Boarding at later station: experiences?
 

Hi,
I'm about to book an Empire Builder ticket, which goes from Chicago, IL (CHI) to Seatte, WA (SEA). However, we're considering visiting family in Wisconsin, and we'd like to embark in Columbus, WI (CBS), which is the stop almost three hours after Chicago. Same train.

Anyway, the ticket prices are significantly higher from this later stop... (CHI-SEA 6k pts, CBS-SEA 10k pts)
I searched the forums but a lot of info on this seems to be outdated, or only applicable to the station the topic starter mentioned. Called amtrak but they are unable to explain why the ticketing system generates this higher price.

Does anybody have any recent experience

• with boarding at a later station than the ticket departure station on a long distance train,
• or with rebooking to change to a later departure station without being charged double?

Have a nice day!

"with boarding at a later station than the ticket departure station on a long distance train,"

The system will automatically cancel your ticket if you don't board at Chicago. I've sometimes heard in certain situations of people being able to board at the next stop after the one that was booked (getting on at BBY or RTE instead of BOS, for example), but I don't know if that applies to the EB and I'm just about 100% sure they would cancel your ticket before you get on at CBS.

I don't know anything about the rebooking question, unfortunately.

I haven't had any problems boarding at a later station, but I'm also not trying to board three hours later (the two stations I swap between are 15 minutes apart: CYN and RGH). I think you could talk your way on, but it might be stressful. If you rebook to change stations, Amtrak will treat it as though you'd canceled and then rebought your ticket at whatever the going rate at time of rebooking is.

You need to get rebooked from Columbus.

Tickets are cancelled if they are not scanned by the conductor within at most two hours after departure on long distance trains. You will be treated as a no-show and your reservation and money/points will be gone. It would probably be all right to be ticketed from Chicago and get on at Glenview, first stop outside Chicago, but Columbus is clearly too late. You probably couldn't "talk your way out of it" as the cancellation is done automatically and the ticket would show as voided when he scans it and it validates the ticket with the reservations system. He has no choice. You either buy a new ticket there and then (not on points, those evaporated), or you get put off the train at Portage, the next stop.

Amtrak yield manages its fares, similar to the airlines, so fares shift as demand changes. Point redemption is now based on cash fare, so it moves with the cash fare. The Columbus fare would be booked at the current price level, not at the one you originally had, just like the airlines (though without the exorbitant change fee) . Also, a Columbus-Seattle ticket may not be at the same yield management bucket as the Chicago-Seattle fare at any given time. Since on re-reading the OP's post I see they are trying to do the initial booking, it is likely the second case, CBS-SEA is in a higher yield management bucket than CHI-SEA.

I had an experience where I was actually on the train and the conductor neglected to scan my round trip ticket. She had directed me to a seat she had determined before I boarded and just said "I got you" and she hadn't (they don't have to physically scan, they can just check you in by name on their iPhone device and she hadn't taken that step, though she apparently thought she had). Since I was at my destination and it was clear I had ridden the train I was booked on, Amtrak did reinstate the return ticket because it was their fault not mine. But if you aren't on board, that would be an entirely different situation.

Do it all the time...
 

Apples & oranges.

WAS & BWI are 25-35 minutes apart. OP is talking about 3 hours. That is longer than the entire Acela route WAS-NYP.

In OP's case, there is no talking his way past the conductor. With a voided ticket, it would have to be a conductor willing to let a passenger ride without a ticket. Not happening.

Bumping this thread up. I'm planning a trip to Boston this summer and not sure which station (BOS, BBY or RTE) is going to be the most convenient for our return. Is it pretty safe to book from BOS even I think there's a good chance one of the other stations will work better for us? We're booking flex fares, so if the price doesn't change a ton I suppose we could always rebook when our plans become clearer, but I'm not sure it'll still be $34/person as we get closer. We're booking NER, not Acela.

No issue with boarding from any of the Boston stations regardless of where you booked from (I've boarded from BOS with BBY tickets many times)

Wouldn't it be best to just modify the ticket to the correct station of the price is lower or let Amtrak know so it won't get cancelled?

No, it would not be best. Amtrak treats BOS/RTE/BBY as effectively the same station for fare purposes. There is no benefit to changing your reservation (unless you like work), and there is the downside that if you end up deciding you want to leave from South Station, you may have some explaining to do (but not much, because, again, nobody cares). And, further, changing your ticket might actually cost you money because as cheap fares sell out, you can't get what the same fare you had before (although you could perhaps convince a phone agent if you were persistent). It's quite frequent that tickets are not lifted until after RTE anyhow. They are almost never, and possibly actually never, lifted between BOS and BBY.

This is correct. Scheduled time between BOS and BBY is typically 4 minutes and from there to 128 is 9 minutes.

On the return sometimes an enthusiastic conductor will remind me I am supposed to get off at 128 and I will have to say thanks - getting off at South Station today. It’s not an issue. Same fare.