Quick question on boarding at a different station than ticketed for

[micmac99]

I'm leaving today on Train #421. I am ticketed Austin, Texas to Tucson, AZ. My ex-wife's family is trying to get me to actually board the train in Taylor, TX, which is one stop eastbound from Austin and a more convenient drive for them to drop me off as compared to going to downtown Austin in freeway traffic during evening rush hour.

I called Amtrak CS and the agent said they can let me board in Taylor for an additional $26 payable on-board to the conductor.

I wonder if it's worth:

1. paying the $26 to board in Taylor

2. insisting on not paying and asking Customer Relations to waive the extra fee

3. just boarding in Austin as scheduled.

PS: will provide complete trip report on my arrival back in Phoenix! Inbound portion of trip went relatively smoothly.

 

[Upstate]

When I look up Taylor to Austin on the website it list 7 bucks for a ticket. The 26 bucks difference looks like it is if you change your entire trip. Just keep what you have buy an extra ticket for Taylor to Austin.

Option 2 is hilarious though.

 

[saxman]

Yeah, don't pay 26 dollars just to get on a station earlier, when it only costs 7 dollars from Taylor to Austin. Simply buy a separate ticket from Taylor to Austin. Thats what I would do.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

Will you reliably get the AGR points for the longer segment and not the shorter segment in that case? Or if one ticket is on train 1 and the other on train 421, do you get points for both?

 

[Upstate]

Will you reliably get the AGR points for the longer segment and not the shorter segment in that case? Or if one ticket is on train 1 and the other on train 421, do you get points for both?

Just don't attach your AGR number to the shorter segment if it is the same train number. I would think that if the tickets have different train numbers then they would both get points. If names mattered then AGR wouldn't be able to distinguish between regionals and that would that would cause a lot of trouble.