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I think part of the issue as well is the 45-minute hard cutoff for checking in luggage. I don't see a need to arrive at most stations an hour ahead of time (if not more) to ensure that I have it checked in 45 minutes before departure. At MSP, my home station, there's little need to arrive more...

The OP is referring to AGR travel. The policy on the linked page for reward travel modifications is: "Modifications: A points difference (to new, prevailing fare) will apply in all cases with a 10% points penalty withheld on any fare difference returned to member. If modifying a non-sleeper...

For that length of trip, I would be comfortable taking Amtrak coach. If you're taking the Capitol Limited, you'll get on a couple hours before suppertime, have a few hours of scenery to watch, then can turn in for the night. The next morning you're already in Chicago. Noisy neighbors are a...

And just a few more miles west is the Biggest Ball of Twine*! Live your dreams - just make sure to pack some potato skins and pickled wieners! *made by a single person

99% chance you'll make it to Union Station by 8 AM. 99.99ish% chance you won't get robbed/assaulted, and nearly 100% chance you wouldn't get killed. The main issues on the CTA are reliability and "quality of life" issues like homeless people sleeping, someone smoking on board, or a panhandler...

That regulation only applies to debit cards, not credit cards. Merchant fees for credit card transactions are still unregulated, and the published rates for Visa appear to range between 1.5% and 2.5%. I don't know what Amtrak charges BoA for points, but my educated guess is that they probably...

But you did cheat to get a cheaper fare to someone else's detriment. If anything, your actions were more morally repugnant than what OP wants to do. In OP's case (with the airlines) the airline will almost certainly find a way to sell that seat if someone's willing to pay for it, since most...

I think it's $4.09 here lately. I pay vague attention to it, but at this point I'm gonna pay it anyways so why worry too much about it? We have a econobox so even with the high prices it's rare that the total is over $30, though we usually fill up between 1/2 and 1/4 tank.

Or the airline had a meltdown the day before, so him not traveling actually frees up a seat for that person to be able to be pulled off the standby list instead of waiting for a confirmed seat three days later. Or the airline overbooked a bit too much, and him not showing up meant every ticketed...

The biggest immediate consequence would be that any ongoing segments on that ticket would be cancelled - so you'd have to only book one-way trips. You also couldn't check baggage, as that's routed to your final ticketed destination. Other immediate considerations would be if there's a schedule...

One interesting note that I found is that a food/drink trolley only resulted in a 3% reduction in desired fare (if I'm understanding what the percentages mean correctly.) That makes me think of a couple things: Would having a cart going through the train at set intervals still be...

I guess it depends on what you define as a "terminal." Denver has a centralized check-in area, but the three different terminal buildings are connected via APMs inside security. Atlanta's similar (though the international check-in area is separate, but also connected airside with the full...

JL still takes Amtrak tickets from MSP to Duluth, and until the start of this year (when the operation of the route switched to Coach USA) they accepted Amtrak tickets on their MKE - MSP route through central Wisconsin. I wonder if the issue with the Wyoming route is more with Amtrak not wanting...

For schedule changes, I think flipping the LSL and the Capitol eastbound times would be nice - right now the only connection to the Silver Services from Chicago (and points west) is the Capitol, and with the frequent delays on the western LD trains I'd like to have some reliable connection to at...

For someone going transcontinental, I could see the desire to break up the trip a bit. But as someone who lives at a midpoint on the Builder route, same-day connections are vital for me to find train travel at all usable beyond the destinations provided by the Builder. Going from MSP to NYP...

I think that would undermine a fair amount of the value of business class compared to the other Midwest trains. I've never been in it, but it sounds like at most it's just a nicer waiting area where the old Metropolitan Lounge used to be. For me, I'd want at least most of the services that the...

Yep, a bunch of us did: https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/redemption-email.81950/

I got six - probably for redemptions over the past few months. No points were missing, but out of an abundance of caution I changed my password and enabled 2FA (via email, since they don't appear to support software or hardware tokens.)

I personally use an old Android phone with "OsmAnd" installed. All cell phones will have the required circuitry for GPS, and most will work without a SIM card/service. Just download the maps over wi-fi and go. I prefer this over a dedicated GPS unit as I keep a cheap SIM card activated in it as...

Fully agree. I think it's a poor move by Amtrak - if nothing else Amtrak's losing out on revenue from a bank buying points for cardholders that can't sign up for the card right now but would if they could. I'd worry that any increase in credit card earnings would result in Amtrak actually...