Something that bothers me a bit...
 

I'm flying EWR-YYZ-YHZ on AC on the 24th, and will be flying back with CO on the 26th. Why EWR of all places, when I live an hour from Boston? Roughly $250 savings, at last check. Plus, I figured it'd be a good use of my AGR points. I'm going to take the 67 Regional to Newark, then catch a bus to the airport from there. Coming back, I was hoping to catch the 2166 or 2168 Acela out of NYP, back to BOS. There's where my problem comes in.

My flight lands at EWR at 1:50pm, now assuming I have my luggage by 2:40pm (I don't know how well EWR or CO handle luggage, I've never experienced either before), I won't arrive at NYP until 3:38pm, just missing the 176 Regional by 8 minutes. I can't wait for the 5:40pm Regional, because I need to catch a bus at South Station at 9:15pm (the Regional arrives at 10:05pm).

Ordinarily, I would just shrug it off, and cough up the cash. The thing is, I went some 200 miles out of my way, for the savings. If I knew I would have ended up with only $150 in savings (actually less, since I will upgrade to Business Class on the Regional), I would have just flown out of Boston instead.

What bothers me, is the fact that I or someone else can pay the same amount of points, and get on that very 2166 train leaving Washington at 1:00pm, meanwhile I'll get refused on that same one later on.

Furthermore, what's stopping me or anyone else from buying the ticket from Washington or Baltimore to Boston, and just getting on at Penn Station, claiming that my flight got canceled, and I changed flights in to EWR, LGA, or JFK?

Don't get me wrong, I do actually love Amtrak, and I appreciate the rewards program (though I know some others don't). I just don't see how it's right that just because of the fact that you're boarding from an earlier city on the same train, that you're allowed to use your points to pay for your ticket. I understand having blackout times, but instead of having just set times, how about train numbers instead?

(Speaking of my little idea of buying a ticket from Washington or Baltimore and getting on at NYP, do you think it would actually work? I'm a bit tight on money, and this trip is a bit of an emergency, so I'm trying to avoid the extra $100 for the Acela. I have had HORRIBLE experiences with Greyhound each time I have tried them (including leaving an hour and a half late from the originating station), so I don't really want to chance them either.)

I hope I don't come across over the top on this, but I just skinned the back of my shoulder (don't ask), so I'm in a bit of pain. :p


Thanks for any feedback.

I don't quite follow. But it doesn't matter, I can at least answer what looks to be your main question.

Amtrak has no problem with you buying WAS-BOS but boarding somewhere in between (eg EWR or NWK or NYP).

HTH
ivk5

If the OP's bags are delivered at EWR by, say, 2:30 PM, I think the best thing to do would be to hop a cab from EWR to NWK, and pick up #176 which departs NWK at 3:04 PM.

By the way, how do you upgrade to Business Class for cash when traveling on an AGR reward ticket? I did not think that that was possible.

I was really confused until I actually tried to book a trip and encountered a restriction heretofore unknown to me:I would take guv1976's suggestion and get to NWK, which is less of a hit to your savings. I think ivk5's advice would work as well, provided you can pick up your ticket beforehand— you need to have it before the train departs WAS or wherever your ticketed origin is, otherwise your seat will be canceled out and they may not be able to re-ticket you.

I never even thought of trying to catch the Regional out of Newark by taking a cab to get there. I always just look at possibilities of public transit/Amtrak, especially in places I'm not familiar with. Thank you for the idea, but I'm not sure if I should try to plan on it or not, in case my luggage takes longer, or whatnot. I have no idea how long it'll take me to get around either, since I've never been to the airport.

So, if more can confirm that I will be allowed to board in NYP even though it's ticketed from WAS to BOS (remember, if I bought the ticket for that same train, but just from NYP to BOS, it would fall in the blackout time period for the Acela. That's my only concern.)


And yup, you can indeed upgrade from Coach to Business, (or Business to First on the Acela) when using an AGR ticket. You just need to ask the conductor once onboard the train, and if it's available, you just pay the accomodation charge, and move on up. Apparently you can get the points for the charge if you mail in the receipt. Sounds like the whole process of getting the points for it, is a pain in the butt.

Gathering what else I've read on FT, I would assume that the above would also apply to upgrading froma coach ticket sleeping accomodations, or even purpose from a roomette to bedroom? Don't quote me on that part, since I've never done it.

Unless traffic is horrendous, the cab ride from EWR to NWK should not take more than 15 minutes or so. But if you decide to book the later Acela, why go all the way to NYP to pick it up? The Acelas (at least the ones that you are looking at ) stop at NWK, and it's cheaper to get to NWK than it is to get to NYP: $1.35 via the #62 bus, or $7.75 via AirTrain and the NJ Transit train from EWR Rail Station to NWK.

Does #176 not stop at EWR?

If I have to pay for the Acela, I will likely take the later one, out of Newark. But if I'm able to pull the stunt off with buying a ticket from Washington to Boston, and getting on at NWK or NYP, then I need the earlier one, since it's not in the afternoon blackout time period for the Acela. In that case, I would only catch the Acela out of NYP, because of the layover it has there.

Unfortuneately, it does not.

I'm not really that concerned about using more points. I won't be able to use the points to bring my special someone to Orlando with me for a vacation, so I'm actually trying to spend them.

As for having the tickets in time, I would pick them up on my way by the Quik-Trak machine, before getting on the overnighter Regional. (Actually, if I had a better idea of if it would work or not, I would purchase the tickets now, and pick them up before I take my trip down to NLC in a few hours.)

[QUOTE=Triley;12584060]If I have to pay for the Acela, I will likely take the later one, out of Newark. But if I'm able to pull the stunt off with buying a ticket from Washington to Boston, and getting on at NWK or NYP, then I need the earlier one, since it's not in the afternoon blackout time period for the Acela. In that case, I would only catch the Acela out of NYP, because of the layover it has there.
[QUOTE]

I'm not following you. If you can be at NWK in time for the 3:34 PM Acela departure, that would save you some money. If you can't be at NWK for the 3:34 PM departure of #2166, I don't see how you can be at NYP for the 4:00 PM departure of the same train.

[QUOTE=guv1976;12584328][QUOTE=Triley;12584060]If I have to pay for the Acela, I will likely take the later one, out of Newark. But if I'm able to pull the stunt off with buying a ticket from Washington to Boston, and getting on at NWK or NYP, then I need the earlier one, since it's not in the afternoon blackout time period for the Acela. In that case, I would only catch the Acela out of NYP, because of the layover it has there.
Sorry, you would be correct on that, I can reach NWK by 3:34. I'm making all these posts today on my enV Touch, and the browser is horrible, so it's a bit tough to remember the schedule while making my posts.

I also though that he meant savings of my points, not cash for my trip to NWK or NYP. I apologize again.

I'm confused, you're going to burn 8,000 points for Acela and 3,000 for a Regional, meaning that you have at least 11,000 points. And you say that you have still more that you're trying to burn.

For 15,000 points you can put both you and your special someone into a Roomette to Orlando. Even if you don't have quite 15,000, then buy a few points to get to that level. Mind you, that doesn't get you home. But it does get you to Florida.

As for the Acela question, most conductors will not care that you're boarding the train at the wrong place, as long as you have a valid ticket for that train. Some conductors might be concerned that you're wasting the value of your ticket, by boarding so far down the line, but I rather doubt that any conductor would deny you boarding. I also can't imagine that there are many conductors who know that an AGR ticket has restrictions on travel times.

But you could just use the excuse that your plans changed and you had to come to NY earlier and didn't realize that it would be a problem. I can promise you that AGR will have no way to know where you actually boarded the train.

One area of concern that I do have however, is that the gate agents in NY typically check tickets as you go down to the train. If they only see the number, you'll be fine. But if they look at the originating station, you could be in for further questioning.

For that reason, along with other good reasons put forth in prior posts, I'd suggest trying to board in Newark. If you do opt for NYP, then you may want to try boarding from the lower level, rather than using the normal upper Amtrak level.

For a 2/3 day trip do you really need to check luggage? Toss the liquids and carry on your bag to save the time waiting for luggage.

No no, there's no chance at all to use them to bring us to Orlando. Without going in to too many details, they got charged with something in Canada, and just because of the title of the charge, they won't be entering the US for 5-10 years (even though it's not illegal here.) That's why I'm trying to use the points as I can. I won't be traveling anywhere else any time soon, so.

Due to what you mentioned about the agents at NYP (I only traveled from NYP once, so I don't remember it all that well), I would try to make the rush to Newark for the 3:34pm. If I get a cab, then that should be easily possible.

May sound silly, but I figured that if you said it would be possible to board in NWK or NYP, with tickets from WAS to BOS, then I would do it. As you can see, long time reader, not so frequent poster. :p As it's 1am right now, I'm just going to wait until the morning (or afternoon at this rate) before I purchase the ticket, and give it a shot. Any body have an idea on how sold out the 2166 Acela gets? (So I have an idea on the fare I'll get stuck paying, in the off chance they deny me.)


And speaking of being sold out... My trip from BOS to NLC on the 177 sucked Friday evening. It was about 4:30, and I was eating my dinner, and figured I'd look on Amtrak.com to see the availability of Business Class, to see if I had a chance to upgrade on-board or not. Yeah, not likely. We were completely sold out, amongst other problems. I boarded the train, only to find the emergency lights on, and air conditioning out, as well as the outlets. After sitting for maybe 10 minutes, the conductor said they were having troubles with the electricity, and that they hoped we'd gain power after we were moving 3mph? So, sure enough, we did. But, we lost it again at each stop we had to make, and we were also out for half of the distance between Route 128 and Providence. He said they were going to check it out in PVD when we got there, and hopefully they could get it fixed. Well, right as he said that, it came back on of course. When we got to PVD, it went out again, and we sat a little while, so I thought they were fixing it. Guess not, 'cause it went out again shortly down the line again.

Was just a weird thing. It's not like the catenary wasn't providing us power, it was just the power for the cars that was out. Oh, and to make things more odd, we were told that there was no Quiet Car in the consist either.


Due to me almost always getting tagged by Immigration Canada for secondary inspection, I prefer to not give them any reason to question my stays. Because of things going on with that special someone, I've gotten more hassles recently going through the border, and this time will be no different I'm sure. Regardless, I was thinking about bringing up their Christmas presents early, instead of having to send them (I really don't trust Canada Post any more), and saving them having to pay the duties on what's received.

Anyway, whenever I take single or two day trips, I will normally just pack my clothes in to my laptop backpack, so I'm not sure what else we have. If I can find a small bag, I'll use that instead, and save myself the hassle of waiting around to collect from the carousel, and the $15 with CO to boot.

I decided to just buy the ticket from Baltinore to Boston on the Acela using my points, and to just take my chances with getting on in Newark. Will post here after the trip to say what happened.