenever I want, or are they subject to a lot of restrictions? How long are they valid? Are they transferrable?

No, Acela service is an all reserved trains. That means that you are assgined a specific train that the tickets must be used on. If you wish to pick a different train, you would have to return the original tickets and be reissued new tickets. This cannot be done at a ticket window.

No, you can't transfer them to someone else. You can get tickets issued to someone else, other than yourself. But anyone traveling must have a picture id matching the name on the ticket.

(3) Can I use upgrade certificates on Acela award travel?

No, the upgrade certificates require you to pay full business class fare in order to upgrade to first class. You can't even use the AAA discount in conjunction with an upgrade cert.


(4) What kind of availability is there on Boston <-> New York Acela routes? Do I need to plan ahead?

Occasionally on certain weekend trains, they may sell out. But generally one can usually get a seat on a Boston-NY Acela. However if you plan to use a GR reward, then you will have to plan in advance, since again the tickets are issued for a specific train.

(5) How nice is Acela, really? I hate traveling by bus, but the Chinatown bus is $10.

I for one think that they are great trains. The seats are nicer than most regional trains offer, the windows are great for watching the scenery along the coast, and it is kinda neat to hit 150 MPH in a train, even if it's only for 18 miles.

No, you can't transfer them to someone else. You can get tickets issued to someone else, other than yourself. But anyone traveling must have a picture id matching the name on the ticket.

Do Acela conductors ever ask for photo ID? My experience is limited to unreserved service, but I've never been asked for ID. Granted I take Amtrak only about 6-8 r/t's per year.

Hmm.. thanks for the info. Seems like this isn't as good of a deal as I was expecting.

Do Acela conductors ever ask for photo ID? My experience is limited to unreserved service, but I've never been asked for ID. Granted I take Amtrak only about 6-8 r/t's per year.

I've never seen a conductor ask for ID on an Acela, nor have I heard of one doing so.

However, just today Regional train #170 was stopped at Newark thanks to a threatening note found in a bathroom during it's treak north/east bound across the State of NJ. Police boarded the train in Newark where they conducted a full search of the train, including checking luggage, verifing all id's, and video taping each person on board the train.

So I for one wouldn't want to get caught with a ticket that didn't match my ID, should a similar incident occur. :eek: