If you buy an Amtrak train ticket online, do you have to take the same credit card with you when you collect the ticket? (It looks like you have to collect the ticket from the station, but I’m not certain about that either).
The reason I need to know is that I’ve lost my bank card and it won’t be here in time to book the cheapest tickets. I can use a friend’s card and give them them money, but obviously not if I will then not be able to get the ticket.
I’ve emailed Amtrak to ask, but they haven’t got back to me.
If you’re picking it up from a kiosk, I think you do, because you need to put the credit card in the kiosk slot for it to recognize you. You might be able to print out the conformation e-mail and then scan in the bar code, though, for it to recognize you that way.
If you’re actually picking it up from a staffed counter (and some stations don’t have staffed counters, and the ones that do are only open certain hours, so check that), I don’t think you do.
Amtrak also will, under some circumstances, mail you your tickets, especially if you’re leaving from a station without a ticket counter or a closed one, although if you book less than 10 days in advance, they charge a rush delivery fee.
All I needed a year ago was the confirmation email’s barcode, as Captain Amazing noted. Scanned that at the kiosk and it happily dispensed the tickets for both outbound and return legs. (This assumes payment was made at the same time as the reservation, which your use of “the same credit card” implies is true in your case.)
I did need ID to check my bag and board the train, but nothing else.
I’m fairly certain all you need is the barcode or confirmation code.
You CAN swipe the credit card through the kiosk, and it will automatically look up your tickets. You can also scan the barcode on the confirmation email, and it does the same thing. You can also, I think, punch in the confirmation code and it’ll do the same thing.
You can use Amtrak’s Web site to buy tickets for someone else to travel, so I’m sure they have contingencies if the person traveling doesn’t have the credit card the tickets were purchased with.
If nothing else, you can talk to the ticket agent at the station (assuming there is one), and with the confirmation code and an ID, you should be able to pick them up there.
Make sure you have a good print-out. I’ve found those kiosks to be notoriously finicky. I usually just get my ticket from the agent if at all possible.
I realize it’s a moot point now, but for future reference you can use any random credit card. My dad buys me Amtrak tickets all the time to come visit him, and to receive the tickets I put in my card then enter the code.
They do now. Trains leave from Boston and proceed up the coast. They cross into Canada, finally driving onto specially designed ferries in Halifax. The ferry docks in Liverpool and the train drives out onto the British rail system.
In going from Canada to the US, or v.v., what they want to see is a passport. You have entered the PP number when you bought the ticket. I will be doing this in Vancouver on Friday.