northpole999

I see some very nice MR fares to the West Coast departing from PHL or ZFV thru to EWR then on to transcontinental leg. Unfortunately those fares are not available when leaving from EWR directly, which is preferred.

Does anyone know if UA really checks whether or not passengers physically got on the Amtrak train and travelled from Philadelphia to Newark?

Do they have some sort of electronic confirmation system working in tandem with Amtrak? In a pinch could one say that they missed the train and rushed up by car so as not to miss the connecting flight?

WineCountryUA

long discussion on this in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...ak-co-faq.html
short answer -- it has happened

aCavalierInCoach

Can you point that out? FAQ seems to state:

"Technically, you are supposed to ride the train. Members here regularly ticket themselves from ZFV and simply find their own way to the airport. No member has reported cancelled flight segments for not using or even obtaining the Amtrak tickets."

WineCountryUA

just search the thread for "cancel" and picking a few posts at random (some recent, some older - there are more)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/3422597-post8.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16901266-post214.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19289725-post413.html

It looks like many have succeed but some have failed

northpole999

Thanks for the referral to The Ultimate ZFV. From what I have seen, its best to try to pick up the Amtrak Tix from NYC area the day before, within 24 hrs, then use the tix to go from New York Penn to Newark Penn (which I understand they will normally allow), then take the airtrain to EWR then board. And if the Amtrak agent can't be persuaded to give up the tix, asking 23 hours before gives plenty of time to actually get to Philadelphia if absolutely necessary.

Does that sound about right?

sinoflyer

Sounds like you just want to hear the answer that you wished to hear in your OP. In that case, do as you plan to do, and let us know what happens.

northpole999

Well, what I'd like to hear is that UA doesn't pay any attention to Amtrak ticket pick-up or usage -- but that definitely doesn't seem to be the case.

I couldn't go through the entire post, but from what I understood, lots of folks had no problem getting the tix in NY, but a few did, and that the potential problem is exclusively related to whether the ticket is picked-up, not whether it it handed to the conductor on the train.

So my short take from everything is that while trouble is unlikely, the prudent ZFV traveller must have a backup plan to actually get to Philly and take the bloody train if needed. Does that sound about right?

northpole999

Sorry to start a new thread, it this is not addressed in the ZFV FAQ thread, at least as far as I could see.

I early Dec I have an international outbound from EWR departing at 17:30. I'm trying to do a milage run from ZFV (via EWR) to SAN which would put me into EWR at 15:30 on the same day as my international departure.

Two hours is enough connection time, but I have the ZFV segment scheduled to follow my arrival at EWR which is obviously a throw-away as it departs 2 hours after my international departure.

Should my SAN flight be delayed, I suspect it would be a real issue to get them to accomodate me on another flight due to the missed throw-away segment which would create conflicting segment times.

Has anyone had any experience with something like this - throw away segment and conflicting flight times?

qvzn

Sounds like a gamble--2h int'l connection on [I assume] a separate PNR. Not much room for error, and the int'l airline might not have any duty to you if you miss the connection because of wx/mx/other irrops on the MR flights

In case of irrops at SAN, I guess it's possible they might want to reroute you to PHL by air, bypassing EWR altogether. You could refuse, but then you might have to fly the next day (or red-eye, in this case)

sinoflyer

I hope you read from the end and not the beginning, because that thread is over 8 years old! Only the most recent posts are relevant, and I think this post from last September mirrors your situation the most.

I have no doubt that you can board your west coast flight from EWR without taking the ZFV train, but the chances are high that your return flight gets zeroed out. Unless you can live with that uncertainty while you're out there, I think the best bet is to go down to Phila. and pick up your ticket/start the trip from there, and only ditch the last segment on your return.

northpole999

I hadn't thought about the threat of a direct re-route to Philly - though it's pretty obvious. On second thought, it seems best to build an extra day in, even if it's less convenient.

Thanks for that.

craz

the rolling the dice on ZFV today is just that (imo) to do it in conjunction with a MR EC-WC on the same day is simply Asking for Trouble, btw that would be true even if ZFV wasnt involved . Now if you can get ALL the flights onto 1 PNR then maybe but more then 1 tkt where if something goes wrong UA isnt obligated to do anything No Way.And to make it worse you wanted to do this with your 2nd tkt being an Intl where recovery isnt easy when things go wrong

(I did something near to this yrs ago I nested a SFO-EWR-BFS-EWR-SFO inside a BDL-IAH-SFO-EWR-BDL well everything was going great till the EWR-SFO went MX with an over 2 hr delay, my only luck was that same plane was turning aroound and heading right back to EWR and my EWR-BDL was mid-morning, wouldnt work today since UA has plenty of planes to sub with in SFO,CO didnt)

Xyzzy

That is absolutely NOT true. The cited pst is 8 years old. Perhaps it needs some updating.

flavorflav

Does anyone know if I collect a PQS for my ZFV-EWR segment? United.com explains the RDM earning regime for Amtrak travel, but the page is silent on whether ZFV Amtrak travel (bought at united.com as part of a ZFV-EWR-XXX trip) earns PQMs and PQSs. For what it's worth, I actually took the train from ZFV to EWR.

I'll be kicking myself if I don't get the segment - I could have flown PHL-EWR-XXX for the same price. My logic was that it was cheaper to walk to the 30th Street Station from Center City than take public transit to PHL.

jsl42

No PQM or PQS on the train any longer. UA codeshares to Philly, Wilmington, Stamford, and New Haven stations earn a flat 250 miles in discounted coach, as well as a small bonus for premium tickets.