late/early CL and connecting to regionals

When traveling CHI to WAS and wanting to connect into PHL the earliest connecting train the system offers you departs at 3:02pm. (If on time the CL should arrive into WAS at 1:10pm.). However, using multi-city ticketing you can see there's an earlier regional departing at 2:02.

If I book the earlier train and the CL is late can I automatically get a free ticket for a later regional?

Or if I use the 3:02 train and the CL is on time, can I switch to the earlier 2:02 train free of charge?

Since there's less than an hour in the multi-city connection, I wouldn't book it.

Take the routing you get offered, and you should be able to take the earlier regional. I've only done it on AGR awards though, so no idea if you would get charged any fare difference.

I've also only done so on an AGR award, so I don't know for sure. However, I don't think it would be guaranteed first. You might have to pay a fare difference. I think if you chose that suggested departure and the CL was late, you would get a ticket for a later departure for the same fare.

I recently took 30 and was booked on 132. The connection is guaranteed. I missed 132 by an hour and booked on 166 to RTE. Others were being rebooked onto the 430pm regional. My point is.. Don't try it. Either way ARROW would reject it as the 1:10pm arrival and 2pm Regional are not a guaranteed connection.

If you book the guaranteed connection Amtrak will automatically rebook you on the next Regional if your train is late. If you don't take the guaranteed connection and get around arrow using the multi-city ticket option your connection won't be guaranteed.

Example: On a recent Empire Service trip I added on a points run from NYP to Newark this raised the fare of my total trip from Syracause to NYP by I think $2. My Empire Service train was late, missing the 50 minute connection. I went to the Customer Service office and they already had a stack of tickets printed for travelers on this train that had missed connections. The next Regional for the quick trip to NWK wasn't for another 40 minutes. I then asked if I could get a refund for this leg (saying I'd just take NJT, I was really just going to get on the subway and go home) they told me to go to a special ticket window where I got a $12.11 refund, just my booking this connection and missing it I came out slightly ahead!

SubwayNut said:

If you book the guaranteed connection Amtrak will automatically rebook you on the next Regional if your train is late. If you don't take the guaranteed connection and get around arrow using the multi-city ticket option your connection won't be guaranteed.

Click to expand...

Even if you try to book it through Multi-City ARROW will only post the guaranteed connection.