OK Using Upgrade Coupons with Multi-Part (Conjoint) Tickets?

[Explore]

So I'll be booking an Acela Business trip from BOS to WAS with train changes in Stamford and New York so I can meet people, sightsee, and shop. See, you get a mini-stopover of up to 24 hours at each change of trains without increased fare, if the same low bucket is available on all trains.

I'll also be seeking to upgrade BOS-STM and NYP-WAS to Acela First, using AGR space-available free upgrade coupons. Of course, that will cost me 2 upgrade coupons instead of the one coupon I would fork over to travel BOS-WAS on a single train. But that's OK.

I'm just a little concerned that since Amtrak has to reissue the ticket when an upgrade coupon is applied, no sooner than 48 hours prior to departure, that somehow they'll screw it up with a conjoint ticket, since not all segments will be upgraded.

Any thoughts.....has anyone done this?

 

[Trogdor]

Last year, a coworker and I booked WAS-NYP-BOS on Acela (stopover in New York to meet a friend of ours...and to visit the transit museum).

I had some two-day upgrade coupons, and upgraded my ticket upon arrival at WAS (I got there a day before he did). I wasn't expecting to be able to upgrade both segments on one coupon, so I wanted to upgrade the NYP-BOS leg (since that was a 4 or 5 pm departure, I figured that'd be the most in-demand for Acela, as opposed to the 9 am departure WAS-NYP, for which I was going to use a one-hour coupon). After the agents conferred with each other, they told me what I had already figured, which was that they could only upgrade one segment. That said, they upgraded my one segment just fine, and it didn't have any impact on the rest of the reservation.

The next day, my coworker arrived, and we went to upgrade his reservation. The agent that day upgraded both segments with one coupon.

Go figure.

Long story short: as long as the agent is reasonably familiar with how to use those coupons (and, in the NEC, I'd imagine they are), you shouldn't have to worry about it screwing up a conjoint ticket. If you're lucky, you'll get multiple upgrades with one coupon. Worst comes to worst, you have to give up multiple coupons for multiple segments.