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buckbuck

Joined
Apr 9, 2022
Messages
2
Location
United States
Hi! I understand this is not an official Amtrak site, but looking to see if anyone has any helpful tips!

I recently received my rail travel privilege card and am looking to book a trip. I know that I can only reserve a seat on the Acela trains an hour prior to their departure for a price of $10 (as long as the train does not completely fill). I am curious if anyone knows how often these trains reach full capacity? Are there certain days of the week they definitely reach full capacity over others? I know to reserve this train I will have to drive to the station and figure it out once I get there since calling has me sitting on hold for an hour.

I appreciate any input! :)
 
Mondays and Fridays I tend to avoid because I expect them to be busy (so not very helpful for that info). Tuesdays through Thursdays are definitely less packed but it also depends on where you're traveling between. WAS-NYP is pretty busy these days while north of NY, it's noticeably lighter. I didn't ride last week (nor do I regularly ride Business), but I suspect that--outside of the 7am (6:50am with the updated schedules) WAS departure and 6am or 9am NYP departures--it's not incredibly hard to find an open seat an hour before.
 
jpeterson said:
Mondays and Fridays I tend to avoid because I expect them to be busy (so not very helpful for that info). Tuesdays through Thursdays are definitely less packed but it also depends on where you're traveling between. WAS-NYP is pretty busy these days while north of NY, it's noticeably lighter. I didn't ride last week (nor do I regularly ride Business), but I suspect that--outside of the 7am (6:50am with the updated schedules) WAS departure and 6am or 9am NYP departures--it's not incredibly hard to find an open seat an hour before.
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This is very helpful! Thanks so much!
 
Acela150 said:
It's not really suppsoed to be public info from what I've been told. But I could be wrong. Of course there is the FOIA.
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Good advice, at least on the airlines...policy is to not disclose that you are traveling "non-revenue", at least when not in uniform...
 
railiner said:
Good advice, at least on the airlines...policy is to not disclose that you are traveling "non-revenue", at least when not in uniform...
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Granted, it’s been a few years since I worked there, but Amtrak’s policy is (or was) that employees should have their ID on display when on trains, even if not working. Non-revs on the NEC would always have their IDs out, as that was their ”ticket” for transportation.

Further, free and discounted travel as an employee benefit is literally posted on their public website, which would seem to contradict any implication that this can only be obtained through FOIA.
 
When I worked at Amtrak, I would only show my Company ID to the conductor, when tickets were collected. We used to have a pad of pass “tickets” to give conductor’s on unreserved trains, that we filled out ourselves. Reserved trains required non-rev tickets issued by ticket offices. There aren’t many unreserved trains anymore, so I believe they may have ended the “self-ticketing” practice.

I learned thru years of experience riding trains, not to make it known I was a passrider, unless I wanted to make myself subject to questions and often complaints about any issues …😉
 
While Amtrak may be ambivalent on the subject, American Airlines policy is to not disclose to fellow passengers that you are traveling “non-rev”.
We used to have to dress up for non-rev travel, but when casual attire by most passengers tended to make non-revs obvious, they changed the dresscode specifically to not make it obvious…
Not sure about other airlines…
 
buckbuck said:
Hi! I understand this is not an official Amtrak site, but looking to see if anyone has any helpful tips!

I recently received my rail travel privilege card and am looking to book a trip. I know that I can only reserve a seat on the Acela trains an hour prior to their departure for a price of $10 (as long as the train does not completely fill). I am curious if anyone knows how often these trains reach full capacity? Are there certain days of the week they definitely reach full capacity over others? I know to reserve this train I will have to drive to the station and figure it out once I get there since calling has me sitting on hold for an hour.

I appreciate any input! :)
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Just joined today. Would like to know what the new card looks, to compare with the one I was issued.
 

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