USA Rail Passes

[Reno89502]

When my Grandmother passed away, she left me her house. Now that it is almost sold, I thought I would take a month off and tour the country by Rail. Does anyone have any experiences with the USA Rail Pass? Good or bad, all input would be Welcomed. And has anyone bought the pass, and did a upgrade to a sleeper class? Thanks!!!!!

 

[Exiled in Express]

I have considered the pass, it works out to ~$45 per segment depending on package. For my planned use, leisurely hop on/off trip down the west coast, it is cheaper to buy single tickets in advance. It has value if you plan on riding the majority or entire length of a route.

February 23, random future date, $45 will get you from Seattle to Spokane, ~300 miles. Same date, Seattle to Eugene on Cascades/CZ is $48, also ~300 miles. On the east coast, New York to the Niagara border is $56 for 460 miles. All the prices are before discounts, add AAA/NARP and you are better buying singles. So the better question is "Where are you going?"

 

[Reno89502]

I have considered the pass, it works out to ~$45 per segment depending on package. For my planned use, leisurely hop on/off trip down the west coast, it is cheaper to buy single tickets in advance. It has value if you plan on riding the majority or entire length of a route.

February 23, random future date, $45 will get you from Seattle to Spokane, ~300 miles. Same date, Seattle to Eugene on Cascades/CZ is $48, also ~300 miles. On the east coast, New York to the Niagara border is $56 for 460 miles. All the prices are before discounts, add AAA/NARP and you are better buying singles. So the better question is "Where are you going?"

Well, I am starting in Kansas City, from there I want to go to L.A., then up to San Francisco, then up to Seattle, then Chicago, then Boston, then Montreal, then New York, then Philadelphia, then Washington D.C., then Atlanta, then New Orleans, then L.A. again and then back home to Kansas City.

 

[guest]

When my Grandmother passed away, she left me her house. Now that it is almost sold, I thought I would take a month off and tour the country by Rail. Does anyone have any experiences with the USA Rail Pass? Good or bad, all input would be Welcomed. And has anyone bought the pass, and did a upgrade to a sleeper class? Thanks!!!!!

It really does depend on where you go. I bought one last year, the 14-day version, and went LA-Santa Fe-Kansas City-St. Louis-Springfield-Chicago-Portland-LA.

I priced everything first on the website using the AAA discount and then figured the Rail Pass cost. The pass was cheaper by about $150 in my case.

I bought sleeper accommodations on the longer routes; the pass has no effect on those prices.

 

[chertling]

I used the 15 day/8 segment railpass for my Hockey Roadtrip in March/April '09. We saw 5 NHL games in 5 cities in an 8 day trip. KCY-CHI-WAS-PHI-NYP-(NYP-EWR via NJ Transit)-EWR-BOS-WAS-CHI-STL-KWD (STL-KWD bought separately)

I upgraded (at time of reservation, not on-board) to a roomette on the CHI-WAS and WAS-CHI segments on the Capitol Limited. The upgrade charge for sleeper was equal to the upgrade charge from the CURRENT bucket in coach (at the time of reservation) to the CURRENT bucket in sleeper.

 

[caravanman]

Hi,

The pass is good value if you want to take long distance rides, but as others have mentioned, it is not such great value on short hops. You can use it for longer trips and pay seperatly for the short segments, as suggested above.

The main drawbacks of the pass are as follows: It is only valid for a limited number of rides, taken within the validity of the 15, 30, or 45 day time frame. Each time you get off a train or amtrak bus, you use up a ride, same if you break your journey to sightsee, and get on the same train next day, that break is counted as a ride from your total available.

A very annoying complication is that once you buy your pass, you will then need to make your actual train reservations for your routes.. BUTat that point, Amtrak can ask you for more money! If the train you want is busy, even though coach seats are available, your pass is not usable as it is.. you have to pay a supplement!

Kind of cart before the horse.. you buy your pass, but don't know if you have to pay extra untill you choose your trains!

The roomettes are a seperate issue, you will have to pay for those anyway, and as mentioned, you pay the same roomette price as the going rate. Roomettes are cheaper to reserve far in advance, so once you make your pass reservations, make your roomette reservations in advance too, for best prices.

Another point with roomettes is that if you reserve a sleeper berth, your rail pass will be valid as is for that trip, you dont pay any coach supplements in sleeper. You can decide to ask for a roomette as late as on the train itself.. sometimes they are available then at the lowest prices, but it is a big gamble.

To be fair, it might be that 99% of the time your pass would be usable without supplement, or it could be 60% or 5%, no one knows.. best advice is plan your route, see if all sections are priced at low bucket prices, and decide from there.. if all sections are lowest bucket price, your pass would be valid. (Bucket is just a jargon term for price increments, or steps.)

Your month long trip sounds a wonderful project, however you go!

Eddie

 

[Reno89502]

It will be a GREAT ride. My grandmother wanted to take a month long train trip, but never had the chance. Im doing it for me AND in her memory.