12 Things Nobody Tells You About Amtrak

hey guys welcome back to the channel today we are talking about 12 things that no one tells you about am [Music] trck first thing that nobody tells you about Amtrak is that you don't have to pay full price they do run a lot of sales throughout the year they have a famous BOGO sale which buy one get one either on Coach class seats or rooms but they also have everyday discounts on their website and we're just going to run through some of those right here for you because a lot of people don't know they're eligible for a discount just on everyday travel you can get a child discount a senior discount a student discount military discount military child veteran passengers with disabilities Group Travel rail passengers Association kids and trains and government discount that's a lot of discounts that is a lot of discounts and you know it's funny because um people just don't think about looking at that list and they've got it right there on on their website uh the whole list and like you said the sales throughout the year they do a lot of popup sales like spring or say like oh if you're you know just traveling in the Northeast Corridor and uh the buy one get one free is very famous but it's also elusive because you never know when they're going going to do it it's just like a big surprise whenever happens and we always announce it on all our social media because it's exciting and it's usually for a small window of time that they do it so it's not like it's you know a long time that they do it so it's very important that you know you guys know about it but I think that's a really big deal that people understand that there are standing discounts throughout the year yeah and the biggest one I think is the passengers with disabilities discount it is a huge discount so if you qualify for that one call in and you know let them know and that is a very good discount to take advantage of if you're going to be traveling in the accessible room second thing that no one tells you is that you can purchase lounge access at some stations that's right and you know for the most part the lounges are accessible to those with Sleeper Car tickets at a couple of lounges it's first class passengers also but for the most Parts it's the sleeper car passengers but at quite a few of the stations you are able to purchase Lounge passes so make sure you check uh before you go because the lounges are actually really nice especially um the one in New York is really nice it's our favorite yeah it is the best one pretty much by far the food is great staff is great great view of the station definitely check that one out third thing no one tells you about is that red cap service is for everyone yes and I think that people you know are understanding that it's just for like sleeper car or whatever but when you check in just let them know hey I'm going to need Red Cap service and it is a free service but it is highly encouraged that you tip the porters but um there is no charge outside of that so it is available to any passenger on the train next thing that no one tells you is that station stops are all different and they're all going to be different lengths and for different purposes so if you get off at your first station and some you know it's a 20 minute 30 minute break it's not going to be that same on every station sometimes they're changing a crew out sometimes they're doing work on the Train sometimes they're just rolling up and letting one person off and they're going to keep on going it's only a two-minute stop so you do really have to pay attention as to what they say each stop is for and sometimes they cut those even shorter as so it can change keep up to date with the attendance in your car and you'll know exactly how long you're going to be a to get off the train for yeah definitely because if something comes up like uh you know they need to repair something on the train or sometimes they need to change out food or something like that then that will make a different stop a little bit longer than normal and the conductor always does announce when the stations are coming up they will tell you this one we're just letting people off and people on and then we're moving on and you could tell you're in there and all of a sudden you're like whoa we barely stopped and now we're moving again so it's important to pay attention if you don't hear it by any chance make sure you ask a staff person how long it's going to be so that you don't get left behind all right this one the next one is that the wifi rarely works as well as intended so the Wi-Fi does work but it's generally not going to be any faster than the sell service on your phone and I think nowadays A lot of people have unlimited data on their phone so it's going to be easier just to stay on your phone and do that and even if you're trying to get an iPad on that doesn't have service if your phone has a hot spot it's still going to be probably quicker just to use that because you're going to be the only person on your own hotspot yeah because in all honesty the Wi-Fi is using the cell towers anyways to try to pull that service so you're better off just going directly and using the cell service itself yeah and you're just sharing one connection with hundreds of people so it's definitely not as good as just using your own phone don't think there's going to be 24-hour day Wi-Fi blazing fast service on the whole train that is not going to work out well uh the next one that no one tells you is you might be able to upgrade for less money than it states on the little bti up process that's right I think that a lot of people get scared because they see that little meter and it says oh your chances don't look so good maybe bid this amount and it will look better they're just trying to coax you into bidding a lot more money but I'm I'm hearing a lot of people saying I put in the bare minimum and I got the upgrade now you're not going to find out till about an hour before you get on the train but I think it's worth a shot we have tried it a couple times ourselves but they have been pretty much sold out trains so we haven't you know done our bit up and they have been in the sleepers so just you know roll the dice and take the chance at much lower than bidding uh the amount that they're actually telling you on that meter uh the next one is that you can call for a voucher after an extended delay your train is late by 6 8 12 hours you can call and and they don't really tell you that we've had them we've had that happen many times probably 10 to 15 times where we've been that late and only one time has anyone on the train ever told us to call in for the voucher so if that happens to you they may not tell you but you can call in yeah I think it's important because that also helps them uh with customer service overall they're like hey we had to issue refunds or you know partial refunds or credits on you know a number of these we need to do better so I think it's helpful also to do that and I would do that as quick as soon after the ride as you can so don't wait like a week and then call in try to call in you know that day if possible the next day at the very latest that kind of goes with this next one which is that your train is going to be late now it's not 100% going to be late but it's 80% going to be late uh I can count on a handful the number of times we've gotten in early that just never happens so your train it's not we we just bought a ticket you know in another country and it was like we had a connection to make and the connection is 18 minutes and we're like oh sure that'll be fine that's enough time to get there we'll get in early we'll walk over the other platform get on the train you cannot do that with Amtrak your train is going to be late and there are unless you're in the Northeast Corridor no other trains coming that day so just keep in mind that if you're coming and you're you're not from America and you're used to train systems in other countries this is not like it says train to get again at two you might get in at six it just you just don't know exactly I think that is a huge factor in if you're going to have an overall good experience or bad experience is the expectation if you already know it's going to be late I had somebody left a comment actually um and said I already knew it was going to be late so I didn't get my hopes up for it being on time and they said I didn't get upset because I knew it was going to because you know I watched your video and you told me that it was going to be late and they knew what to expect so I think that that's uh you know really helpful to to know ahead of time the other key thing is you know when you're making plans on that as well like if you're switching trains like you were you know R was saying we have 18 minutes between two trains in a different country and we didn't think anything of it I we were saying as we were walking away after we bought our tickets we were like I wouldn't even dream of having that small of a window on an abck train like ever I mean it'd have to be hours and hours and for the most part we usually wait an entire day we don't usually leave till the next day yeah it is is something you don't want to get caught up in because there should be a big sign on the website that says this train is probably going to be late but there isn't if you don't know no one has told you then you're just going to you're going to miss your train uh so the next one is that you can call in Amtrak to have your room number switched your location of your room after you have bought your tickets that's right uh especially I think this this is a big deal on the super liners where there's an upper and a low lower level um if you have any mobility issues and you think the stairs might be a problem you could call and say I really would like to have a room downstairs or if you get a room downstairs and you're like I really don't want to be downstairs cuz I heard those rooms were not that great I would rather be upstairs call them as soon as you get the as soon as you get your room number because I think that's the hard thing is when you buy a ticket on Amtrak you can't pick the room you just get you know a random allotment now now if you do call up they do discuss that with you and you can just choose it that way but if you buy in the app like we do or online then you know it's going to be a just a luck of the draw what you get and so if that doesn't work out for you then you can always call them up and they will switch that out for you if it's if there's any availability yeah so on the super liners the the higher numbers are downstairs uh you know the lower numbers single digit numbers are upstairs and one is usually the attendant two is usually right across the inant we like two that's a good room number uh they're all fine though and if you have really high numbers like much higher than that then you're in a transition car which is also very interesting so uh the next one is that most trains have A1 Sauce in the back in the diner like but you have to ask for it they're not going to set it on the table we were on probably 15 Sleeper Car trains before one of the dining attendants ask us hey do you want some A1 with that steak and I was like yeah you have that they're like yeah all of them have it I was like no one had ever said anything about it so that came as a shock to us now we just ask for it yeah now that we know that it's in there they say they put them on there it doesn't get used very often I guess because some of the attendants don't know that it's there or don't think about it or people just don't ask for it but now we know nobody knows it's there apparently now you know uh so yeah if you like A1 then just ask for it uh next thing that people people don't tell you is that the upper bunk on a super liner roomat can get cold because the air vent is right in front of your face uh and if they're going to have the air on in the room which you will probably need to do it's going to blow right on you so you can fix that a couple of ways the best way is just to have some duct tape and to like tape it to the the air vent and kind of like make a little mini barrier sometimes you'll get in there like a little shield shield and the last person has left one on there and that that was like oh that's a good idea so if you have that it can really help you out yeah because you can clo close it off but even when you flip it to close you probably know this too like in your car when you close the vents there's still air coming through that's the same thing with these types of vents you can you know push it over to close but there's still going to be air coming through and it it really is from what I understand quite cold up there it can it can be yeah so it goes from like closed to 3/4 closed it's not really closed if you flip that switch uh so the next one is that there is no way to lock the doors from the outside of your room or even secure the door from just flying open and this is kind of surprising to people because you used to be able to lock the doors you used to there there is a little latch that had a place for a padlock and you could bring a padlock and you could lock your door now you can't those have all been changed and so if you get up to go to dinner say the two of you not only can you not lock the door pretty much assuredly when you come back your door is going to be wide open because the Train's going to jostle the do going to come open it's just going to be going back and forth so that's just something we always pull the curtain behind us when we leave because just know that the do is going to be open probably most of the time you're gone and and the other thing about it is like if you get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and you're the other person is asleep in the room that door is going to like go back and forth the whole time and possibly wake them up so we always bring something to wedge underneath the door like a really thin flip-flop because that will at least keep the door in place and then you can pull that out when you want to go and we don't wedge it like from the from the uh from the outside like it's not flip-flop sitting in the hallway we just wedge it from the inside just so it kind of secures it a little bit and doesn't wake the other person up when you're using the bathroom yeah because it was an actual literal you know wake up when we were on like our very first you know sleeper train we yeah I think you maybe you I don't remember one of us got up to go to the bathroom and the door just kept open and when it slides open it like slams cuz it's like a metal frame the door is metal and the frame is metal and it slams every time it slides all the way over and not only is it waking the people up in your room but also the people around you as well so it's pretty annoying for everybody yeah um so you don't really have a choice in that though and the other thing is when you go away just know that your stuff's going to be out there now we've never had a problem with that pull the curtain and it's fine but maybe just don't leave like big expensive things sitting right on the seat cuz the door is going to likely be open yeah I think that's the the key thing is if you pull those curtains closed people don't know if someone's in there or not cuz you could be up on the top bunk laying down but if you leave the curtain open and your door slides open then everybody knows there's nobody in there so always pull those and I always velcro them as we walk out so that they don't slide open they don't generally do that but just in case if they flap around and then people can see that there's no one in there so I try to secure it make it look like someone's in there still um and we don't ever really have a problem no so this has been the things that nobody will tell you about on Amtrak hopefully this has been helpful to you if it was please give us a like leave us a comment of any other things that you've thought of and we will see you on the next video

Channel: Grounded Life Travel

Views: 37,447

Keywords: amtrak, amtrak vacations, amtrak vacation, amtrak train vacation, amtrak family vacation, amtrak vacations reviews, amtrak vacation packages, amtrak trains, amtrak mistakes, amtrak mistakes to avoid, amtrak tips and tricks, amtrak tips, amtrak safety, amtrak comfort, amtrak station, amtrak trip, onboard amtrak, amtrak coach, riding amtrak, amatrak vacations, amtrak vacation advice, mistakes on amtrak, amtrak faq, amtrak guide, amtrak planning, amtrak how to ride

Id: am5iEgY1tbo

Length: 16min 20sec (980 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024