Hiawatha question

[amamba]

My friend is asking for advice regarding the Hiawatha. It appears that it is unreserved in coach - can anyone verify?

She isn't sure what train she will take leaving chi. If it's unreserved should she book ticket for later train or earlier train? Can she just board with incorrect e-ticket or does it have to be adjusted (online, with agent etc).

TIA.

 

[NW cannonball]

Hiawatha Milwaukee - Chicago has only unreserved coach seats. My experience - seldom SRO.

Ticket should work any train, unreserved .

 

[fairviewroad]

My friend is asking for advice regarding the Hiawatha. It appears that it is unreserved in coach - can anyone verify?

She isn't sure what train she will take leaving chi. If it's unreserved should she book ticket for later train or earlier train? Can she just board with incorrect e-ticket or does it have to be adjusted (online, with agent etc).

Unreserved tickets are good for an entire year. Assuming she's within that time frame, she may as well purchase a ticket for the next available departure since all seats are the same price on all trains.

For example, you *may* run into trouble if you travel on September 20 with a ticket for September 21.** But you'll never run into trouble if you travel on September 21 with a ticket for September 20. (You'll run into trouble on September 20 of the following year, however, as the ticket will have expired). So as long as your friend is confident of traveling within the next year, there's no need to "guess." Just log on and buy a ticket for the very next train. The conductor will probably not comment or even notice that you're not on the "right" train since a) people do this all the time and b) s/he is just pointing a scanner at the ticket and not reading the details

**There are conflicting reports as to whether it's a problem to travel with a "future" ticket. I've never tried since there really isn't any need to find out.

 

[MikefromCrete]

The trains are unreserved. Just get on any train.

 

[jebr]

One note: if they're eligible for a discount that requires a three-day advance purchase, you'll want to purchase it for a day at least three days out so you can get that discount.