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Your reply served to remind us what can happen when a connection is missed in Chicago. (We should have known better since we went through just such a missed connection on our 2023 trip. Fortunately, on that occasion we had a guaranteed connection, and all went well.) For the sake of saving a few...

How about if one of the reservations is paid for with cash and one with AGR points? (They would be under separate reservation numbers even if they are connecting trains.)

As zephyr17 has pointed out, the new SWC schedule change was most likely part of an agreement between Amtrak and host railroad BNSF so that SWC trains would receive priority over freight traffic. (Host railroads having to give priority to Amtrak long-distance trains is actually mandated in laws...

Once the new schedule goes into effect, No. 3 will be departing from CHI at 2:25 p.m. (25 minutes earlier) and arriving in LAX at 7:57 a.m. (3 minutes earlier). No. 4 will be departing from LAX at 5:22 p.m. (33 minutes earlier) and arriving in CHI at 2:42 p.m. (8 minutes earlier.)

No discussion of attire worn when traveling on Amtrak would be complete without mentioning that worn by the Amish folk. We’ve encountered quite a few Amish while riding on the Capitol Limited and the Southwest Chief and while in Chicago Union Station. Here is link to an article describing the...

Be sure to call Amtrak Customer Relations and bring this to their attention. Provide as much information as you can including the date when you made your reservations, the date you traveled, the Borealis features you found unacceptable, etc. (You might just receive a voucher good for future...

Whenever we travel on Amtrak (and to identify myself as a rail fan), when in public, I wear a ball cap with the Santa Fe Chief emblem. Although we never had the opportunity to ride on The Chief, we’ve read enough about it and have traveled over its former route enough times so that we can relate...

Sleeping car passengers will receive dinner. The chief dining car steward will stop by your bedroom or roomette to take reservations for whatever seating you want, assuming that seating is not already filled.

We understand perfectly your commitment to a dress code of an earlier age of train travel. For us, riding the train is an opportunity to see and experience many of the same things that people who rode on the Santa Fe Chief and the Super Chief experienced back in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. To...

Back when we were still traveling with luggage that needed to be checked, we would stop off at the Toledo train station the day before our departure and check our large suitcases before turning in our rental car. That way, we didn’t have to deal with them again until we got to our final...

This is probably asking too much, but do the SCAs maintain some sort of private, unofficial means for sharing information among themselves as to which passengers are good tippers and which are not? For example, if we give a generous tip to our SCA, will that SCA make a notation in some...

Although we’re not from Texas, we do live in a small Mountain/Western community in East San Diego County. (At one time, we even owned horses and did a lot of trail riding in nearby Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.) On occasion, I’ve worn a “Cowboy Tuxedo” to social events and would feel entirely...

We've printed this out and will keep it handy for future reference. As Charlie Chan would say, "Thank you so much."

We tend to wear jeans when traveling in coach. Although we don’t feel it is necessary to dress formally for dinner, we do feel that, when eating dinner in the dining car, we should be attired in something a little more appropriate than jeans. For this reason, we prefer that our meals be served...

From time to time people have mentioned making "dummy" reservations for the purpose of finding out current prices, the availability of bedrooms or roomettes, etc. What are the precise steps for making dummy reservations without inadvertently making an actual reservation? (As it gets closer to...

We paid using our Guest Rewards Card. We explained to the second agent that we spoke to that we would be doing so, but he ran the numbers anyhow and then told us that it would be 118,838 points and that we didn't have enough points. Once he understood, he ran our card number and all was well...

Zephyr17, Thank you for your prompt response. We called Amtrak Guest Rewards back and they had no record of our CHI to LAX reservation having been made!!!! (Again, we HAD spoken to a live agent who repeated back the car number and room letter we'd asked for!!! Also, our Guest Rewards Card...

We have a question regarding the Amtrak reservation system and how long it takes to update to show changes made to an existing reservation. A few weeks ago, we made a one-way reservation on SWC No. 4 from LAX to CHI, paid for using our Guest Rewards card. This morning, we called the Guest...

We made the reservations for our upcoming September trip last October and were able to obtain bedrooms in base sleepers 430 eastbound and 330 westbound. (We were even able to get a Bedroom E for our westbound passage.) We’re just now making our reservations for our May 2025 trip.

This is never good news to hear. Let's hope that this won't affect someone who had purchased tickets for today's SWC specifically as a Father's Day gift.