Partial upgrade on ticket

[transit54]

I'm hoping that the experts out there can help with a ticketing dilemma.

I am traveling from STM-ESX after Thanksgiving on the Vermonter.

A friend of mine is traveling WAS-ESX on the same day on the Vermonter.

I have a business class ticket, but business class tickets are currently sold out until SPG (Springfield). I don't want to cancel my ticket and switch to coach, because the cost for coach is now nearly what I paid for the coach + business upgrade. So I'd like to get her ticketed from SPG-ESX in business, so she can sit with me. Can this be done? The cost of buying a WAS-SPG and SPG-ESX ticket is substantially more than the WAS-ESX ticket she currently has.

I believe that in the past one could buy an upgrade only ticket for a portion of the route, but I'm not sure how this works now that eTicketing is in place. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Anthony]

That is kind of tricky -- most agents you talk to will probably want to cancel the WAS-ESX, and book two segments: WAS-SPG in coach, and SPG-ESX in business. The new pricing would apply. I don't know of a partial upgrade mechanism that would maintain the base rail fare your friend currently has -- unless an agent manually priced the business class seat at a zero rail fare (or original rail fare), but I don't think there's a policy that lets them do that.

 

[Trogdor]

I don't know of a partial upgrade mechanism that would maintain the base rail fare your friend currently has -- unless an agent manually priced the business class seat at a zero rail fare (or original rail fare), but I don't think there's a policy that lets them do that.

That's what I had to do the last time I rode train 41. Business class was sold out HAR-PGH, but available PGH-CHI. Wound up with two tickets: A coach ticket HAR-CHI and an accommodation-only ticket PGH-CHI.

PGH-CHI didn't get any AGR points, though, because (IIRC) this was right after they started limiting AGR credit to just one per train.

 

[transit54]

Hmm. The WAS-SPG leg is now sold out, so I'm very hesitant to cancel the reservation. Is there any way this could be handled on board as an on board upgrade? I'm familiar with most of the conductors north of Springfield, and if there's a way they could do the upgrade on board, I'm sure they'd take care of it for me. I just don't know if it's possible.