Boarding Pass (or Amtrak's version of the same)

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H

Hanno

OBS Chief
Joined
Sep 19, 2008
Messages
584
Location
South Central PA
We will be leaving the BWI Amtrak Station for our trip to East Glacier (BWI-WAS-CHI-GPK) shortly. My wife and I are booked on the same ticket for the duration. Will we each get a "boarding pass" at the BWI station? Or do we get on the train with the one ticket we have? The same question applies when we get to WAS and CHI.

It seems like we should have another document but maybe not.

Thanks!
 
The only exception I know of in Amtrak is the boarding card given out for coach check in in Chicago. It is not a requirement to obtain one, but if you are not in a priority group, you may wish to get a better boarding group with an earlier check in. Otherwise you can just have the paper ticket, the e-ticket, and other than a few connecting buses, the e-ticket can be scanned off your smartphone. I guess Auto Train is an outlier also, you check in and get assignment cards for that, IIRC.
 
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Unless you are paying on board, you are required to have a ticket. If you don't have smartphone access (lots of people) you get an e ticket, or if you cant print one, ticket at station, or ticket from kiosk, or ticket by mail. The conductors usually use common sense, and will check a passenger off the manifest, they may require id, but it's your responsibility to have a ticket not theirs.
 
PVD said:
Unless you are paying on board, you are required to have a ticket. If you don't have smartphone access (lots of people) you get an e ticket, or if you cant print one, ticket at station, or ticket from kiosk, or ticket by mail. The conductors usually use common sense, and will check a passenger off the manifest, they may require id, but it's your responsibility to have a ticket not theirs.
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Are you sure they need an actual "ticket" or just a reservation?

jb
 
John Bobinyec said:
PVD said:
Unless you are paying on board, you are required to have a ticket. If you don't have smartphone access (lots of people) you get an e ticket, or if you cant print one, ticket at station, or ticket from kiosk, or ticket by mail. The conductors usually use common sense, and will check a passenger off the manifest, they may require id, but it's your responsibility to have a ticket not theirs.
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Are you sure they need an actual "ticket" or just a reservation?

jb
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Well, I just checked Amtrak.com, and it says basically that you need a printed ticket or can present it via electronic device. I'm wondering what happens when you call and make a reservation, don't have a smart phone, or the means to print out a ticket.

jb
 
1. they can mail it to you (they still have ticket by mail) if there is enough time

2. you can pick it up at a manned station or quick trak

3. print at place like public library

4. there are still some special cases where they can clear you for "pick up on board"

Because the number of people that can't do one of those is so small, it is considered a non issue. E-ticketing is a huge plus in that it eliminates almost all of the "lost ticket" controversies. Paper tickets have cash value, lose them buy them again, find them, put in a refund claim.... almost all of that is gone now...

But I have seen conductors check some one in off the manifest, both in a sleeper, and on my last trip to WAS the woman had her ticket in her phone, and the conductor could not get her QR code to scan, so he just marked her off and moved on.....
 
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You would have been ok, BWI, CHI, and WAS all have QT machines and ticket counters where you could have picked up anything you need. You are able to retrieve all the segments from the machine or agentfor the whole trip. I think GPK is manned, but has no machine, it's summer only. If you have sleeper accommodations (CL/EB) remember the lounges in WAS and Chicago.
 
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An yes the conductor can find your reservation on his Iphone if you happen not to be able to find yours. Not sure about sleepers but I have done this when boarding Amtrak California coach cars. Not much time between Emeryville and Oakland so sometime a name is quicker for the conductor.
 
Tennessee Traveler said:
An yes the conductor can find your reservation on his Iphone if you happen not to be able to find yours. Not sure about sleepers but I have done this when boarding Amtrak California coach cars. Not much time between Emeryville and Oakland so sometime a name is quicker for the conductor.
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I've also seen them do that when the scanner of their phone is being fussy.

jb
 
I have personal experience with this exact thing.

Last year, while waiting at my (unstaffed) station of FED, a passenger came up and attempted to enter the door of the station to purchase a ticket. Of course the door was locked. They asked how do you buy a ticket. I explained that you can call & then it will show on your cell phone. He was concerned because he had a dumb phone.

Being the nice guy I am :giggle: I offered to make the reservation for him. He paid me the $30 fare.

When we boarded the train, the Conductor found his reservation on his iPhone/scanner!

This was all done within 10 minutes of departure!
 
The procedure in Seattle for the Coast Starlight is to present the ticket to a conductor at a booth in the station building. A slip is written up with the car number. Then the slip is presented to a coach attendant who assigns the seat and hands the passenger a seat check. There's another booth for sleeper.

As for actually checking for tickets, I had one case where I was just going from RIC-EMY on the San Joaquin and a conductor yelled out asking if I was going to Emeryville from the next car. I nodded and he motioned for us to board. Nobody checked my ticket, and at EMY I tracked him down to get him to lift my ticket. He told me that since we were the only passengers scheduled to board, he assumed we were those passengers and lifted the ticket automatically.
 
Because the system cancels continuing segments on no-shows, it is important that they lift the ticket (even if not physically) I've been checked into a sleeper in the lounge in Chicago by the Conductor, don't know if they still do that.
 
I was told that I needed to make myself known to Amtrak staff in Chicago to get a boarding group number. On arrival just told to sit and wait. Some "rules" apply "sometimes" maybe?

I was amused by Traveler's account of a passenger expecting to buy a ticket for a train at a station... Someone in my age bracket, I shouldn't wonder. :D

Ed.
 
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PVD said:
But I have seen conductors check some one in off the manifest, both in a sleeper, and on my last trip to WAS the woman had her ticket in her phone, and the conductor could not get her QR code to scan, so he just marked her off and moved on.....
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Since I frequently board at unattended stations (as well as stations which have no Quik-Trak kiosks), I've experienced both of the above scenarios. Occasionally I've hunted down the conductor to lift my ticket and when I do the response invariably is "Already got it!" The iPhone scanner which conductors use seems to not want to scan more than it does which I've noted often results in conductors just going down the manifest, particularly with sleeper pax.
 
PVD said:
It actually all sounds worse when presented than it actually is in the field. Most conductors are very adept at separating the wheat from the chaff....
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That's like when I was coming home from Orlando; I was getting ready to board the Silver Star, and one of the conductors asked me my last name and where I was going. He then looked it up on his phone. After boarding and finding my seat, I presented my paper e-Ticket to him when he did my seat check and he said "don't worry; I got your reservation". :)
 
The scanner has a button on it to "lift" the tickets of all. This can be good & bad.

If the train is coming to an unstaffed station and 2 people are expected to board and 2 people board, it might be assumed that the 2 people that boarded are them - and may hit that button. But if 80 are expected, and "a large crowd" gets on, again that "All Done" button may be hit before all are "lifted". However, only 79 boarded because you had car problems and did not get to the station on time. When you submit your refund request, you're told the ticket was used when you boarded the train and your ticket was "lifted"! Thus, you can't get a refund.
 
the_traveler said:
The scanner has a button on it to "lift" the tickets of all. This can be good & bad.

If the train is coming to an unstaffed station and 2 people are expected to board and 2 people board, it might be assumed that the 2 people that boarded are them - and may hit that button. But if 80 are expected, and "a large crowd" gets on, again that "All Done" button may be hit before all are "lifted". However, only 79 boarded because you had car problems and did not get to the station on time. When you submit your refund request, you're told the ticket was used when you boarded the train and your ticket was "lifted"! Thus, you can't get a refund.
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This is why, in the era of eTicketing, I always call or log on to cancel before the train leaves the departing station if I know I can't make it (as originally advised by a call center rep). That way, I'm mostly assured that the value of my ticket is preserved.
 
Hanno said:
Thanks guys and gals. I printed a copy of my ticket plus got the Amtrak APP and loaded the ticket on my iPhone. So I'm good to go!
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I don't trust the app to work when I need it to, so I pull up my reservation with the bar code and take a screen shot. Then I have an "always available" version in case the internet isn't working for some reason when it's time to board.
 

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