Originally Posted by
mohan12
Building on this point....could use some insights from the pros here re: Amtrak ticketing systems.
I also need to "top off" AGR points (500 mile pairs) and was thinking of booking NYP-WAS at 8am (scheduled arrival in WAS at 10:45am)
However-
Could I:
1. Buy and use the NYP-WAS ticket (8am - 10:45am)
2. Get off early in PHL in 9:10am
3. Buy and use a separate WAS-NYP ticket (8am departure) and board in PHL at 9:33am to arrive at NYP at 10:46am (the same time I was originally supposed to arrive in WAS on my outbound ticket?)
Will Amtrak's systems allow me to book and pay for overlapping tickets like this? If so, would there be any reason not to get the 1000 AGR points (and ~3 hours of time back)?
I don't think you will have any issues. It appears the AGR system does not really care about miss-matched tickets. I do the SAC RNO run quite a bit and they usually have my return posted as happening before my departure! It turns out they post LD trains as of it's departure from origin and not your boarding. So since the CZ leaves CHI three days before it leaves RNO, my ticket posts as of the CHI date.
As someone stated elsewhere: Amtrak doesn't care if you get off the train before your stop, but they do care if you get off before the train stops!