Hiawatha Service Question

[printman2000]

Sorry if this has been asked/answered. Tried searching with nothing found.

With Hiawatha Service being unreserved coach only, if you are ticketed one one particular train, can you instead board an earlier train?

When booking Fort Worth to Milwaukee, it gives me several Hiawatha train option, but coming back it only gives me one. So I was wondering if we could board an earlier train.

 

[tim49424]

Sorry if this has been asked/answered. Tried searching with nothing found.

With Hiawatha Service being unreserved coach only, if you are ticketed one one particular train, can you instead board an earlier train?

When booking Fort Worth to Milwaukee, it gives me several Hiawatha train option, but coming back it only gives me one. So I was wondering if we could board an earlier train.

Yes. I did it last year. I had a ticket from CHI to GLN for the 1:05 and got in from Michigan in time to catch the earlier train (10:20?)

 

[bmjhagen9426]

As long as you don't miss the Texas Eagle, you should be fine. Allow an hour layover just to be safe. The Hiawatha is an unreserved service, so you can ride an earlier train (unless you have membership discount like NARP or AAA). If you are in doubt, call Amtrak and ask for an agent. They should know more than I do (I never rode on an unreserved train, nor have made connections between a reserved train and an unreserved train, so my answer is theoretical at best).

 

[Eric S]

Yes, you can board an earlier train on the day you are ticketed for, or a train on a later date as well (I believe up to a year later).

I ride the Hiawatha somewhat often and have routinely ridden earlier or later trains than the one on which I was ticketed. Even though the e-ticket will say (for instance) Train 335, in my experience conductors will have no reaction if you instead ride Train 331 or 333 (or 337 for that matter).

 

[printman2000]

Yes, you can board an earlier train on the day you are ticketed for, or a train on a later date as well (I believe up to a year later).

I ride the Hiawatha somewhat often and have routinely ridden earlier or later trains than the one on which I was ticketed. Even though the e-ticket will say (for instance) Train 335, in my experience conductors will have no reaction if you instead ride Train 331 or 333 (or 337 for that matter).

Great. Thanks for that info. Looks like the Hiawatha's are almost always on time (or very close). However, amtrak.com is only giving me one option that only has about an hour layover in Chicago (334). My Amtrak experience has taught me to allow much more than that if you can. So we may try to leave on 332 instead of 334. Of course, that would change the layover to 4 hours which is a lot, but we would for sure be able to use the new lounge.

 

[Eric S]

Yeah, Hiawatha tends to be on time or close to it. But, when delays happen they easily cascade throughout the day, given the turn around times in MKE and CHI are often just 30ish minutes.

I have used a connection time of approximately an hour from the Hiawatha to other trains a number of times, but have also gone for the 3ish hour connection time too if it fits in my schedule, because of the concerns you mention.

At any rate, take whichever train (334 or 332, or 330 I guess) you prefer - no problem as far as ticketing goes.

 

[printman2000]

Yeah, Hiawatha tends to be on time or close to it. But, when delays happen they easily cascade throughout the day, given the turn around times in MKE and CHI are often just 30ish minutes.

I have used a connection time of approximately an hour from the Hiawatha to other trains a number of times, but have also gone for the 3ish hour connection time too if it fits in my schedule, because of the concerns you mention.

At any rate, take whichever train (334 or 332, or 330 I guess) you prefer - no problem as far as ticketing goes.

Do you find that 332 is more crowded than 334? Any chance we would show up for that earlier train and not have seats?

 

[Eric S]

I can't say I've ridden 332 and 334 enough to know specifically how busy each tends to be. However, I can generalize and say that even during major travel periods (peak direction/peak hour, holidays, major/special events) it would be pretty unusual to NOT be able to get seats departing MKE. It can be a different story if boarding at MKA and Sturtevant, but not at MKE.