Spinky

New member and first time post so hope it's the correct way - have a MR from ZFV to EWR to LAX but want to get the train tickets issued at a station other than ZFV. Any advice?

Xyzzy

Welcome to FT!

Did you happen to read post #1 in this thread? Your question is answered there.

Spinky

Thanks xyzzy

sgopal2

Thanks for a great thread. I remember posting about this 2 years ago and getting a lot of differing responses. Its nice to have everything into one single thread.

Anyway, I would like to ask fellow users to help me fill out the following chart regarding locations of Amtrak Quik-Trak machines. The reason is quite obvious: buy a ticket ZFV-EWR but pick up the train at a NJ transit station instead of going to Philly.

Station/Quick Track Machine Available?/Location:
30th Street Station - Philadelphia/Yes/??
Trenton/Yes/Right next to the Amtrak ticket booth
Hamilton/No/NA
Princeton Junction/Yes/On the southbound side of the tracks next to the NJ transit ticket booth
Jersey Ave/No/NA
New Brunswick/??/??
Edison/??/??
Metuchen/??/??
Metropark/Yes/??
Rahway/No/NA
Linden/No/NA
Elizabeth/No/NA
North Elizabeth/No/NA
EWR Station/Yes/Across from the entry to the Monorail
Newark Penn/Yes/Ground floor next to Amtrak ticket booth

themicah

Beware that most QuikTrak machines do not have a "pick up Continental codeshare reservation" (or whatever the terminology is) option, and will therefore not let you pickup your ticket without jumping through hoops. PM me for more info.

Vulcan

For Princeton Junction, the machine is in the Waiting Room, on the Northbound side of the tracks. There are machines that sell NJ Transit tickets outside on the Southbound side of the tracks only, but not a QuickTrak machine.

bocastephen

It's probably good for everyone to know about this...if I have a CO ticket with a connecting segment on Amtrak, would I have a problem going to the Quicktrak machine in Terminal C and claiming my Amtrak ticket? What is the special procedure to get around any problems?

mbreuer

When I last did this, you could only pick up your Amtrak segment of a CO codeshare from the CO/Amtrak kiosk (or a person), not the regular Quicktrak machine. The CO machine is at the train station (other end of monorail run) before the turnstile leading into the train station proper. I believe that the only CO (codeshare capable) machines are located at the stations servicing the codeshare - none at Woodbridge, for example.

martig4

This is correct. I have only been able to have tickets issued at ZFV or EWR by machine -- or using an Amtrak agent.

puddy

Not true... I was able to get my ZFV to EWR ticket at a different station the day before. However, you will need a reservation code that you can get by calling Amtrak ahead of time. It took a few minutes with the agent, but he was eventually able to help me. Once I had the code, went to a QuikTrip machine, entered the code, and had to select "pay w/ credit card" or something like that. The amount to be charged is zero. I got my ticket and my card was not charged.

craz

due to Amtrak not allowing us to travel with the same bag alottments as CO does, it presented a problem for my ZFV-EWR train travel not wanting to be hassled and miss my flight, I took the necessary steps so that i wouldnt miss the flight.
My return flight i missed and was placed on the next flight out getting back to EWR after my train left. I also found a way to get back home.
Now I still have the Amtrak tkts that are still usable for a yr, but wonder does it pay to send in copies of the portion that I would have been given back as my receipt in order to get the 500 miles and 250 status miles (r/t)? Has anyone gotten their Amtrak tkt and Not taken the train for whatever reason and still received credit for the train segments?

themicah

Recently there have been a number of reports of return trips getting "cancelled" on ZFV-EWR-XXX itineraries when the pax did not board Amtrak at ZFV for whatever reason.

See posts above in this thread as well as other recent threads:

• ZFV Update (Mileage Run forum)
• ZFV: not taking the train = cancelled tix?? (CO forum)

I have been trying to keep in touch with folks doing ZFV runs, and another one reported having his return ticket cancelled some time in the past few weeks. At this point, I think a summary of recent experiences is warranted.

The patterns in these cases have been similar.

• In almost all of them the passengers picked up their outbound Amtrak tickets from a station other than ZFV.
• In some cases, the passengers took part of the train (getting on at a stop between ZFV and EWR). In others the passengers didn't take the train at all.
• In one case, the pax were questioned about the train before they even boarded in EWR. But in most of the reports I have read, nothing happens until pax go to check in for the return portion of their ticket. If they try to use a kiosk, the kiosk is unable to find their itinerary. If they try to use OLCI, they are asked to call co.com support.
• In EVERY case so far, the pax had their trip "reinstated" by an agent at the airport or over the phone after they told the agent they either (1) took the train, or (2) had a reason they were unable to take the train. In most cases, these responses were more-or-less honest, if stretching the truth a bit. I do not advocate lying to CO.
• After their ticket was reinstated, they all still had the same seats they had chosen, so it appears the tickets aren't being fully cancelled, but suspended in some way.

Again, I know of no cases so far where anyone was actually denied boarding or forced to buy a full fare ticket to get home, but repeated abuse of the ZFV system could most definitely lead to one of those results.

I would still like to hear from others who have done ZFV runs in recent months. I'd particularly like to hear from folks who actually took the train from ZFV--whether or not your trip went smoothly. Please post experiences below or PM me and, with your permission, I will post any relevant information anonymously here on your behalf.

cerealmarketer

I had a ZFV-BOG ticket this month. Due to some status reporting issues, I had NW upgrade it using miles, which reissued the ticket.

Got to ZFV, machine didn't find res., and Amtrak said "we haven't received payment for the train ticket from CO" Called up CO, mentioned the NW issue, and asked if they'd be able to fix it in time.

She said, prob. not. So, I said I'm going to purchase a train ticket and asked her to doc. it. She said no problem, making the train is most important (even though cxn was about 4 hrs.). I called back on the train to make sure the segment wouldn't be cancelled, and she did the work to update it.

Today I dug up the train receipt and called back to see if there's any way I could get it reimbursed.

The looked up the record and said, "how much was it?" I said $55. She said, we'll be sending you a $100 TCV for your inconvenience. We appreciate your business. No proof needed.

I double-checked my calendar to make sure it wasn't 1999 again. Great service on COs part for something that was probably NWs fault.

Spinky

I did this run a couple of weeks ago and picked up the tickets in NJ, when I tried to board the plane I was sent to the GA. They had to re-initiate the ticket as they knew exactly where I picked up the train ticket. I also had to get the return on the plane re-initiate. CO and Amtrak computers seem to talk to one another now. I did exactly the same thing in Jan and there was no problem. If you don't pick up the tickets in ZFV, they think you're going to be a no show.

haveric

When I had a problem with this service (Amtrak kicked me off the train because CO had not issued the proper ticket) I was given only a $50 voucher. There seems to be a lot of kinks in this arrangement, IMHO.