Major difficulties in purchasing California Rail Pass

[Jon]

Hi I recently tried to purchase a couple of California Rail Passes for a vacation in early September. I know exactly what trains/buses I need so hoped it would be easy, though it can't be bought online. I should say I live in the UK so booking at a station is not an option!

First I tried my regular UK based travel agent who have booked the USA Rail Pass in the past. After some confusion it turned out they couldn't book the Californian version. I then phoned Amtrak's international sales number to be told that payment for this pass needs to be made at a station, and the pass could only be put on hold for a week before it would be cancelled. So I would need to book at the end of August and pay on arrival in California.

That may be OK for ordinary train/bus travel, but as a supplement I also hoped to book a daytime Roomette from LAX to OKJ which is bound to increase in price, assuming one is still available by end August.

What would members do? Has anyone successfully booked one of these passes a month or more in advance? (Looking around the web it seems unless you can get to a station you can't.) For peace of mind should I just buy each journey as individual tickets now and pay an extra $150 or so, instead of waiting to the week before travel and risking the extra Roomette cost? At least there are some good companion deals available for California train travel.

I'm a fan of American train travel so will persevere, but most tourists would have given up much earlier! Your comments and advice will be appreciated.

 

[BCL]

What routes do you intend on riding? I wouldn't particular worry about not being able to get onto a Capitol Corridor or Pacific Surfliner train. Not sure about the San Joaquin. It's being able to book the Coast Starlight that would provide a lot of value. However, the roomette upgrade fee might be far more than the transportation fee covered by the rail pass.

Where are you arriving, and how soon could you get to a staffed station? I suppose one thing that could be done (with some faith) is for someone locally to purchase it for you on your behalf where you would then repay that person. Then you could use it to reserve travel, although you would still need to arrive at a station to pick up your hard-copy tickets. However, you could make your reservations well in advance. It shouldn't be an issue as I stated with most routes, but the Coast Starlight could be different, especially if you're looking to upgrade to sleeper.

 

[Jon]

Hi BCL, flying into LAX on 31 August and could pick up on that day - plan to do Surfliner day trip to San Diego next day. Then Coast Starlight to base at Oakland for Capital Corridor/Thruway connections after that. Total of six days of train travel so not full seven days permitted. I'm thinking it's simplest just to buy the tickets individually now. The pass would be nice but I don't begrudge Amtrak a bit of extra money - but will feedback that it needs to be made much easier to purchase!

 

[BCL]

I have no idea why it's so difficult to purchase one. The routes it services are mostly Amtrak California routes (Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin, Pacific Surfliner), which are primarily paid for by the California Dept of Transportation. You will be arriving around our "Labor Day", but that's probably not a huge travel period for Amtrak. The method of purchase could be something mandated by California.

I understand your dilemma. I'm looking at LAX-OKJ, and it's showing $170 for a roomette and $49 for coach on Sept 1. Whatever day it is, the roomettes could be gone by the time you arrive.

I have never purchased one before, but I have heard of people talking about it to make regular commutes cheaper. Since they don't allow a purchase of more than four trips on the same endpoints, some passengers "cheat" and add some extra endpoints such that they can board at a later station. The other issue with the California Rail Pass is that the tickets must be "hard", "live" tickets that aren't supposed to be replaced if lost. And you've probably already figured out that you need to pick them up in person and can't simply print out a document at home or at your hotel. At least with the current "e-ticket" scheme, one can simply provide a name and the conductor can look up your name and find your e-ticket.