r/Amtrak

They mentioned our post about the increase lol

Ok so I've been commuting NYC to Philly for a while now and figured out that if you refresh Amtrak like an hour or two(even 10 minutes) before departure you can sometimes snag tickets for like $10-15 that were $95 earlier. Cancelled tickets go back at the original price and it's first come first served.

I was literally doing this manually every time I needed to travel so I just built a little tool that does it for me. It's called Argus, watches prices every 90 seconds and texts you when something drops on your route.

Still pretty early but if anyone wants to try it or just get notified when it's ready — argusfare.com

curious if anyone else here does the manual refresh thing lol

We have a trip on the Southwest Chief from Lawrence, KS to Kalamazoo, MI for a short visit with family in early June. We have made the trip a few times before with no major issues.

Since we live close to the tracks that the Southwest Chief travels through Lawrence, we know that it is often quite late. Recently Amtrak has changed our connecting time from 3 hours to 2 hours. Since our scheduled train from Chicago to Kalamazoo is the last one of the day, if we miss that connection Amtrak would then put us up overnight in Chicago until the "next available train."

However, if the next train - at 6am - is full (albeit there are several more that day), it would severely limit the time we will get to spend with family. Although we could book a rental car for the relatively short drive (probably at our expense), I have no desire to navigate through central Chicago traffic.

My question is:

Since the fare from Chicago to Kalamazoo is quite inexpensive, would we be wise to book the 6am train as a separate trip from the original reservation, and then cancel an hour out from Chicago if our arrival time will be enough to make the connection?

If we did make this extra reservation on our own, would Amtrak be obligated to provide us overnight accommodation in Chicago because we happened to have booked a second, separate reservation on our own to make sure we were on the 6am train?

We would still keep the original reservation so I think they'd still be obligated to put us up overnight since they think we'd still be taking that second leg of the trip, but on a train that departs later than 6am.

We are on #19 Crescent from ATL to NOL. We had a lengthy delay bc a freight train ahead of us hit and killed someone just outside of Birmingham, AL.

Our poor attendant was afraid we were going to be angry with them for the delay. What they must deal with 🤦‍♀️.

We’ve had a great team on our trip!

Taking Acela from Boston to Washington and back (2 adults) in first class. One way original Acela and one way NextGen. I know there are issues with seat selection regarding having no windows or partial windows.

Any issues with these seats? I still have options to change. Thanks for any help.

Original Acela first class going South, seats 6A and 6C.

NextGen Acela first class going North, seats 4C and 4D.

Long story short, I usually ride first class on the acela with departmental budget but recently had to reschedule a trip last minute and paid for a business seat myself. I placed a ‘poor’ bid up (cheapest possible) just for fun and was quite shocked to actually get the upgrade.

It’s it always the case that most bid ups go through regardless of how much they are? Wouldn’t that kind of discourage people from paying for the full fare…

Not an American, please be gentle with me

Hi I'm confused about if the six-ride student pass (six rides in a calendar year for a specific route in either direction) is still available? On the multi-ride pass info website, it's listed as available, but when I search up my route (Davis to San Francisco, which the website says the pass is eligible for) only the monthly and 10-ride passes are available to purchase. It's also not showing up on the app. My friend has the same issues

i bought the six ride pass for that route late last year and used up all the rides, so I was looking to buy another one. I can't use any other pass as an alternative. I don't believe the issue is because the passes are sold out, but I'm not familiar with how common that is. It was always available to purchase whenever I searched it up last year, so I'm not sure why that would change now.

I can't find any information online on if they've discontinued this pass or why. Sorry if this has been answered before or if it's a dumb question but i found the pass really useful and it saved me money, so I'm very confused

I'm considering the rail pass, but I have a few concerns. How do guaranteed connections work if you are booking in segments? How often do trains sell out with rail pass if booking one or two days before? Can you just do standing room if there arent seats?

I've booked a bedroom on the Floridian from Chicago to Tampa round trip. I've found plenty of information on the difference between roomettes on the View liner I versus the Viewliner II, and I've found videos of the bedroom on the Viewliner II. However, I can't find any descriptions of the bedroom on the Viewliner I. Are there any stark differences? My understanding is that there is there no way to know if I will be on a Viewliner I or II until I actually board. Is that correct? Thank you in advance.

I booked a ticket to LA on the coast starlight, but depending on who im getting picked up by burbank might be the better option. Can I ask mid ride to get off at burbank?