What Chicago hotels does Amtrak Guest Service put passengers in.

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C&O RR

C&O RR

Service Attendant
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Richmond, Va
I am on 49 and missed my connection on 3, so I will be spending the night in Chicago at Amtrak's expense.

Should I book a hotel while I am on the train or wait to see which hotel they offer me once I arrive in Chicago?

If I book a room while I am still riding on 49, will Guest Services give me a voucher to cover part or all of the room that I book?

What are my options?

Thanks for your help.
 
The buckingham athletic club has rooms tonight for $159. It is about 3 blocks from the hotel and all rooms on are the 40th floor. It is very nice, although not really near any nightlife (nothing around CUS really is).

http://www.booking.com/hotel/us/the-buckingham-athletic-club.en-us.html?sid=5a97044ed0e08453fe7630c63114c8f5;dcid=1;no_rooms=1;req_adults=2;req_children=0

I don't know exactly, but reports are that many folks get sent out to the airport hotels near Midway by Amtrak. On a Friday night, you may get something closer to the city.

No idea if guest services will cover part of your room or not.
 
C&O RR said:
I am on 49 and missed my connection on 3, so I will be spending the night in Chicago at Amtrak's expense.

Should I book a hotel while I am on the train or wait to see which hotel they offer me once I arrive in Chicago?

If I book a room while I am still riding on 49, will Guest Services give me a voucher to cover part or all of the room that I book?

What are my options?

Thanks for your help.
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I am just guessing, but if they are like the airlines, the voucher they give is specific to a hotel (of their choosing).
 
When I had a connection blow up a couple years ago we were sent to the Holiday Inn on the 55 near Midway Airport; except for 2 very drunk-ladden wedding receptions it was not bad at all. The Customer Service Agent said they normally have several hotels in the Loop they use but with the Lollapalooza Festival in town, they were sold out.
 
I would think you would have to use the hotel assigned to you by Amtrak. If you want to stay somewhere else, I doubt if Amtrak would pay.
 
You don't get to choose the hotel. Amtrak books the hotel for you and the hotel bills Amtrak directly. If you use another hotel, it will be entirely on your own dime.

Chicago's Passenger Services will have your hotel arrangements along with and a voucher for cash to cover cab fare and meals. You turn that voucher in at the ticket counter for actual cash.

The last time this happened to me, they put me up at the Hyatt at McCormick Place. Nice place, but not much around it.

Unfortunately, I have quite a bit of experience with Chicago Passenger Services making arrangements on my behalf because of a missed connection.
 
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When Amtrak put me up due to a missed connection, I stayed the night at the Inn of Chicago. Also been told by OBS on the Empire Builder that they use that hotel to house them sometimes. It wasn't a bad place to stay.
 
They also put me up at the Hyatt McCormick place last December. No choice. They also gave me cash for cab fare both ways and for a meal.
 
BTW, what happened in OH to put you so far behind? I know you were already running late but then...
 
Amtrak uses the hotel that has rooms available for that night. It may be one next to the station, but if there's none available nearby they have no choice but to use one "out by the airport". If you book one on your own, you are responsible for the full cost. If youu use the one Amtrak provides, they pay for the hotel PLUS cab/bus PLUS food PLUS other costs!
 
I got $30 cab fare and $30 for meals. Passenger services gave me vouchers for both and I had to go to the ticket counter to cash them in. Also, they issued a voucher for the hotel and I had to present that upon check-in.
 
When my granddaughter and I missed our connection in Chicago due to the "Polar Vortex" fiasco in January, Amtrak put us up at the SwissHotel and gave us a cash voucher for taxi fare and dinner. The hotel was wonderful! When we walked in our room, my Granddaughter said, "Wow! This is nicer than home!" We kind of didn't want to leave the next morning.

So my advise is to wait till you get to Chicago and go to Customer Services. They will take care of you.
 
AmtrakBlue said:
BTW, what happened in OH to put you so far behind? I know you were already running late but then...
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#49(8/21) had a terrible trip today. Even worse than the usual delays of the past few months. I gather it encountered heavy rain and flooding in upper state NY, got to Elyria, OH down 4 hours and 56 minutes. Then it really went bad, not getting to Sandusky until it was well over 7 hours late, then CHI 8 hours and 49 minutes late. Don't know what happened between Elyria and Sandusky. The delays on the LSL are starting to make the EB #8 look pretty good.
 
My mis-connect experience at Chicago was way back in the '80's.....at that time, they issued us hotel voucher's, and gave us a ride in a chartered bus over to a nearby Holiday Inn, IIRC....our voucher's also included meals at the hotel restaurant....so it seems that what they offer now is better.......
 
zephyr17 said:
The last time this happened to me, they put me up at the Hyatt at McCormick Place. Nice place, but not much around it.
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If you don't mind walking through 3 blocks of public housing on westbound Cermak road, the food paradise (aka Chinatown) is right there. We eat anything that moves.
 
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There's a myth that says you have to stand in line at the ticket counter when you arrive to cash these vouchers. In truth, there's no rule that says you can't do it at your convenience, like while your waiting around for your evening train the next day. Assuming of course you have the cash or CC to get to the hotel and eat, etc.
 
PaulM said:
There's a myth that says you have to stand in line at the ticket counter when you arrive to cash these vouchers. In truth, there's no rule that says you can't do it at your convenience, like while your waiting around for your evening train the next day. Assuming of course you have the cash or CC to get to the hotel and eat, etc.
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That is true, they are good any time. And if you arrive in the middle of the night, you can beat the crowd to the cabstand. My experience is there aren't a lot of cabs at zero dark thirty.

As an aside, the last time this happened to me was in December (the Empire Builder strikes again). There were a bunch of us at the cabstand on Canal with no cabs at 4 am. A Chicago PD officer pulled up and asked what was going on, we told him, and he radioed for cabs. Pretty soon a bunch of cabs showed up.
 
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