TTN

Hello,

I thought I would share my recent experience to the thread since I used the forum for helpful advice before purchasing my ticket for the holidays.

I booked 2 separate one-ways, one originating at YVR and finishing at ZFV via DEN, and the other the reverse route via SFO. Check-in from YVR was seamless, aside from the ticketing agent never hearing of "ZFV" before when tagging my checked bag. However, the extra boarding pass card that had instructions on how I was supposed to claim my own bag at EWR before going to the train cleared things up for both of us.

My problems started with both my outbound and return itineraries while at EWR. On my outbound flight, where I was to claim my bags at EWR and transfer to the train, my checked bag never arrived at the baggage carosel. The baggage agents were completely clueless as to the program, with two of the agents saying they had no idea where my bag was supposed to be. The two agents told me that my bags were likely transfered to the train, even after I showed them the boarding card with instructions to claim my bag at EWR! It was incredibly frustrating, but eventually they were able to locate the bag after insisting that there was no way it was transfered to the train, and they sent it up to the claim after my train to ZFV had departed. This happened to 3 people on the same flight to EWR who were connecting to ZFV.

On the return trip, check-in at ZFV was easy and I used the Amtrak itinerary number to get my ticket (I called Amtrak to obtain the Amtrak itinerary number the day before and the friendly agent gave it to me with no problems). The train was on-time and transfer to EWR was easy. However, I needed to check my bag, so I went to one of the self check-in machines and the flights shown on there were not the same as the ones on my itinerary! My itinerary had me on an 11am flight and the check-in machine showed 6am, which was already past! I was told by an agent that this was do to my train segment and would have to talk to another agent. I showed her my Amtrak ticket and my United itinerary and she corrected it for me. She mentioned there is often this problem with Amtrak codeshares and that it wasn't fixed yet.

For the money I saved by booking to ZFV, I would probably book a similar itinerary again, but I would definitely skip the frustration of checking a bag. The worst part was dealing with the EWR agents that either didn't know about the program or how it was supposed to work.