Question about Amtrak E-Tickets

[tjemartin]

Hello,

I will be going on vacation in a couple of weeks to the Wilmington, DE area (I have a round trip ticket from NFS-WIL). I tried to search for an answer before typing this, but was looking in the wrong place.

When I've traveled on Amtrak before all I did was print out my ticket and show it to the Conductor on board the train. I've seen people use their cell phones instead of printing a paper ETicket. I would like to try that instead of printing one out because my printer has been giving me problems lately.

I have an older phone, a Tmobile MyTouch 4G Slide running Android 2.3.6. I used to have the Amtrak app, but I failed to back it up and my phone is not compatible with the latest version of the Amtrak app. However, I do have a PDF viewer on my phone. Would I be able to download the Amtrak ETicket that is in PDF form on my phone's MicroSD card and use the PDF Viewer so that the Conductor could view/scan my ETicket? Does the phone have to be connected to the internet when the Conductor scans the ETicket?

Thank you in advance,
Tom Martin

 

[Ryan]

Do you get email on your phone?

When Amtrak emails out the ticket, it's a PDF attached. Just save that in your phone and you'll be fine. No internet connection needed.

If you don't get email on your phone, you just have to get the PDF onto your phone somehow. I can help with that part.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Also, should your phone "fail" the conductor can pull up your reservation on his phone/scanner.

 

[desertflyer]

The short answer is "yes." The conductor or bus driver just needs to scan the Barcode on the PDF, so if you can show that then you are good to go.

In reality, most Amtrak conductors have been just asking me my last name and destination lately instead of scanning my phone. They can always check you in that way if your phone doesn't work for any reason.

 

[BCL]

You can get a paper eTicket printed at a station. At Quik-Trak it's easiest with an AGR card, but if you don't have one there are other ways that include using a credit card (doesn't even have to be the one used for purchase). You just need to note your reservation number. You could also have one printed at a ticket window, although I've had one refuse to print one when I showed the reservation on my phone. I really wanted it because my phone battery was unreliable.

 

[fairviewroad]

The only thing they want when they are scanning your phone is the bar code. So if you take a screen shot of the bar code, you can just use that.

 

[StriderGDM]

Yes, you can use a PDF viewer to display your eticket. I've done that many times.

That said, as others have said, generally you can just give the conductor your name and they can check you off.

 

[me_little_me]

Be sure and turn up the brightness of your phone. I had to do that once as the conductor had trouble reading it until I did.

 

[Lonestar648]

The Conductors announced for people to raise the brightness on their phones so they could read the bar codes. They also asked for everyone to have their printouts or phones ready so the ticket process could be over quickly and everyone could move about the train. in the Sleeper the SCA on one train coordinated with the Conductor which rooms and how many in each room were aboard, maybe quicker or easier, though on others the Conductor came by each room. I didn't have to pull out my phone, they just asked our names to confirm.

 

[PaulM]

You can also connect your computer to your phone with the USB charging cable and copy the PDF using Windows Explorer.

 

[me_little_me]

I have found that this works exceedingly well for me:

Most ISPs allow multiple email addresses so I have one just for trips. When I make hotel/rail/air/car reservations and/or want to download or remember local info, I forward the confirmation from my PC to this special email address. Nobody uses or knows about this email address other than me so no spam on it. On my phone, I use K-9 mail (choose your preferred mailer) to download it (without deleting from server) and can do the same with my tablet. This way my info is on phone and tablet and no connection is required to read any messages. After trip is over, I delete messages on devices. I wait a month to delete on server just in case of any disputes.

For data on web pages rather than in PDF attachments, I can use "Fireshot", a Firefox add-in that allows me to capture any web page or portion thereof to a PDF file which can then be forwarded.

On my trips, anything I need is local to both my pocket (cell phone) and my carry-on (tablet). K-9, as well as other important programs (Play store, Firefox, settings, etc. ) are secured with a PIN.