Amtrak Business Class Boston To New York – Runway Girl Network uses cookies. By using our site, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our privacy policy.
With international travel still more of a hassle than I care to put up with and COVID-19 overloading many states’ hospital systems, I find myself doing more local travel than I used to. When Amtrak held a ride sale for $34 round-trip flights between New York and Philadelphia, I jumped at the chance for a quick weekend getaway. Amtrak connects every city center in less than an hour and a half each way, making this an extremely convenient trip.
Amtrak Business Class Boston To New York
The $34 fare bought me a base-level seat reservation for reserved buses, which, despite the name, actually doesn’t allow passengers to reserve a seat. Amtrak recently started offering upgrades through the BidUp program, powered by Plusgrade, the same company behind the bid-to-upgrade program on many airlines, and I decided to submit a minimum bid to see the process and benefits of Experience Business Class on Northeast Regional Trains.
Lake Shore Limited Train
The upgrade process works exactly like with airlines. I entered my reservation number and last name on a web page and a meter presented the lowest possible bid of $23, which the system classified as a “poor” offer strength.
The upgrade did indeed clear, but that happened quite late with an email arriving in my inbox at 7:12am for the 9:05am departure.
At the same time, a new e-ticket was also emailed to me, containing my assigned seat and car number.
The Amtrak app allowed me to view the seating plan for the Business Class car and reassign new seats as often as I wanted. I even switched seats one last time after boarding when I saw that my chosen window seat actually had no window. The system worked well and is a big improvement for Amtrak, but it needs to be rolled out to Coach as soon as possible.
Riding An Amtrak Train Overnight: Tips For First Time Rail Travelers
I left my Brooklyn apartment for Penn Station about 45 minutes before the train’s scheduled departure time, a luxury you just don’t have when flying from airports in the New York area. I arrived at the newly opened Moynihan Train Hall about 15 minutes before departure. Since the actual train concourse has no seating, I had two options: to stand until the track number was posted or enter the small waiting room for ticketed passengers. I chose the latter, but it was quite busy for a Saturday morning.
Imagine if an airport had no seats except in airline lounges. Moynihan becomes a mess once the travel really kicks into high gear, but it could easily be fixed with more seating for passengers.
Business Class passengers do not get any form of priority boarding and a long line of people formed by an escalator close to the runway before the runway number was even posted. Once posted, a mess of people crowded the single escalator, making for an unnecessarily chaotic experience.
The Business Class car was at the back of the train, but Amtrak doesn’t communicate that, so I had to ask a conductor where to find it. It was clear on board that the size of the upgrade is minimal from a hard product standpoint. Coach and Business Class use the exact same seat, but the latter offers a slightly wider seat pitch. With more than enough pitch in Coach already, the upgrade didn’t seem worth it. Amtrak does offer a more premium Business Class seat on longer-haul trains, such as the Vermonter, with a 1-2 configuration instead of 2-2.
File:acela First Class.jpg
Amtrak also features Wi-Fi and to my surprise it worked quite well on this particular trip. Fast.com reported download speeds of 2 Mbps, and I had no problem streaming YouTube and Netflix.
The only other tangible improvement a Business Class fare offers passengers is the inclusion of a free non-alcoholic drink on board the train.
Unlike trains in Europe or Asia, where an attendant pushes a cart down the aisle to offer drinks, Amtrak only offers these drinks in the café car, which is located in the middle of the train.
Walking back through half the train with a very hot cup of coffee as we raced through New Jersey at 125 mph, not spilling a drop should be an Olympic sport.
Train Travel In Canada
Amtrak continues to offer an attractive product compared to airlines in the Northeast Corridor, and the experience will only get better as the new fleet of trains hit the rails in a few years.
In the meantime, however, Amtrak has some work to do to improve the Business Class experience, which just wasn’t worth the cost.
Tags #paxex, 2-2 Configuration, Amtrak, Amtrak Base Level Reserved Bus Seat, Amtrak BidUp Program, Amtrak Business Class, Amtrak Business Class Car, Amtrak Business Class Experience, Amtrak Cabin, Amtrak Food & Beverage, Amtrak Interiors, Amtrak Northeast Regional Trains, Amtrak Reserved Bus Seat, Amtrak Seat Map, Amtrak Train, Amtrak Trains, At-seat Power, Base Level Reserved Bus Seat, Bid-to-Upgrade Program, BidUp, BidUp Program, broadband, business class, business class cabin on Amtrak , Business Class car, Business Class experience, Business Class experience on Amtrak, Business Class seat, Business Class seating, Business Class seats, business class service, cafe car, capacity, coach class, connectivity, eticket, Fast.com, free non-alcoholic drink, free non-alcoholic drink on board the train, high-speed internet, IFC, IFEC, in-seat power, Inseat power, Inseat Powers, internet, Internet of Things , IoT, Moynihan Train Hall, Moynihan Train Hall New York, Moynihan Train Hall Penn Station, New York, New York City, New York to Philadelphia, non alcoholic beverage, non alcoholic beverage, Northeast Corridor, Northeast Regional trains, nose -to-tail, nyc, onboard service, passenger, passenger experience, passengers, penn station, penn station new york, pennsylvania, philadelphia, philadelphia, plusgrade, outlet, power port, rail, rail connectivity, rail experience, rail passenger, rail Passenger Experience, Rail Passengers, Rail Seat, Rail Seating, Rail Seats, Rail Station, Rail Travel, Rail Passengers, Rail Travel, Railway, Rail Line, Satellite, Satellites, Seat, Seating Map, Seats, Seats, Smartphones, Smart Watches, Streaming Netflix, Streaming YouTube, tablets, waiting room for ticketed passengers, Trail Station, train, train cabin, Train Connectivity, train experience, train hall, Train Hall Seat, Train Hall Seating, Train Hall Seats, train hard product, train interior, train interiors, train internet, Train Meal Service, train passenger , train passenger experience, train passengers, train seat, train seats, train seats, train service, train track, train travel, train passenger, train passengers. Train Travel, Train Wifi, Train Wifi, Trains, Travel, Traveler, Travelers, Travel, USB Port, USB Power Port, USB-A, USB-C, Vermonter, Wifi, Train Wifi, Wifi, Wireless, Wireless Internet
Contributing Editor Jason Rabinowitz is a true #AvGeek who, as Routehappy’s Data Research Manager, explores all facets of the airline passenger experience. He is adept at assessing IFEC systems and other onboard products….Read moreRead moreNice, but is it worth the extra cost? An overview of business class on Amtrak’s Acela, NYC to Boston
Inside Amtrak’s Newest Acela Train Cars: Photo Tour
Liz Hund is a former TPG writer and covers everything from the latest deal to in-depth guides with a focus on beginners.
This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Terms and conditions apply to the offers on this page. Please visit this page for an explanation of our advertising policies.
Amtrak’s Acela takes you from New York City to Washington D.C. in just two hours and 33 minutes with its fast non-stop service, making it a businessman’s dream. With stops, the 150-mph train makes the trip in two hours and 55 minutes. Traveling from NYC to Boston takes three and a half hours.
The Acela isn’t as fast as the high-speed trains in Asia and Europe, which routinely top 200 mph, but it’s a convenient and productive alternative to flying or driving.
A Review Of Amtrak’s Acela Business Class
In general, Acela offers business travelers hourly service during the morning and afternoon rush hours between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, as well as many convenient round-trip flights between Washington and Boston. Budget permitting, this is a quick and comfortable way to traverse the Northeast Corridor.
There is no bus class on the Acela, just business and first. TPG’s Executive News Director Scott Mayerowitz reviewed the first-class option in April 2019. Since then, Amtrak has updated its interiors (with plans to upgrade them even more in 2021), so we thought it was time to introduce the refreshed business-class product.
In the past, Amtrak was a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, but that relationship is sadly no longer. You can redeem points earned using the Amtrak Guest Rewards World Mastercard, but if paying in cash, make sure to use a card such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve which earns 3x points per dollar spent on travel purchases or the Capital One Venture Rewards credit card , which allows you to exchange Venture miles for the cash price of a ticket at a fixed rate.
I booked directly with Amtrak and made sure to log into my Amtrak Guest Rewards account so I would earn points for my trip.
Amtrak Acela Business Class Coach
The information for the Amtrak Guest Rewards card is independently collected by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been verified or provided by the card issuer.
I have booked my ticket with
