Chicago Union Station - New Boarding Process for Coach Class Customers

[kbmiflyer]

For those of you that are comparing this to Southwest, it is not like Southwest. On southwest, I can get my boarding pass at home and still be first in line (or early in line). This is requiring you to show up early to get a physical boarding pass if you want to board first. This is more akin to Southwest Airlines 30 years ago with the plastic boarding cards.

I almost always take business class out of CUS, so this won't impact me too much, but it shows just how poorly run CUS is. Asking people to show up 45 minutes early to board a train is crazy.

If I understand correctly, boarding order will be very similar to the old method (Metro lounge first, then legacy lounge, then handicap, seniors, other military and families with young kids in the old boarding area, then the masses from the great hall. The only different is that the masses in the great hall will have to line up by boarding pass number that they have to go to a physical person to get. Not sure how this makes anything any more efficient. In the past, a majority of passengers would not have to go to a physical person. It seems like this is going to result in an increased staffing level needed.

 

[wwchi]

Also did it even say WHERE this person is that you get this from? the gate? The great hall? Doesn't impact me much either as I always do bus class too but it does seem like it makes it a bit more complicated. You are correct in that it's like SWA was years ago. Again I think if you simply could select your seat when you made your reservation it would be clearer and less anxiety provoking for riders.

 

[CelticWhisper]

Yeah, this is really nonsensical. Posting track numbers alongside trains and letting passengers find their own way seems to work everywhere else in the world, and boarding from unstaffed Amshack platforms in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night works in most of the US. How is this not just needless complexity?

Aside from the lack of TSA pig-thuggery, a great thing about train stations is that they are quite distinctly not airports in the way they operate. No gate-specific waiting areas, just common areas where you do as you please until your train is called and then mosey on down to the platform. CUS is my home station so I'm familiar with how chaotic it can get, but this seems an ill-devised way to solve the chaos. It's just forced inelegant "structure" that adds overhead.

And if it is to set the stage for security theater, then it's bye-bye Amtrak for me. That will gut me as I love taking the train, but I refuse to be kept safe at the expense of my privacy. This change does make me nervous on those grounds, as does the loss of direct boarding from the old Metro Lounge since there was less opportunity for APD officers or TSA clerks to intercept sleeper pax on their way to the train.

 

[PVD]

It doesn't say you have to show up 45 minutes early, it only says you have to show up early to get a boarding pass.

 

[MikefromCrete]

as I read the policy, you can show up five minutes before departure and get on. The whole boarding pass thing is for those who want to be first on the train to grab the best seats, etc.

 

[PVD]

There is also a major positive that we seem to overlook. If you arrive early and check in, you can walk around the station, or go to the food court, or go outside, and come back to board, rather than just hanging around on line. Hopefully, they will create a system that makes it easy to check in, including the ability to check in while dropping baggage.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

For those of you that are comparing this to Southwest, it is not like Southwest. On southwest, I can get my boarding pass at home and still be first in line (or early in line). This is requiring you to show up early to get a physical boarding pass if you want to board first. This is more akin to Southwest Airlines 30 years ago with the plastic boarding cards.

Excellent point.

I almost always take business class out of CUS, so this won't impact me too much, but it shows just how poorly run CUS is. Asking people to show up 45 minutes early to board a train is crazy.

I don't know if it shows it's poorly run so much as it shows how little the folks in charge understand their own product. Almost every change Amtrak has made in the last several years seems to be chasing the commercial airline model. Sometimes this results in an improvement, but in many cases Amtrak seems to end up chasing the wrong angle or era relative to service they're actually selling today.

If I understand correctly, boarding order will be very similar to the old method (Metro lounge first, then legacy lounge, then handicap, seniors, other military and families with young kids in the old boarding area, then the masses from the great hall. The only different is that the masses in the great hall will have to line up by boarding pass number that they have to go to a physical person to get. Not sure how this makes anything any more efficient. In the past, a majority of passengers would not have to go to a physical person. It seems like this is going to result in an increased staffing level needed.

Which is unfortunate, since it sounds like the available space for Amtrak counter staff is actually dwindling, even as their arbitrary requirements for in-person service appear to be increasing. Which could potentially indicate that in the future even 45 minutes may not be enough time to stand in line and receive a worthwhile boarding pass. I also find it odd that in Amtrak's thinking even twelve year olds require special "young children" boarding protection.

 

[PVD]

The 12 year old deal is probably more geared towards parents not wanting to potentially be split up with their kids while traveling, The typical airline criteria is 2 years old, but they usually just announce "families traveling with small children" Haven't seen too many 12 year olds that fit that description lately.

 

[SarahZ]

There is also a major positive that we seem to overlook. If you arrive early and check in, you can walk around the station, or go to the food court, or go outside, and come back to board, rather than just hanging around on line. Hopefully, they will create a system that makes it easy to check in, including the ability to check in while dropping baggage.

Precisely. I love this.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

There is also a major positive that we seem to overlook. If you arrive early and check in, you can walk around the station, or go to the food court, or go outside, and come back to board, rather than just hanging around on line. Hopefully, they will create a system that makes it easy to check in, including the ability to check in while dropping baggage.

&

The 12 year old deal is probably more geared towards parents not wanting to potentially be split up with their kids while traveling, The typical airline criteria is 2 years old, but they usually just announce "families traveling with small children" Haven't seen too many 12 year olds that fit that description lately.

These are reasonable counterpoints, although I would personally prefer reserved seat selection and online check-in solutions as opposed to early arrival and queuing for manual check-in.

 

[seat38a]

Gare du Nord is the busiest station in Europe with 700,000 passengers going thru it per day. How many passengers does Chicago get?

Somehow, just about all 700,000 of them manage to get to the right platform and onto the train without check-in, boarding passes, seat checks, priority boarding groups, gate deadlines, and other artificial bureaucracy (except Eurostar, due primarily to Schengen border control).

Because a TGV ticket has your seat number, car number and everything but platform information already on it.

 

[PVD]

Online check in is entirely reasonable, and any modern reservation system should have online and kiosk check in as a basic feature. Seat selection poses a whole lot of separate issues, because so much traffic is not endpoint, it would be difficult to deal with early reserving midpoint travelers blocking seats that a passenger will sit in at an originating station. It is certainly do able, but would likely require additional on board staff (added costs), and probably create even more ill will than already exists.

 

[wwchi]

On line seat selection shouldn't really big a big deal. It's a technology issue. Just setting up the reservation system to add that. It already knows when a seat becomes vacant along the way and is available for sale. That just needs to appear in SPECIFIC seat form, just like when you make an on line airline reservation. You pull up the seat map and pick from what's available. If you have Bus Class you pick from that car, if you have Coach you pick from those cars. If you make your reservation early you have a wider selection of seats.

I mean I get on at the LAST stop going into Chicago on my Monday morning train. If I had someone with me we would NEVER get to sit together because all there are never 2 seats together (business class) when I get on. If I were able to select seats in advance I could sit with my travel partner.

Also because I am always working when I'm on the train I'd like to know that I will have a tray table for my laptop as well as power outlets. Sometimes I get on that last stop before Chicago and am in the front row, aisle seat, so get neither of those. Not trying to be a princess here, just think that for many of us picking a seat makes things a little better. Especially if you are buying Premium seats. It would be a nice added benefit.

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

Just spent three days riding trains from Chicago. This boarding process is already in place and being used. The only difference I see is that now Amtrak wants you to check in and get a boarding pass. Purpose of the boarding pass(coach passengers only) is to identify from where one boards the train - either the Legacy Club, South Boarding Lounge, or Great Hall general boarding. While this process was being used in early October, there was a need and I think this will help some form of "evidence" to control access mainly to the South Boarding Lounge area. I noticed little to no control over who entered the South Lounges while I was there so I am sure entry qualifications were abused or misused by several passengers "gaming" the system. For someone like me who mostly uses the LD sleepers or Business class boarding from the new Metropolitan Lounge is now operating smoothly. Clear instructions are provided although Amtrak employees no longer walk you to the train as in the kindergarten walk from old Metro Lounge. For me, I boarded the Hiawatha one day which is unreserved and does not fall under the new guidelines. Another day I boarded the Carl Sandburg business class from the Metro Lounge--no problem. And on the third day I departed in sleeper on the California Zephyr so used red cap and that went smoothly too as did those that chose to walk from the Metro Lounge. I'll be passing through November 30 and don't expect any problems.

 

[ScouseAndy]

Gare du Nord is the busiest station in Europe with 700,000 passengers going thru it per day. How many passengers does Chicago get?

Somehow, just about all 700,000 of them manage to get to the right platform and onto the train without check-in, boarding passes, seat checks, priority boarding groups, gate deadlines, and other artificial bureaucracy (except Eurostar, due primarily to Schengen border control).

Because a TGV ticket has your seat number, car number and everything but platform information already on it.

The vast majority of passengers from Gare Du Nord are not on TGV/Eurostar or Thayls trains (the only ones with seat reservations etc) but on TER/TET or suburban trains.

 

[PVD]

The technology to do seat selection is pretty straightforward,and already exists, whether it is a positive or negative is an entirely different story. It would benefit some (myself included since I tend to book pretty far in advance) but it might add cost and tension that exceed its benefit.

 

[wwchi]

The technology to do seat selection is pretty straightforward,and already exists, whether it is a positive or negative is an entirely different story. It would benefit some (myself included since I tend to book pretty far in advance) but it might add cost and tension that exceed its benefit.

Yes, it would definitely benefit me as well but funny as I think it causes LESS tension, at least once at the station. People always seem so anxious about making sure they get on the train (and get a good seat). I think if we had assigned seats people in the waiting area wouldn't be so pushy. But that's JMO!

 

[PVD]

On crowded trains with lots of stops, who is going to chase people out of seats? The opportunity for confrontation is too great, sadly we don't live in a particularly civil society.

 

[Thirdrail7]

I don't know if it shows it's poorly run so much as it shows how little the folks in charge understand their own product. Almost every change Amtrak has made in the last several years seems to be chasing the commercial airline model. Sometimes this results in an improvement, but in many cases Amtrak seems to end up chasing the wrong angle or era relative to service they're actually selling today

Who do you think has been in charge of customer relations over the last 6 years or so?

The technology to do seat selection is pretty straightforward,and already exists, whether it is a positive or negative is an entirely different story. It would benefit some (myself included since I tend to book pretty far in advance) but it might add cost and tension that exceed its benefit.

Yes, it would definitely benefit me as well but funny as I think it causes LESS tension, at least once at the station. People always seem so anxious about making sure they get on the train (and get a good seat). I think if we had assigned seats people in the waiting area wouldn't be so pushy. But that's JMO!

I'm sure you'll pay for the privilege soon!

 

[A Voice]

The technology to do seat selection is pretty straightforward,and already exists, whether it is a positive or negative is an entirely different story. It would benefit some (myself included since I tend to book pretty far in advance) but it might add cost and tension that exceed its benefit.

Yes, it would definitely benefit me as well but funny as I think it causes LESS tension, at least once at the station. People always seem so anxious about making sure they get on the train (and get a good seat). I think if we had assigned seats people in the waiting area wouldn't be so pushy. But that's JMO!

Assigned seats are a very different animal from passenger selected seats.

With the exception of last minute reservations, Amtrak obviously knows days (or minutes, on trains where seat assignments are made at boarding) prior to departure who is travelling where, and seating could thus be assigned accordingly so that all parties sit together, nobody must hunt for an available seat or be asked to move mid-trip, etc. This would also eliminate the problem of people trying to be first in line to board, as there would be no need.

On the other hand, allowing passengers to select seats (ahead of actual boarding) is problematic and far more complicated than just a technological issue. Permitting (particularly early-booking) persons free reign to select any available seat on the train just won't work given the extent of intermediate-point business (it is much simpler for the airlines, which lack multiple stops). You would effectively block later reserving passengers from even making a reservation by creating a situation where there are plenty of unoccupied seats at every point, but no single seat available for the blocked passengers' entire journey. The train would become "sold out" when there was potentially ample inventory remaining.

What will work, of course, is offering passengers either a limited selection of seats from which to select or else limiting the number of passengers who can make seat reservations at all. As you have noted, single travelers can block parties of two or more persons from sitting together, but this may be avoided by only allowing (or assigning) single passengers to select seats next to another single passenger. Parties of two might be offered only pairs of seats; They would not be given the option to book two window seats, for instance. Seat selection also works if you have only a (very) small number of passengers pre-selecting seats, such as those who have paid for the privilege (which sounds like a winning idea, frankly), as the numbers of seats potentially "blocked" is small enough you can probably fill them with odd numbered parties or, at worst, cause only minimal seat switching.

On crowded trains with lots of stops, who is going to chase people out of seats? The opportunity for confrontation is too great, sadly we don't live in a particularly civil society.

Nobody should have a need to chase people out of seats (with rare exception); That's why it is important to be careful how any seat selection program is implemented, and what makes such a feature far more complicated than it appears.

 

[PVD]

Asked another way, is it worth it? Do the benefits outweigh the hassles? I'm not sure the present system is really that bad. Would changing enhance the travel experience for enough riders to improve business to the point where seat yields improve beyond added costs? I have my doubts, but it's just conjecture without hard analytics.

 

[PaulM]

I'm slightly confused -- seems there are three different areas to board from, depending on at least 6 (or more) categories of passengers? Huh?

If you are limiting it to coach class, three areas (not counting Hiawatha boarding) sounds right: Legacy Club, old waiting room, and great hall waiting room.

Again limiting it to coach class, there seem to be three priority classes made up of many more categories of passengers. From high to low:

1. Priority club, including uniformed military

2. What was referred to for a short time as "assisted boarding", i.e., seniors age 62 and over, customers with disabilities, families with children 12 and under, and non-uniformed active duty military personnel

3. General boarding; i.e., everyone else, plus apparently other categories who didn't get a boarding pass.

Last to board "general boarding from Great Hall with priority for Legacy Club which is free for uniformed military"

I don't interpret "Legacy Club will be the first Coach Class group to board" to mean "Last to board"

Second priority is "South Boarding lounge" (where is that?) for "Seniors, disabilities, families with children 12 and under, and non-uniformed active duty military personnel

All I can say is it's in the southeast corner of the lower level. It's what was generally referred to here as the cattle pen, that is to say before the the Great Hall began to be used as a boarding area.

The language seems to say that non-uniformed active duty board before uniformed Legacy club

Doesn't say that to me.

---------------

I interpret this communication more as a set of rules. It doesn't say anything about how Amtrak staff will implement them, i.e., see that the rules are observed. For example, how will they insure that the legacy club, which is farthest away from the platforms, arrive at the train before "assisted" boarding, which is closest. Merely putting Legacy Club at the front of the kindergarten walk from the Great Hall won't insure it.

At least, with one exception, it clearly defines the priorities and where each wait. The exception is a departing coach passengers with ML privilege.

Incidentally, it would be useful to hear from an actual ML user to tell us if you need to get a boarding pass before being admitted to the ML.

 

[wwchi]

The technology to do seat selection is pretty straightforward,and already exists, whether it is a positive or negative is an entirely different story. It would benefit some (myself included since I tend to book pretty far in advance) but it might add cost and tension that exceed its benefit.

Yes, it would definitely benefit me as well but funny as I think it causes LESS tension, at least once at the station. People always seem so anxious about making sure they get on the train (and get a good seat). I think if we had assigned seats people in the waiting area wouldn't be so pushy. But that's JMO!

Assigned seats are a very different animal from passenger selected seats.

With the exception of last minute reservations, Amtrak obviously knows days (or minutes, on trains where seat assignments are made at boarding) prior to departure who is travelling where, and seating could thus be assigned accordingly so that all parties sit together, nobody must hunt for an available seat or be asked to move mid-trip, etc. This would also eliminate the problem of people trying to be first in line to board, as there would be no need.

On the other hand, allowing passengers to select seats (ahead of actual boarding) is problematic and far more complicated than just a technological issue. Permitting (particularly early-booking) persons free reign to select any available seat on the train just won't work given the extent of intermediate-point business (it is much simpler for the airlines, which lack multiple stops). You would effectively block later reserving passengers from even making a reservation by creating a situation where there are plenty of unoccupied seats at every point, but no single seat available for the blocked passengers' entire journey. The train would become "sold out" when there was potentially ample inventory remaining.

What will work, of course, is offering passengers either a limited selection of seats from which to select or else limiting the number of passengers who can make seat reservations at all. As you have noted, single travelers can block parties of two or more persons from sitting together, but this may be avoided by only allowing (or assigning) single passengers to select seats next to another single passenger. Parties of two might be offered only pairs of seats; They would not be given the option to book two window seats, for instance. Seat selection also works if you have only a (very) small number of passengers pre-selecting seats, such as those who have paid for the privilege (which sounds like a winning idea, frankly), as the numbers of seats potentially "blocked" is small enough you can probably fill them with odd numbered parties or, at worst, cause only minimal seat switching.

On crowded trains with lots of stops, who is going to chase people out of seats? The opportunity for confrontation is too great, sadly we don't live in a particularly civil society.

Nobody should have a need to chase people out of seats (with rare exception); That's why it is important to be careful how any seat selection program is implemented, and what makes such a feature far more complicated than it appears.

I can see the potential problem with selecting seats in coach with people going to all different stops, but business class (at least on my trains) has somewhere between 15 and 28 seats. In BC you have people that are going to all different stops, so not seating by where they are getting off. I think this would be something additional business class can offer (like your beverage and paper). At a minimum I'd like to see Select Plus members be able to select a seat. Amtrak is one of my biggest annual expenditures on my Amex - it would be nice to reward your regular riders with some additional perks.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I noticed little to no control over who entered the South Lounges while I was there so I am sure entry qualifications were abused or misused by several passengers "gaming" the system.

If people are "gaming" a system designed to treat them like children perhaps we should get rid of the system. Passengers seem to find their trains and seats just fine in other industrialized democracies. Is there a logical reason why we alone are incapable of such a basic task?

The technology to do seat selection is pretty straightforward,and already exists, whether it is a positive or negative is an entirely different story. It would benefit some (myself included since I tend to book pretty far in advance) but it might add cost and tension that exceed its benefit. On crowded trains with lots of stops, who is going to chase people out of seats? The opportunity for confrontation is too great, sadly we don't live in a particularly civil society.

From what I've read seat assignments were a major problem with the antisocial personalities who live along the NEC. Apparently, if the NEC can't have it then nobody else can have it either. Not sure I follow the logic of that decision but I guess the experience on the NEC guides much of the thinking at Amtrak.

Who do you think has been in charge of customer relations over the last 6 years or so?

I honestly have no idea. I've never heard or spoken to the head of Customer Relations. No have I heard anyone mention him here by name. Which is odd since we have so many self-identified insiders. Guess they figured it wasn't important enough to disseminate to the uninitiated.

Maybe it's this guy...?

John Wojciechowski

Director, Customer Relations

60 Massachusetts Ave NE

Washington, DC 20002-4285

(202) 906-2129

[email protected]

 

[PVD]

A third of the ridership, and a fare yield of 3 times as much per mile makes those anti-social folks the best customers (not the best people, but much as I hate to say it, that doesn't actually matter in the real world)