Hello,

I will be taking the Amtrak Downeaster from Portland, ME to Boston, MA tomorrow. First time I've traveled by train within the United States, and I have a few questions.

1) How far in advance of the departure time should I arrive at the station? Is there a hard-and-fast rule for this? Any kind of check-in or security process that I need to go through?

2) Seats --- I have my tickets in hand (actual tickets, not just confirmation of reservations) but I can't see on the tickets where my seats are. Are they assigned in advance or do you just sit in any available spot? I am riding in business class.

3) My tickets each feature a code of some type... I don't think that this is the seat number, but I could be wrong. One ticket says 1F and the other says 1SA. Any idea what these codes mean?

Thank you.

I took Amtrak to DC in June so its not the same train. I got there 20 minutes before the train. However, I was going from a local station rather than a train station (ie Union Station, Grand Central). For a main depot, I would get there earlier. Only 5 people got on when I did. Some stations have security. check-in also varies. Mine was after I got on the train. But in Union Station, you show your ticket inside the terminal and on the train.

Seats are assigned for business class so those codes may be your seats.

You will probably find the Traveling with Amtrak section of Amtrak's website helpful.

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/Conten...2922215&ssid=6

Whether you have an assigned seat depends on your type of ticket

The Amtrak site says 30 minutes in advance, so I'll go by that. Thanks, vjplovesitaly.

Still can't figure out what seats I'm in. The codes I referenced previously are listed under the words "Type Rider."

I doubt very highly that Type Rider has anything to do with seats. Did you both get the smae fare or is one an "adult" while the other one a senior citizen or child or AAA or military, etc.?

One of the tickets includes my AAA discount. Originally, both tickets were booked with this discount but I had to change my departure time and when they rebooked the ticket, I was told that I was no eligible to keep the AAA discount on that one because of the ticket change.

I have ever had an assigned seat on any Amtrak train, whether in business or coach, Acela or Metroliner. For "reserved seating" trains, you are guaranteed a seat in your class, just not a particular seat.

Thank you, ellenem.

AAA discount requires booking at least 3 days before travel.
No need to arrive more than 30 minutes before departure. Since this train originates in Portland you will board about 15 min before departure. Seats are not assigned. First come first served. There are usually no security walk throughs at the atation or on the train.