Originally Posted by
CaptainMiles
But isn't that the case with any connection, Amtrak or not? Just last year this happened to me, flying RDU-PHL-HPN on US. At PHL they claimed I had not flown RDU-PHL and the system had cxld the second leg. I had flown. Evidence of a warm body standing in front of the gate agent at PHL was all it took to reinstate. With airlines it is hard not to scan the BP and still get an accurate passenger count. Yet this still happens, and they can reinstate reservations.
With Amtrak it is fairly easy for the conductor to not collect the ticket, and since there are no pax counts this will go through unnoticed quite easily. I suspect that if UA were to cancel a res based on a no-show on Amtrak, and make the cancelation stick, they would have a hard time to prove that this was a legitimate cancelation and not IDB.
There are numerous posts by folks who were denied boarding @ EWR upon presenting their BP and thusly missed their flight, since they werent able to get it reinstated in time. Depending where 1 was flying and if they were other connecting flights it can be a big mess.
I dont recall if anyone was not able to get their tkt reinstated but now that you Need to be on the train# booked we cant simply say Oh I got to 30th St early and jumped on another train. Also no reason to call CO until you know for sure that you wont be allowed to board so theer is still some Risk if you need to 100% be on the booked flight for whatever reason. Id say its still good for a person who doesnt have any time constraits, just in case it hits the fan
I had only 1 CX and I was already at my Destination so my return was reinstated, never had problems with my Outbound but plenty of folks did. Have to point out its been a few yrs since I tried my luck 1 since I moved to UA and 2 almost every trip I have a connecting flight. Also ps out of JFK kills CO out of EWR at least till they redo all the palnes, so I fly out of EWR maybe 1-3 times a year TATL on Award tkts. Plus Ive been able to Confirm with a regional uping to F out of PHL 90%+ of the time which wouldnt be teh case for EWR , so a few extra $$ is worth it for me to pay.
Now that CO is running the show I have a feeling EWR may Unfortunately be getting some of my Dom trips, and with not being to know what R is ZFV may come back into play
Depending if all of a sudden CO starts selling ZFV tkts way out of proprtion to what they have the past couple of yrs, they may decide to crack down on it once again. But as long as I have free parking by JFK or the $7 @ PHL no reason to start up again with EWR