CL from SOB or EKH to WAS

[AcrossTheOcean]

I didn't realize that only guests could start discussions on the Guest Forum when I made a profile. So I am posting here instead of there.

As you can see, this is my very first post.

I am planning to take my family from South Bend or Elkhart, IN, to Washington D.C. late this summer. We are a family of four (two adults, two tweens) and plan to book roomettes. We have traveled by train throughout Germany, but none of us has ever been on Amtrak or an overnight train. I have a few questions before I collect the courage to book.

1. The schedules for both the CL and LSL say that the SOB station is unstaffed but has checked luggage service. Is that a misprint, or really the case? Where else can I look to get accurate station information? We will probably check a suitcase or two in order to free up space on the luggage rack for those who need it more.

2. Does Amtrak honor other countries' versions of AAA? Our cards have the "Show your Card!" logo but are issued by a foreign automobile club.

2a. One of my kids is legally disabled in Germany, but does not need any accomodations. The "disabilty ID" looks pretty fake (no holograms, fancy printing, or raised seals). How does Amtrak identify disabled passengers? This will only come into play if Amtrak won't take our foreign AAA cards.

3. Is there any advantage to boarding at EKH (Elkhart, IN) instead of SOB? They are equidistant from my hometown. I am thinking the few extra bucks is worth boarding at bedtime instead of a half-hour later and a little less morning rush on the return trip.

4. On our outbound trip, it looks like there are only two roommettes left. Is there any way I can get roommettes across the aisle from each other, or are we stuck with whatever is left?

4a. Currently a family room is cheaper than 2 roommettes by about $100, but three people in our family are at least 6" too tall for the short beds. Is it okay to put a mattress on the floor so a tall person on a short bed can stretch out?

5. Does my entire family have to dine together? If not, how do we show that only 3 of 4 people have eaten when the 4th person is seated? Is eating 2 and 2 easier? I forsee the kids waking up early and being ready for breakfast while at least one parent wants to sleep longer.

6. The CL east-bound arrives in SOB at about 9 pm ET (8 pm CT). Is there still a chance to get dinner?

7. How soon after boarding can we get the beds turned down?

8. What is the time window for brunch on the CL? It is only a breakfast menu or is the "express lunch" menu also available?

9. Can we leave our bags in the Acela Lounge in WAS after we arrive? Or do they only hold luggage for departing passengers?

10. Is it worth collecting Guest Rewards points? We won't be back to the States for another year.

Thank you for your help!

 

[willem]

1. The schedules for both the CL and LSL say that the SOB station is unstaffed but has checked luggage service. Is that a misprint, or really the case? Where else can I look to get accurate station information? We will probably check a suitcase or two in order to free up space on the luggage rack for those who need it more.

2. Does Amtrak honor other countries' versions of AAA? Our cards have the "Show your Card!" logo but are issued by a foreign automobile club.

2a. One of my kids is legally disabled in Germany, but does not need any accomodations. The "disabilty ID" looks pretty fake (no holograms, fancy printing, or raised seals). How does Amtrak identify disabled passengers? This will only come into play if Amtrak won't take our foreign AAA cards.

I can't help with most of that, sorry. When I rode using a disability discount, no one asked me for any documentation of any kind. For that matter, no one has asked for any documentation related to AAA membership nor being a senior.

3. Is there any advantage to boarding at EKH (Elkhart, IN) instead of SOB? They are equidistant from my hometown. I am thinking the few extra bucks is worth boarding at bedtime instead of a half-hour later and a little less morning rush on the return trip.

I would go (and have gone, when I had the choice) for the earlier boarding.

4. On our outbound trip, it looks like there are only two roommettes left. Is there any way I can get roommettes across the aisle from each other, or are we stuck with whatever is left?

4a. Currently a family room is cheaper than 2 roommettes by about $100, but three people in our family are at least 6" too tall for the short beds. Is it okay to put a mattress on the floor so a tall person on a short bed can stretch out?

I have requested two roomettes across the hall from each other on multiple occasions. Most of the time, I have gotten roomettes across the hall from each other. At least once (and at most twice, I don't recall for sure), the car attendant had juggled room assignments earlier in the journey, so that when we boarded, our rooms were not what our tickets said.

In your case, if there are only two roomettes left, you are probably stuck. Nonetheless, in your place, I would call Amtrak. If you don't ask, they can't say Yes. (On the other hand, I probably would not make an international call if I did not have a cheap way to do so. Cheap is in the eye of the caller.)

Once the room is changed to nighttime configuration, there will not be much room on the floor. It might be possible for a tall person on the lower short bunk to sleep slightly diagonally, and if a tall person sleeps with bent knees, the short bunk might work. I am just over 6 feet tall and I have slept in the lower short bunk, but I had a back problem at the time that required me to sleep with my knees well bent.

5. Does my entire family have to dine together? If not, how do we show that only 3 of 4 people have eaten when the 4th person is seated? Is eating 2 and 2 easier? I forsee the kids waking up early and being ready for breakfast while at least one parent wants to sleep longer.

Each person signs his or her own chit. Eating separately should not be a problem. If one waits until the breakfast announcement is made, one is more likely to be seated at a table with four people.

6. The CL east-bound arrives in SOB at about 9 pm ET (8 pm CT). Is there still a chance to get dinner?

7. How soon after boarding can we get the beds turned down?

Yes, there is a chance, if the train is on time. Probably the crew will stay on Central Time through the meal.

If the beds are not turned down when you board, tell the car attendant when you would like them turned down (immediately, if that is what you want). I would guess the beds will be down when you board.

8. What is the time window for brunch on the CL? It is only a breakfast menu or is the "express lunch" menu also available?

9. Can we leave our bags in the Acela Lounge in WAS after we arrive? Or do they only hold luggage for departing passengers?

10. Is it worth collecting Guest Rewards points? We won't be back to the States for another year.

I'll defer to more recent riders for question 8. While I have used an Acela Club (or Metropolitan Lounge) on arrival, I have never asked about leaving bags. My guess is that it will depend on the desk clerk.

I would sign up with Guest Rewards. There is no cost, and there might be a benefit. The only downside I see is that sometimes (maybe always) there is bonus if you sign up and travel within a certain time, and there is some time after which the points expire. If you will not be back until after the points expire, then there is little point is getting the sign up bonus now.

If the free AGR credit card is available in Germany, you might want to consider getting it. I believe holding it means that your points will not expire.

 

[greatwestern]

With reference to the Guest Rewards programme, when (some years ago) I tried to sign up to it I was not able to do so as it required me to have a USA address.

 

[pennyk]

2. Does Amtrak honor other countries' versions of AAA? Our cards have the "Show your Card!" logo but are issued by a foreign automobile club.

8. What is the time window for brunch on the CL? It is only a breakfast menu or is the "express lunch" menu also available?

9. Can we leave our bags in the Acela Lounge in WAS after we arrive? Or do they only hold luggage for departing passengers?

Amtrak no longer offers a discount for AAA members.

The last time I traveled eastbound on the CL, only a breakfast menu was offered, but the meal hours extended to a longer time period. I believe breakfast began at 6:30am and ended when the train reached Martinsburg, WV (I believe).

Yes, you may leave your bags in the Acela Lounge in WAS after you arrive. The bags will be in a large "closet" and are not secured by an attendant, so I would not leave anything of great value there while sightseeing or whatever.

 

[daybeers]

2. Does Amtrak honor other countries' versions of AAA? Our cards have the "Show your Card!" logo but are issued by a foreign automobile club.

Amtrak no longer offers a discount for AAA members.

Yes they do. I'm not sure if foreign club cards are accepted, but you could try entering the code online and see if it works.

 

[Charles785]

I'm curious if anyone knows the answer to the first question because it seems like somewhere I also read somewhere about an Amtrak station that was converted to unstaffed from staffed, but that supposedly continued to offer checked baggage service, and I wondered at the time if that was a misprint - or maybe a writer's misunderstanding of how a station operates.

So if there are such Amtrak stations, how would checked baggage service work in a station without a ticket agent?

 

[FreeskierInVT]

When I was on the Capitol Limited a few weeks ago, dinner service had concluded by the time we reached SOB and EKH, since we left Chicago about 3 hours late. I'm not sure if this is the norm for a late departure, but everyone was served in an abbreviated sitting, and no coach passengers were allowed to eat in the dining car. Breakfast was available until about 10am, afterwards an abbreviated lunch was served due to us being so late.

Some stations offer trainside checked baggage, if I recall correctly, if the station is unstaffed. I haven't experienced it myself and am not too familiar with how it works.

If you have a US address it's always worth it to collect Amtrak Guest Reward points. If you're travelling more than 90 days from now don't sign up until you're within 90 days of departure, or you'll miss out on the signup bonus. If you want, PM me your email address and I can refer you to the program.

 

[Thirdrail7]

I didn't realize that only guests could start discussions on the Guest Forum when I made a profile. So I am posting here instead of there.

As you can see, this is my very first post.

1. The schedules for both the CL and LSL say that the SOB station is unstaffed but has checked luggage service. Is that a misprint, or really the case? Where else can I look to get accurate station information? We will probably check a suitcase or two in order to free up space on the luggage rack for those who need it more.

Thank you for your help!

From everything I'm seeing, SOB is a staffed station and accepts luggage.

I'm curious if anyone knows the answer to the first question because it seems like somewhere I also read somewhere about an Amtrak station that was converted to unstaffed from staffed, but that supposedly continued to offer checked baggage service, and I wondered at the time if that was a misprint - or maybe a writer's misunderstanding of how a station operates.

So if there are such Amtrak stations, how would checked baggage service work in a station without a ticket agent?

The station you are probably referring to is Winona and I discussed how it implemented train side baggage service in the Sebring, FL (SBG) to be Unstaffed Effective June 1, 2017 thread.

For the record, they did attempt train side luggage assistance at SEB, but they canceled the service in the last month or so.

 

[AcrossTheOcean]

I haven't figured out how the quoting works, so I will simply summarize.

1. Trust the Amtrak web-site instead of the printed schedules. SOB is probably staffed if they have checked luggage service. There was a different station that had luggage service without a ticket agent, but luggage service has since been suspended.

2. Amtrak does take AAA discounts, but I will have to call and ask directly if they will take our ADAC cards. If not, I can claim a disability discount for the foamer.

3. The earlier boarding and de-training times at SOB are going to be worth the few extra dollars, even though my familiy thinks Amtrak = EKH.

4. Amtrak probably won't re-assign roomettes so that my family's roomettes are across from each other.

4a. We can probably make a family room work, but I probably won't sleep that well if we do.

5. We don't have to all eat at the same time. We each sign the/a check separately.

6. Getting dinner right after we board at SOB is doubtful. We should eat supper before heading to the station.

7. If our beds aren't already turned down when we board, we should ask the attendant to do so as soon as they have a chance.

8. East-bound, breakfast has extended hours, but only the breakfast menu is available. I remember reading something elsewhere on this forum that if the CL is delayed enough going into WAS that they will serve "express lunch." Is that correct?

9. When we arrive, we can leave our bags at the Acela Lounge and wait until evening to check into the hotel.

10. We should sign up for Reward Points less than 90 days before we depart. There is a bonus for signing up that lasts a certain amount of time.

Thank you everyone for your answers!

I had to explain to my son that we weren't simply going to take the train to D.C. and then come home again. He sounded kind of disappointed when I said we were going to spend a few days to see the sights before our return trip.

 

[the_traveler]

While they rebuild the SDY, that station is unstaffed (read - there is no station building at all

) but I understand it does offerchecked baggage service for the LSL. I understand an Amtrak employee from ALB (15-20 miles away) comes to SDY at train time for checking bags and claiming baggage. I personally have not seen how it is done.

As far as the disability and senior discounts, I have never been asked for any documentation for the disability fareor the AAA fare aboard. I believe the Conductor is mainly concerned that you have a ticket, not how much you paid. (They may question a child’s fare for a 50 year old.)

Yes, sign up for AGR (reward program) within 90 days of any Amtrak travel to receive the signup bonus.

 

[crescent2]

,,,

4. On our outbound trip, it looks like there are only two roommettes left. Is there any way I can get roommettes across the aisle from each other, or are we stuck with whatever is left?

I have requested two roomettes across the hall from each other on multiple occasions. Most of the time, I have gotten roomettes across the hall from each other. At least once (and at most twice, I don't recall for sure), the car attendant had juggled room assignments earlier in the journey, so that when we boarded, our rooms were not what our tickets said.

In your case, if there are only two roomettes left, you are probably stuck. Nonetheless, in your place, I would call Amtrak. If you don't ask, they can't say Yes. (On the other hand, I probably would not make an international call if I did not have a cheap way to do so. Cheap is in the eye of the caller.

...

(End of quote; I think I may have deleted a little too much to maintain the format.)

Please tell me this no longer happens.

Although we're all pretty good at going with the flow, our party of three in three roomettes will not be happy campers if the car attendant has "juggled room assignments earlier in the journey" and our roomettes are "not what our tickets said." A quite fantastic AGR rep and I spent a bit of time on the phone making these reservations (using three different AGR accounts plus one paid segment for one person) to get adjacent and across-the-aisle roomette assignments, far ahead of our travel dates.

I thought I'd considered all the "YMMV" things to caution our newbie overnight Amtrak traveler about, but I don't recall ever hearing of losing your ticketed room assignments simply at the whim of the car attendant.

Is there anything we can proactively do to prevent a "helpful" (NOT!) car attendant from changing our carefully made roomette assignments? We board mid-trip both ways.

 

[Ryan]

2. Does Amtrak honor other countries' versions of AAA? Our cards have the "Show your Card!" logo but are issued by a foreign automobile club.

Amtrak no longer offers a discount for AAA members.

Yes they do. I'm not sure if foreign club cards are accepted, but you could try entering the code online and see if it works.

You are correct for 10 more days. As mentioned elsewhere, it goes away on 2/18.

 

[AcrossTheOcean]

2. Does Amtrak honor other countries' versions of AAA? Our cards have the "Show your Card!" logo but are issued by a foreign automobile club.

Amtrak no longer offers a discount for AAA members.

Yes they do. I'm not sure if foreign club cards are accepted, but you could try entering the code online and see if it works.

You are correct for 10 more days. As mentioned elsewhere, it goes away on 2/18.

So we need to book soon in order to get an AAA discount?

Sounds like it is time to pull the trigger.

 

[willem]

At least once (and at most twice, I don't recall for sure), the car attendant had juggled room assignments earlier in the journey, so that when we boarded, our rooms were not what our tickets said.

Please tell me this no longer happens.

[...]

Is there anything we can proactively do to prevent a "helpful" (NOT!) car attendant from changing our carefully made roomette assignments? We board mid-trip both ways.

It hasn't happened recently, but I have not had two roomettes across the hall from each other recently.

After I discussed the reassignment with an Amtrak agent (after the fact), the agent said asking that the rooms be marked unmovable (or more likely some other code word that I don't recall) would reduce the chances of a reassignment.

In the car attendant's defense, he explained to me why he had changed the rooms, and I agreed with his decision. In other words, I did not mean to imply that the attendant made the change "on a whim" or with little reason. I don't remember what the explanation was, and I certainly wasn't happy about it, but I agreed that the attendant made the best of the situation and my reservation was collateral damage.

Do stay flexible and "go with the flow" on your trip. For what it's worth, that room reassignment was not the worst thing that happened on my trip—and it wasn't the second worst thing, either.

 

[AcrossTheOcean]

Do stay flexible and "go with the flow" on your trip. For what it's worth, that room reassignment was not the worst thing that happened on my trip—and it wasn't the second worst thing, either.
Are you saying that the reassignment wasn't that bad, or are you saying it was only one unfortunate event on a rather unenjoyable trip?

 

[willem]

Are you saying that the reassignment wasn't that bad, or are you saying it was only one unfortunate event on a rather unenjoyable trip?

Well, both, actually, sort of.

Needing to walk along the hallway (or even to the next car, which never happened to me) is not a disaster. It is an inconvenience, and an annoyance because I had taken steps to ensure that my traveling companion and I could move easily from side to side of the train. Since part of the reason for getting two roomettes was to ensure that we had a view on one particular side of the train, it would have been especially annoying if the roomette on that side had been moved to the less desirable side, but again, not a disaster.

Getting bustituted, (hyperbole on) having the bus bathroom turn into an EPA superfund site while still hours from our destination (hyperbole off), missing a connection and losing accommodations on a subsequent leg, finding out that the accommodations on the subsequent leg got sold just before the train arrived at our boarding station (even though an agent had said the room would be available), and losing meals because we were not in a sleeper (contrary to the service standards manual, as I later learned) were all more unfortunate events.

 

[crescent2]

Willem,

It seems you had more than your fair share of YMMV's on your trip! Hopefully the next one will go more according to plans. I've almost always had very good luck on my trips, and have never had any serious surprises.

I certainly agree that going with the flow is a needed trait for Amtrak travel. However, we booked far in advance for a reason, and while it would not be a disaster, we would be disappointed if our room assignments were changed just to accommodate a passenger's wishes who happened to board before we did. I misunderstood your post, apparently.

Anyway, I'm glad you posted about your experience with the room changes, as that would be a "surprise" I'd never considered.

I phoned AGR today and spoke with another very helpful rep. He put notes on our reservations that we were a party of three and to please not reassign any of our rooms unless absolutely necessary. He also, unasked, added a note to try to seat us together for meals. He stated that car attendants should not reassign any rooms in any case, except for some unavoidable reason such as equipment failure, which of course goes without saying.

While I did have to hold a long time today (20+ minutes; put phone on speaker and laid it down), I've had two outstanding experiences with AGR reps who could not have been nicer or more helpful. I know others have posted in other threads about poor experiences that sound like legitimate complaints, but these two were great.

 

[willem]

Willem,

It seems you had more than your fair share of YMMV's on your trip! Hopefully the next one will go more according to plans. I've almost always had very good luck on my trips, and have never had any serious surprises.

I certainly agree that going with the flow is a needed trait for Amtrak travel. However, we booked far in advance for a reason, and while it would not be a disaster, we would be disappointed if our room assignments were changed just to accommodate a passenger's wishes who happened to board before we did. I misunderstood your post, apparently.

Anyway, I'm glad you posted about your experience with the room changes, as that would be a "surprise" I'd never considered.

I phoned AGR today and spoke with another very helpful rep. He put notes on our reservations that we were a party of three and to please not reassign any of our rooms unless absolutely necessary. He also, unasked, added a note to try to seat us together for meals. He stated that car attendants should not reassign any rooms in any case, except for some unavoidable reason such as equipment failure, which of course goes without saying.

While I did have to hold a long time today (20+ minutes; put phone on speaker and laid it down), I've had two outstanding experiences with AGR reps who could not have been nicer or more helpful. I know others have posted in other threads about poor experiences that sound like legitimate complaints, but these two were great.

I still ride Amtrak. Now if all that had happened on my first trip, I probably would not have had a second trip. I had many good trips before and since the one (yes, all that happened on one trip, and on just the outbound leg) with those irregular operations. And there are other horror stories, but many more happy tales.

Here is one horror story, not because it's a horror story, but because there are two lessons learned. We were on the California Zephyr. We had boarded in Chicago. Somewhere west of Denver, a conductor poked his head in our room and asked who we were. I showed him our ticket and he said that we had been marked as no-shows and all subsequent travel had been canceled. He got on his cell phone and got all our subsequent travel, including accommodations, reinstated. (Whew!) Lesson 1 is to make sure your ticket is lifted. (This is also necessary to get the AGR points.) Lesson 2 is put subsequent travel on a separate ticket unless there is a compelling reason to put it on the same ticket.

Probably you and your traveling companions would have been in the rooms you reserved even if you hadn't called AGR, but a little insurance can be a good thing. Happy travels.

 

[AcrossTheOcean]

Willem,

It seems you had more than your fair share of YMMV's on your trip! Hopefully the next one will go more according to plans. I've almost always had very good luck on my trips, and have never had any serious surprises.

I certainly agree that going with the flow is a needed trait for Amtrak travel. However, we booked far in advance for a reason, and while it would not be a disaster, we would be disappointed if our room assignments were changed just to accommodate a passenger's wishes who happened to board before we did. I misunderstood your post, apparently.

Anyway, I'm glad you posted about your experience with the room changes, as that would be a "surprise" I'd never considered.

I phoned AGR today and spoke with another very helpful rep. He put notes on our reservations that we were a party of three and to please not reassign any of our rooms unless absolutely necessary. He also, unasked, added a note to try to seat us together for meals. He stated that car attendants should not reassign any rooms in any case, except for some unavoidable reason such as equipment failure, which of course goes without saying.

While I did have to hold a long time today (20+ minutes; put phone on speaker and laid it down), I've had two outstanding experiences with AGR reps who could not have been nicer or more helpful. I know others have posted in other threads about poor experiences that sound like legitimate complaints, but these two were great.

I still ride Amtrak. Now if all that had happened on my first trip, I probably would not have had a second trip. I had many good trips before and since the one (yes, all that happened on one trip, and on just the outbound leg) with those irregular operations. And there are other horror stories, but many more happy tales.

Here is one horror story, not because it's a horror story, but because there are two lessons learned. We were on the California Zephyr. We had boarded in Chicago. Somewhere west of Denver, a conductor poked his head in our room and asked who we were. I showed him our ticket and he said that we had been marked as no-shows and all subsequent travel had been canceled. He got on his cell phone and got all our subsequent travel, including accommodations, reinstated. (Whew!) Lesson 1 is to make sure your ticket is lifted. (This is also necessary to get the AGR points.) Lesson 2 is put subsequent travel on a separate ticket unless there is a compelling reason to put it on the same ticket.

Probably you and your traveling companions would have been in the rooms you reserved even if you hadn't called AGR, but a little insurance can be a good thing. Happy travels.

Thanks for the head's up about that.

 

[AcrossTheOcean]

Well, it turns out they don't offer the AAA discount for those of us living abroad who belong to the ADAC instead. But mecause my son has a disability, not only was his fare discounted, but one of the adults' was as his companion.

Are roomettes are across from each other, so we are all set.

Thank you for everyone who gave me advice and answered my questions! I am sure I will be back closer to departure (in August) to ask questions about what to pack and how to organize it.

 

[Ryan]

Glad that it worked out for you, and enjoy the trip! Can't wait to hear all about it!