United Airlines and Amtrak partnership

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adamj023

Lead Service Attendant
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Apr 1, 2015
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277
United Airlines is the only airline which has ticketing and shared lounges with Amtrak that I know of.

United Airlines has the Newark hub which connects to Amtrak from Penn Station and United seems to be focusing on that and pulled out of JFK and removed the Cleveland route from LGA for upcoming flights

I presume Amtrak is faster to EWR from Penn Station than NJ Transit and offers business class even though it has less frequency when it runs and costs more if the time schedule is favorable. However many destinations from Penn Station will start out by commuter rail such as LIRR and NJ Transit.

i wonder how the United partnership works out for Amtrak and if the relationship will be improved upon.
 
IIRC the relationship dates from a similar one with Continental - now United. Many years ago there were CO codeshares that included Amtrak trains and "cross benefits" for Amtrak travellers that were part of the deal. We benefited once at a hotel in Arizona that acknowledged our trip there on Amtrak with a Continental partner rate. (I was also a member of CO's FF plan at the time.) I can't think there's any incentive to "improve" the relationship currently.
 
Although I never used it, that was nice! I wish it was still around - it would come in handy in October!:D

My wife and I used it several times during the 90s when we were first getting into train travel. It was very nice. However, now we just put together our own itinerary as one-way trips are no longer (in most cases) more than half of the round-trip anyway.
 
United Airlines is the only airline which has ticketing and shared lounges with Amtrak that I know of.

United Airlines has the Newark hub which connects to Amtrak from Penn Station and United seems to be focusing on that and pulled out of JFK and removed the Cleveland route from LGA for upcoming flights

I presume Amtrak is faster to EWR from Penn Station than NJ Transit and offers business class even though it has less frequency when it runs and costs more if the time schedule is favorable. However many destinations from Penn Station will start out by commuter rail such as LIRR and NJ Transit.

i wonder how the United partnership works out for Amtrak and if the relationship will be improved upon.
It's a short ride. I think maybe 15 minutes max. NJT wins on frequency if nothing else. You might have to stand during rush. Not worth paying any kind of premium for Amtrak.
 
I remember sometime in the early days of online travel agencies doing a booking on United, and noting with some amusement that the final leg was on Amtrak. Bet that surprised a lot of less attentive folks!
 
When I flew United in early 2017, even though no part of the trip involved Amtrak or Newark (ORF-ORD-DFW/return) I earned Amtrak points for the entire trip. Enough to pay for my next trip NFK-LNC. I don't think you can do that anymore though, pretty sure they changed it so that you can only earn AGR points if you book an itinerary that includes an Amtrak segment.
 
When I flew United in early 2017, even though no part of the trip involved Amtrak or Newark (ORF-ORD-DFW/return) I earned Amtrak points for the entire trip. Enough to pay for my next trip NFK-LNC. I don't think you can do that anymore though, pretty sure they changed it so that you can only earn AGR points if you book an itinerary that includes an Amtrak segment.

I was able to do that in August 2019. I think so long as you put your Amtrak Guest Rewards member number as your "main" rewards account when booking (I forget the exact steps, but it was something to that effect) it'll earn AGR miles instead of United miles.
 
I was able to do that in August 2019. I think so long as you put your Amtrak Guest Rewards member number as your "main" rewards account when booking (I forget the exact steps, but it was something to that effect) it'll earn AGR miles instead of United miles.

Hm. I'll keep that in mind when booking my Italy trip later this year. Might be worth it to pay up to $200 more for United if it gets me my next 2-3 Norfolk-Lancaster trips free.
 
Hm. I'll keep that in mind when booking my Italy trip later this year. Might be worth it to pay up to $200 more for United if it gets me my next 2-3 Norfolk-Lancaster trips free.

Yeah, you'll earn 1 AGR point per mile flown if you're in Economy, 1.5/2 points for Business/First so it is one of the best ways to accumulate AGR points, even if your travel doesn't involve an Amtrak segment.
 
Hm. I'll keep that in mind when booking my Italy trip later this year. Might be worth it to pay up to $200 more for United if it gets me my next 2-3 Norfolk-Lancaster trips free.
I need to change the frequent flyer number for our upcoming Italy trip. Only flying United because they are MUCH cheaper in business class than the other two.
 
At one point, Amtrak worked with Continental in providing service to Philadelphia and Hartford. You'd fly to Newark and a train would be your connection to those cities. Amtrak used to back them up and run extra trains if necessary. I doubt that is still the case.
 
To be clear, does United earn AGR points regardless of the city pair if this is done?

(I am asking because in the midst of shuffling my travel patterns...and being able to dump UA trips to Amtrak would be fairly nice considering that the UA/SQ relationship leaves something to be desired while native crediting on UA is pretty darned useless.)
 
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To be clear, does United earn AGR points regardless of the city pair if this is done?

(I am asking because in the midst of shuffling my travel patterns...and being able to dump UA trips to Amtrak would be fairly nice considering that the UA/SQ relationship leaves something to be desired while native crediting on UA is pretty darned useless.)

Yes. I‘ve done this from Cincinnati to Denver and from Boston to Denver, as recently as July 2019. My employer paid the airfare, so 1k AGR points was a nice bonus.
 
While the partnership still exists, it is weaker now than it was in the past. IE, Amtrak closed their ticketing office at EWR and United closed theirs at NY Penn.

Most staff on both sides have no idea how it works, and the technology is faulty, so many times the quick ticket machines act like you dont have a reservation.

I recommend viewing this extension thread on the subject if you want to use the partnership:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/uni...codeshare-faq-including-zfv-philadelphia.html
 
I remembered that too - just wasn't positive which airline was involved.
"Introducing a new way to look at America" effective January 2, 1991. United and Amtrak offered a single phone number for travel agents to book air-rail tours on both carriers. The country was divided into five zones . A transcontinental round-trip was $419.
 
At one time Alaska Airlines had a partnership with Amtrak. You could get a round trip award ticket that allowed a flight on one segment and Amtrak on another. Great for flying to LAX from PDX, then taking Coast Starlight home. I seem to remember that you could also get a roomette with Alaska miles, but that was so long ago that I don't really remember :)
 
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