Newbie with a couple of questions

Good morning y’all. The Mrs. & I have rail passes to head north for family gatherings next month. Going to make a test run of it to see if we want to try a west coast adventure in Aug or Sept. On this first trip there will be three overnight segments; ATL-NYP, SYR-TOL & CHI-NOL.

My questions, traveling on the rail passes - will we be seated together or no?

I edited the title and couldn’t get back into the thread

Second question: When booking a regular coach ticket on CONO you can select upper or lower level seating. I don’t recall that option when we booked. Is that not a thing (a choice) when you travel by rail pass?

Passengers traveling on rail passes are treated the same as all other coach passengers. Regarding sitting together, crews usually try to seat couples together, but this is not guaranteed. Since ATL and SYR are intermediate stops on the trains, passengers boarding there do not get first choice of seats.

Regarding upper and lower level seats, it is my impression (I do not have actual experience) that crews assign downstairs seats to disabled passengers at the time of boarding. If you are not disabled, you might not be seated downstairs even if you have selected this in your reservation.

Thanks for the prompt reply, I appreciate it. I understand the intermediate stops and risks there, although I had not considered this before.

I guess my concern is that when booking rail pass tickets there is nothing that pairs our tickets together - other than our last names. Not a big issue for us, but if our names were Smith or Jones…. Maybe it is my inexperience and there is a “secret” way to tie the tickets together.

As to the CONO leg, I would rather be in the upper level, but I don’t recall being asked. If this trip goes well and we head out west I will have to note whether it asks or not.

Cal H said:

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As to the CONO leg, I would rather be in the upper level, but I don’t recall being asked. If this trip goes well and we head out west I will have to note whether it asks or not.

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The reservation system defaults to the Upper Level if you don't specify Lower Level.

Cal H said:

I guess my concern is that when booking rail pass tickets there is nothing that pairs our tickets together - other than our last names. Not a big issue for us, but if our names were Smith or Jones…. Maybe it is my inexperience and there is a “secret” way to tie the tickets together.

Click to expand...

Since rail passes are sold individually, there is nothing that links them together. I imagine it is possible that if you call for segment reservations with both pass numbers a good agent might be able to put the segment tickets on one reservation number. They might not be able to, too. It really does not matter, though, as you'll see below.

As a couple, it really does not matter. Seat assignment, when it is done at all, is done by the train crew at boarding. If you present yourself as a couple at boarding, you'll be handled as a couple. Bear in mind that boarding processes vary by station, train and even crew. The most common is you simply find your own seats. Some crews will designate certain rows for couples, other rows for families (3+), some don't. Some car attendants have families board first, then couples, then singles, some don't. Other methods are to assign seats at a check-in stand at some larger stations (Seattle used to do this), or assigning seats at the car door at boarding.

Having everyone on one reservation can be important for large parties since they'll show that way on the manifest. Good attendants will see a large party is boarding and will try to set aside some contiguous/semi-contiguous seating for them before their boarding station. But for just a couple, it really does not matter.

You are at the mercy of your fellow passengers and the onboard crew when it comes to seating. What's in the reservation system, beyond a valid ticket, doesn't matter much.

BTW, the Crescent (ATL-NYP) and the Lake Shore (SYR-TOL) operate with single level equipment, so there is no "upper" and "lower" seating. The CONO runs bilevel Superliners so there is. As @Cal H pointed out the default is upper. IIRC on the reservation, an upper seat is just shown as "coach seat" while lower is called out as "lower coach seat". There are only 12 lower level coach seats and like 72 upper level coach seats in each car. I wouldn't be concerned about getting on the upper level.

Thank you Zephyr, good info and helps put my mind at ease today.

It would be good to be psychologically prepared for the following situation: My home station assigns seating at the station, but almost every time when I go to find it, someone else is sitting there. When I say that I was assigned that seat, the person says something like, "Yeah, that happened to me too. Someone was in the seat I was assigned to, so I found this one." Then I go and find another one. And I overhear it happening to other people also. Happily, no one has gotten visibly upset; they just find another seat usually without the aid of the train attendant. It has worked out, but my "home train" is a western train which has less passengers usually than the eastern trains you will be taking. There have been a few eastern trains (the Empire Service comes to mind) where my travel companion (sister) and I could not find seats together. But we made temporary friends with the people we ended up sitting next to.

Thanks for the tip Barb

If you do get seated separately, keep your eyes open for the seat tags on your fellow passengers’ seats nearby. Often, especially at intermediate stops in larger cities, passengers around you will be getting off the train, leaving empty adjacent seats. If that happens you usually will have a chance to grab these seats before new passengers board at the intermediate stop and take them. Just pay attention and be sure to take your own seat check with you when you change seats. Most conductors will not have an issue with this

Another couple of great tips, thank you Stremba.