2 pax on ticket - both need to ride whole itinerary?

[rogerVarland]

Due to family logistics, I need to hand off a car to my son. I'm in Toledo and he's in Boston. I'll drive to ALB and he'll take 449 there from BOS. He'll then drive back to BOS and I'll take the train home to TOL. Here's the big question: If I book an AGR roomette from BOS to TOL with both of our names, but only he rides to ALB and then only me from ALB to TOL, will we get caught with some fine print? Both of our names will be on the tickets, but will we run into "no-show" issues?

 

[Acela150]

Just ask for an open sleeper. I'm sure AGR would be able to do that.

 

[SubwayNut]

Just tell the agent when you book that your son is boarding in Boston and your boarding in Albany they will know how to handle it.

I recently booked a Phoenix to Columbus, Wisconsin itinerary. I went from Phoenix (including the Thruway van to Flagstaff) to St. Paul, my friend LAX to Columbus. I told the agent our intentions when I booked the trip and was told everything was fine, because of the trip starting on a Thruway van the entire itinerary needed paper tickets that had to be picked up in advance since the Phoenix Airport lacks ticketing for Amtrak where the trip started.

The only issue was that Amtrak's technology can only print all or none of the tickets attached to a reservation and AGR reward reservations can't be split (I visited a ticket agent in Newark to confirm things and said that we couldn't pick up our own tickets and to my delight saw LAX-CBS next to my friends name on the computer screen, the E-mail confirmations didn't show this). This meant I stopped to pick up the tickets long before the trip (and worrying about losing them) and gave them to my friend so we each could have our own paper value tickets in case something went wrong (like I Chief was late and I missed the connection), it didn't happen luckily.

I have a feeling the open sleeper will require paper tickets meaning your son will end up having to pick up both your and his tickets in Boston unless you make a point of getting them before and each having your own tickets.

 

[Acela150]

I think Open Sleeper tickets are eTickets, Not 100% sure.

 

[Misty.]

Open sleeper, unless they've changed since March, are paper value tickets - Using my trip as an example, my ticket was still eTicket, and the friend I added was paper value. (I printed on one of my KWD days because I was curious myself, and since I was sort of the organizer of the train portions of this trip, I had the person forward me copies of his reservations numbers for a backup copy).

 

[Ryan]

That's a pretty clever idea for moving a car. I wouldn't tell the staff on board the train what you're doing, they may not approve and try to make life difficult for you. But there's nothing in the newly published rules that says you can't do this.

If anyone asks your son about you when they lift his ticket leaving BOS, have him just tell them "He'll be joining me in ALB".

You don't need an open sleeper ticket for this.

 

[AlanB]

I think Open Sleeper tickets are eTickets, Not 100% sure.

Nope, Misty is correct, open sleeper tix are regular old fashioned value tix. Amtrak did not set things up to allow Open's to be eTix.

 

[AlanB]

That's a pretty clever idea for moving a car. I wouldn't tell the staff on board the train what you're doing, they may not approve and try to make life difficult for you. But there's nothing in the newly published rules that says you can't do this.
If anyone asks your son about you when they lift his ticket leaving BOS, have him just tell them "He'll be joining me in ALB".

You don't need an open sleeper ticket for this.

I'm thinking too that this is the way to approach things, just book both of you from start to finish. And in Albany, as you hand off the keys on the platform you trade places in the sleeper as it were.