USA Rail Pass

[Shinkansen1966]

I live in London, UK and we will be touring the States by Amtrak using the USA Rail Pass from April 16 to May 2. With one exception, we have made all sleeper reservations.

We've decided we want to experience coach class travel on the Lake Shore Limited and still need to book seats for this leg of our trip. Can we call Amtrak and quote our US Rail pass number and get a seat reservation right away? If we call our the UK agent, but they will charge us a travel agent fee. I'd rather cut out the middle man and call Amtrak directly. Any advice welcome!

If anyone's interested our trip is: New York City - New Orleans - Los Angeles - Chicago - New York City. Will do a report when we get back.

 

[AlanB]

You should be able to call Amtrak to make the reservation for coach and then just pick up the tickets when you get to the US. Not sure if the toll free number works from the UK though, so it might cost you a buck or two on the phone call. Note however that they won't assign you an actual seat number at the time of booking.

Also, since this isn't a trip report I'm moving it to the correct forum.

 

[Shinkansen1966]

Thanks for the advice and thanks for moving my posting to the right discussion forum. Oops and sorry!

 

[IceColdMintJulep]

It should be an interesting experience as Amtrak trains ride quite a bit different than UK trains. I have only been over there once, but it seems the cars over there could use a bit more sway control (at least the ones I rode). I felt like our car was going to slap the train on the other tracks quite a few times. One nice thing is you won't have to pay to use the restroom in an Amtrak station. (at least all the one's I've been in).