Metropolitan Lounge South Station

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R

rile42

Lead Service Attendant
Joined
Jan 21, 2005
Messages
410
Wondering if anyone here knows the answer to this one. If I travel the Lake Shore Limited from Boston to Chicago and have a sleeper from Albany to Chicago (no sleepers BOS to ALB), am I allowed to use the Metropolitan lounge at South Station if I just have a coach fare to Albany?

No big deal but was just thinking of it.
 
I don't know the official rule, but you could always pull out the LSL timetable, and show that it states the lounge in Boston is available to first-class passengers.
 
That's a very good question, one that never occured to me.

In return I have a question for you. Assuming that you've received your tickets for the trip, do you have one ticket for BOS-CHI? Or do you have two tickets, BOS-ALB / ALB - CHI?

If you have one ticket, then they would have no choice but to let you into the lounge, since the ticket clearly states that you are a First Class pax traveling from Boston.

If you have two tickets, then it gets to be more interesting, but I suspect that since the Boston lounge is never crowded that they would still let you in.

By the way though, don't go looking for the Metropolitan lounge is South Station as you won't find it. It's been renamed to Club Acela. :)
 
the way it has been explained to me, several times, if you are travelling 1st class on that date on any leg of the trip you are entitled to Club Acela/Metropolitan lounge priviledges.
 
Since 49 and 449 are separate trains, with separate choices for making reservations (and separate classes of service), I would assume (and hope) that they have separate tickets.
 
But it is possible his tickets were issued when he had a sleeper on 449. They will have to be reissued at some point to show him as being in a Sleeper on 49, but who knows.
 
I haven't booked this trip yet. I was just thinking about the problem as I planned the trip.

This might be interesting to you seasoned LSL riders. Four or five years ago, I booked a LSL trip from Cleveland to Boston and back. While researching the fare on the Amtrak website, I found an interesting quirk. If I reserved a coach fare from Cleveland to Albany and then a seperate fare from Albany to Boston, the fare was cheaper than just a staight fare Cleveland to Boston. When the conductor took my ticket in Cleveland to start the trip I told him I was going to Boston but had two tickets. I told him why and he seemed surprised. He might have even told me I wasn't supposed to do it that way........although, I can't remember that very well.

I do not think I've seen that little quirk in fares since then.
 
I too have seen similar quirks. On a straight coach fare a while back it was cheaper for me to take three trains to Chicago from Ft. Lauderdale (FTL-JAX-NOL-CHI) instead of two (FTL-WAS-CHI, FTL-PHL-CHI, or FTL-NYP-CHI). Go figure.
 
I asked in South Station today, it's not allowed since 448 and 449 are equivellant to every other non-Acela train out of South Station. You may get lucky and be allowed to use the facility if there is a friendly employee manning the entrance though...
 
As far as traveling first class, I believe it must be from the city the club acela lounge is in. For instance, if you had first class from syracuse to chicago, they might not allow you access to the lounge unless your first class ticket started in nyp. I've been denied access in chicago's metropolitan lounge when I've had a first class ticket not originating in chicago. However, some employees may give you a wink and say "oh go right in." Best to call amtrak about this.
 
Official policy states that if you arrive on a train in first class at a city that has a lounge and are connecting to another train with or without first class, you are allowed the use of the lounge. Where you originally boarded does not matter.

The Chicago lounge attendants however in the past had a history of not always following the rules and were often some of the rudest employees Amtrak had. My last two visits to that lounge in 2004 however, thankfully found new attendants working there. Attendants that seem to understand that their job is customer service, not customer disservice.

I believe that you are also entitled to use the lounge even if you are not connecting to another train. Most attendants will also allow you the use of the lounge under those circumstances, but I have heard of a few that wouldn't.
 
I remember using the ClubAcela Lounge in NYP, was very nice waiting for the (delayed) Acela Express in November. I enjoyed the fresh fruit and soda and coffee...too bad they were out of pastries by then though. Even though that statement is sort of irrelevant, I brought up that experience to bring up another point about who can get into the lounge. I was with my family, 5 of us all going to Washington, though not all on the same train. Three of us were taking FC on the Acela, the other two taking coach on the Regional, we checked with the attendant and sure enough, after checking the tickets they allowed all 5 of us to use the lounge, it was a pleasure.
 

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