Posted by Seth Miller on March 18, 2013 under frequent flyer, points, Promotion, trains | 
4 Comments to Read
Amtrak has a double points promotion which just went live this morning. And it covers EVERYTHING!
The only catch is that members are limited to only two one-way trips daily. Still, this is a pretty solid deal.
Posted by Seth Miller on February 10, 2013 under trains | 35 Comments to Read
I have no idea why this proposed high speed rail (HSR) map for the USA is getting so much play right now, but it is. I’ve seen it all over Twitter and Facebook and it apparently has received more than 27,000 signatures on the White House site to be considered. So, what’s the problem with it? Mostly everything.
So many of the routes just don’t make any sense. The financial proposition for transcontinental rail across extremely low density areas is a horrible one. Enormous costs and near nil revenue. And it isn’t like connecting New Orleans to Miami or Orlando via HSR is going to dramatically shift the travel patterns in that region. They are still far enough apart that flying simply makes too much sense. Denver to El Paso? Maybe not so bad at 3.5 hours on the train, though flying is half that. But are there enough passengers making the trip to justify the necessary frequency of trains to supplant planes?
There are small chunks of the country where HSR makes sense. A full mesh national network, however, is a waste in many ways. Too many of the routes would still require too much travel time to supplant air travel. HSR is desperately needed in the USA. In certain areas. But this view is crazy to me. It doesn’t actually address the needs of the country from what I can tell. And going all-in with a plan like this makes it so much harder for the places it should exist to succeed. Everyone loses.
Posted by Seth Miller on January 14, 2013 under News, PaxEx, trains | 21 Comments to Read
Ever since Amtrak rolled out internet connectivity on their trains in the northeast corridor the response has been a mixed bag. Passengers are happy it exists in theory but the actual performance has been less than spectacular, particularly if you believe some of the many Twitter rants out there on the topic. Amtrak is trying to improve the situation but they’re faced with many challenges, not the least of which is providing free connectivity to hundreds of people while traveling up and down the coast. The latest step in the upgrade process is to upgrade the systems on the trains to support 4G service, up from the 3G network currently supported. There’s just one small problem with that plan: the route doesn’t have much 4G coverage.
Most of Amtrak’s problems stem from the fact that they are running on tracks where they stray rather far from civilization, and the high population density areas are where the cell towers are. Combine those two factors and the cell coverage isn’t all that great. So it doesn’t matter how fast the radio is on the device; if there isn’t coverage between the train and the base station things aren’t going to work so well. The other potential problem comes from having so many users on the system. Free services tend to attract more users and heavily loaded systems tend to struggle unless they are built to support that level of use. It does not seem that the Amtrak wifi systems were built that way. And upgrading to a 4G connection won’t solve that part of the problem.
The service is great when it works. But promising connectivity and not actually providing that to customers can actually hurt the business more than the offer of the service can help. Airlines are facing similar issues as they deal with upgrading the bandwidth on their planes. The gogo service can now support 4G with an upgraded radio on the planes (ATG4). Airlines are getting these new systems installed but it is not yet clear that the additional bandwidth will solve the performance issues which crop up from time to time. It will be interesting to see if either Amtrak or the airlines can solve this problem. The current connectivity provided by both is still challenging to users in many instances.
Posted by Seth Miller on January 4, 2013 under frequent flyer, News, points, trains | 7 Comments to Read
The Amtrak Guest Rewards program is adding a new tier to its elite program. The new Select Executive status will be the highest status level in the program, requiring 20,000 tier points to qualify; the previous top tier of Select Plus was available at only 10,000 points.
The features of the Select Executive program are reasonably solid; here’s the list Amtrak is using in their promo materials:
Of these, priority customer service and the ClubAcela offers are also available to the Select Plus level members. And Select Plus gets a 50% bonus on Amtrak travel. The main benefits where Select Executive seem to be the upgrades – one per 3000 tier points which is 1 per 6 Acela segments – and the unlimited transferring out of points to other programs. The extra 50% bonus points doesn’t hurt either.
Getting to Select Executive status means spending $10,000 (ignoring the 100 point minimum per trip) or taking 40 rides on Acela. Not cheap at all but for regular commuters or folks with a decent Amtrak budget this is a pretty good deal. And the costs to add the few extra features don’t seem all that significant. Seems like a win all around.
Posted by Seth Miller on December 4, 2012 under News, trains | 9 Comments to Read
It has been more than 15 years since passenger rail traffic rolled through Las Vegas. If the Las Vegas Railway Express company is successful that drought will end in late 2013 as they introduce a luxury train service from Fullerton, California to Sin City. The company expects that the ride will take about 5 hours and hopes to price tickets in the $99 range each way. The service will operate with specially configured rail cars featuring bars, big screen TVs and recliner seats. Unlike the other proposed train service linking the two cities the "X Train" will run at regular speeds, avoiding the need to build new tracks which proposed high speed service would require. The service will run partially on Amtrak rail lines and partially on rails operated by Union Pacific. The 576-seat train will be crewed by Amtrak employees but the rest of the operation will be privately maintained and funded.
Hopefully this service is more successful than the short-lived "Aces" operation between Atlantic City and New York City. That service was pretty awful and didn’t last long. The part where this service is actually going to terminate 30-45 minutes south east of LA proper in Fullerton certainly isn’t a good start to the situation.
Posted by Seth Miller on November 26, 2012 under Hotel, Mileage Run, trains, Trip Reports, Wandering Aramean Travel Tools | Read the First Comment
What happens when you show up in Europe on a three night trip and you have no idea what you want to do? This is probably a question few ever consider, much less actually face in real life. At the end of October, however, I found myself dealing with precisely that scenario. I was sitting in the arrivals lobby of Geneva’s airport having just stepped off the plane in from Washington Dulles and I had absolutely nothing planned other than a flight home three days hence. What could possibly go wrong??
I needed a plan and that meant I needed somewhere to sit and figure out a plan. Also, having just arrived on a redeye from the east coast I needed a shower and somewhere I could change into clean clothes before setting out on my adventures. Fortunately the United Airlines reps at the Geneva airport were well informed of the arrivals room service that the company offers (though the SwissPort contract agents were not). I quickly found myself on a shuttle bus headed to the Movenpick hotel where I was given a room for a few hours; plenty of time to freshen up and put together my itinerary.
I had considered heading south, across the border into France. I could visit Chamonix and see Mont Blanc. Maybe even visit the spas at Evian. That was slightly tempting, mostly because I knew it would be a bit easier on the budget to be in France spending Euros than in Switzerland on the Swiss Franc. But I’m also intrigued by UNESCO World Heritage Sites and it occurred to me that I had not yet checked to see if there were any in the area. A quick visit to my UNESCO visits tracker and I discovered that there were several in Switzerland, including two quite easily accessible on the train from Geneva. My plan was starting to form up.
Before I could commit to visiting Berne and Lausanne I had to make sure that the other logistics would work. I would need somewhere to sleep and to be able to get between the cities reasonably quickly and affordably.
First I checked hotel prices. Hotels.com was showing rooms in Berne and Lausanne to be 15-20% cheaper than staying in Geneva and not all that much more expensive than heading into France. Add in the 15% return between the Welcome Rewards program and my online booking portal and it was clear getting out of Geneva was a good idea. Plus, the two cities I chose weren’t bad places to stay, at least from the perspective of the hotel prices. So one of the factors was settled.
Transit between the cities was incredibly easy. The Swiss rail system is terribly efficient and their website easy to navigate. It supports English, German and French without too much trouble; I mostly chose English but the French was fun every now and then. The bad news on the Swiss rail system is that, like most things in Switzerland, it isn’t particularly cheap. That said, after I stopped to think about the situation I wasn’t all that upset by the prices. At first blush it seemed a bit crazy to pay $50+ to ride the 160 kilometers from Geneva to Berne. But Amtrak charges a similar rate for a walk-up ticket on the New York – Philadelphia route which is about the same distance. And the Swiss version of train travel is quite a bit more pleasant and reliable than the Amtrak version. The sticker shock wore off and things started to come together. Looks like I’ve got a plan:
It might not seem like much of a plan but by my standards it was pretty detailed. Having settled that I headed back to the airport on the hotel shuttle and directly to the train station part of the building. I managed to get a ticket on the next departure to Berne and even had time to stop at the grocery in the terminal to pick up a few snacks to make a picnic for the ride.
Let the fun begin!
Posted by Seth Miller on October 16, 2012 under points, trains | 2 Comments to Read
I just completed a rather interesting survey sent to me by Amtrak‘s Guest Rewards program. I started in on it because they promised me 250 points to and the conference call I was dialed in to wasn’t particularly exciting. As I started clicking through the survey it became clear to me that the survey was quite a bit more interesting than the conference call.
The focus was on travel to Europe. Things like how often I visit (very!) and if I visit more than one city on an average trip (definitely) and if I was familiar with any of the train services offered in Europe. There were actually a bunch I don’t recognize so I’ve started building a list for future adventures. But after getting through the background the topic focused quickly on the EuroStar service between London, Brussels and Paris.
EuroStar has their own eponymous Frequent Traveller program but it is only available to travellers with a mailing address in Europe. It seems that Amtrak and EuroStar might be chatting about offering up some sort of reciprocity between their programs. Here are a few of the questions from the survey:
Needless to say, I responded quite positively on these and the other, similar questions posed. No idea if it will be a good value or not, but the opportunity to expand the earning and redemption options is something I pretty much always enjoy. Here’s hoping it comes to pass.
Posted by Seth Miller on September 1, 2012 under trains, Trip Reports | 11 Comments to Read
Need to get between cities in Ukraine? There are a few different ways to make it happen, but the most popular – by far – seems to be the trains. And with good reason. The trains aren’t particularly fast, but they are cheap and comfortable. The train network connects most major cities in Ukraine and the rides between the cities generally are 8-12 hours at the shorter end. Yes, that’s a long time to spend to travel a couple hundred miles, but their slowness can actually be a benefit on many rides. Many of the routes are served run as overnight trains, saving you a night of hotel expense and leaving you in the new city ready to see town. If the trains rolled faster there wouldn’t be enough time to sleep. The slow ride really is a good thing.
The overnight trains generally run with three classes of service: the cabins have six, four or two bunks each. We took two trips on the train. The first was from from Kiev to Odessa and the second was from Odessa to Simferopol.
Our Kiev – Odessa ride was in second class, a quad bunk room. Our cabin mates spoke roughly the same amount of English as we spoke Russian so that presented some interesting communications issues. But with assigned beds and linens provided it wasn’t all that bad. The cabins were actually pretty nice, particularly considering the rather inexpensive rates. Things like locker space to store bags under the lower beds add to the convenience of the ride; way better than the last time I was on overnight trains in Europe a decade ago.
We settled in to the bunks, made our beds and enjoyed a quick snack – sourced from the grocery around the corner from the train station – before the train pulled out of the station.
I wouldn’t call the bathroom facilities spectacular by any stretch, but they were functional enough.
I slept well enough, despite the train making a number of stops throughout the night. Not the best night of sleep, to be certain, but reasonable enough. Despite the limited communications with our bunk mates (though we did actually manage a few "conversations") and the conductor we were able to make things work out reasonably and around 7am we pulled in to Odessa.
The second ride, a few days later, was in a first class cabin. The first class rooms are only two bunks in the cabin meaning that we weren’t sharing with random strangers. It was also a bit longer at 11.5 hours, giving us more time to enjoy the greater luxury. Things like nicer sheets and both a radio and a TV in the cabin (though the YV didn’t actually have anything showing and the radio was mostly just annoying) were all part of the first class experience. So was another conductor with whom we couldn’t really interact in any useful manner.
The longer ride and later departure time (midnight v 10pm) made the second trip a bit easier to sleep on. And I’m sure that being in first class didn’t hurt, either, though I don’t think it was all that significant a difference to the overall sleeping comfort. Then again, my needs when it comes to a bed aren’t that great. The bathrooms were basically the same as in the second class cabin but fewer passengers so they stayed a bit cleaner and no lines to get in.
One interesting thing about the trains and the various cabins is that the pricing structure places a decent premium on the first class cabin. If all you’re looking for is bunks without strangers it is generally cheaper to book out four bunks in the second class cabin than two in first class. The first class experience was a bit nicer, but I’m not so sure it is worth the up-charge. And since they don’t really care who is in the beds so long as the tickets are paid for that’s not a bad way to roll.
With the price, ease of booking and decent ride offered the trains are the best way to get between cities in Ukraine. And a lot of fun, too.
Booking is actually pretty easy these days, even from outside Ukraine. I wrote about that here just before the trip. Other than not knowing that I’d need to pick up the real tickets based on the receipts from the online booking it really was incredibly easy.
Posted by Seth Miller on August 29, 2012 under frequent flyer, points, Promotion, trains | 2 Comments to Read
Amtrak has announced their fall promotion, offering double Amtrak Guest Rewards points on ALL train travel.
The promotion covers travel between September 5 and November 16, 2012 and registration is required. The only slightly limiting bit in the fine print is that customers are limited to only two points-earning one-way tickets daily. Other than that this one is wide open. Very nice, indeed.
Posted by Seth Miller on July 31, 2012 under News, trains | 3 Comments to Read
Airlines have been making the move towards a paperless ticketing experience for several years. Amtrak has caught up and surpassed the airlines this week with the announcement that electronic ticketing is now available throughout their train network. Not only does this mean that nearly all trips can be issued as electronic tickets, something that airlines have been doing for some time now, but boarding passes can now also be managed digitally rather than with paper. Passengers using the Amtrak iPhone app or any device capable of reading PDF files will be able to present the barcode from the reservation to conductors on board rather than depending on a printed ticket or boarding pass.
Of course, there are still a few exceptions to the "all" designator on the eligibility. Most significant is that tickets booked through travel agencies or corporate travel offices will not be eligible. Multi-ride tickets are also ineligible and trips involving bus service connections outside of California are ineligible. This certainly excludes some passengers but the vast majority will now have increased flexibility and functionality with their bookings.
The new ticketing scheme allows passengers to change an itinerary without reissuing their ticket. It also allows for multiple passengers to travel on a single ticket; this will ease family trips among other things. Perhaps most significant, however, is that the boarding pass no longer will hold any value. This is a huge benefit for both passengers and the company alike.
Passengers who lose a printed boarding pass can now simply print another one, just like with the airlines. No longer will losing the piece of paper be a costly event. The eTickets also cover an entire journey with a single pass, again easing the travel process for customers.
These changes represent tremendous improvements for Amtrak passengers across the country.
