My family is returning from a cruise next Sunday, departing San Diego at 9:30 am and arriving at 12:15 pm at LAX (Business Class on Pacific Surfliner 769).
From LAX, they will make a connection to the Sunset Limited (departing at 2:30pm, roomette sleeper) to El Paso.
They have 3 large suitcases plus carry-ons. My first question, is there checked baggage in San Diego or do they take their baggage on their own to the “coach baggage” car?
Help is appreciated, juan
Posts: 11 | From: El Paso, Texas | Registered: Jul 2006
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San Diego has checked baggage service, and Amtrak will put it into the Coach-Baggage car for you. I'm not sure how the connection to the Sunset Limited works (I've never done that one).
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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I have checked baggage in San Diego with a connection to the Coast Starlight. No problem. It works just like the airlines. They will check your baggage right through to your final destination.
Posts: 133 | From: Canaan, CT | Registered: Dec 2004
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Be sure that they make arrangements to be in the very first group off the ship or they will not make the 9:30AM Surfliner. Can they get the "3 large suitcases" off on their own? If they can they might be able to do "Independent Disembarkation".
Frank in unusually warm SBA
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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One thing to add to the above is to check the checked baggage dimension and weight limitations on the Amtrak web site. I just traveled round trip between San Diego and Kansas City with one large checked bag within the dimension limitations. It was just under the 50 pound limit and was weighed in both San Diego and Kansas City. I'm don't know if there would be an extra charge for exceeding the weight limit or whether bags exceeding the limit would be refused.
Posts: 41 | From: San Diego, CA, USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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sbalax, you bring up a very good point. The cruise ship though will arrive the day before their Pacific Surfliner departure (they will spend the night in San Diego). They will be at the station with plenty of time the next day.
Greg, concerning luggage weight and size, they should be ok with each bag weighing less than 50 lbs. Size shouldn't be a problem either.
Another question. Are they able to check their baggage in San Diego and receive them in LAX where they can take their baggage with them in the Sunset Limited sleeper?
juan
Posts: 11 | From: El Paso, Texas | Registered: Jul 2006
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Whew, I'm breathing easier knowing that they are spending a night in SAN! This way they can try to be in one of the last groups and enjoy one last, relaxed meal onboard.
On that trip, btw, we ran afoul of the 50 lb. rule. One bag was 53 pounds and the easiest way to handle it was to buy a $3.00 box from Amtrak and put some of the stuff in that.
The bags all made it to SBA fine but I think I posted earlier about the archaic "claim" procedure. Instead of letting us ID our bags the agent insisted on hunting for a matching tag VERY SLOWLY.
I would think they could pick up their check bags at LAUPT. Or just check what they want through to their final destination.
Hope all of this helps.
Frank in cool and clear SBA where tonight is "Thanksgiving" since we will, the non-rev gods willing, be in the air on the real deal.
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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If it were me, I'd put anything I might need on the train in a smaller bag and check the rest to the final destination versus checking it part way, claiming it at LAUPT, then trying to squeeze it all in the sleeper.
If the Surfliners are running on-time, there should be much more than enough time to claim the checked baggage at LAUPT and make your connection. Actually, with a scheduled 2 hours and 15 minutes between trains, 769 would have to running quite late for this to be a problem.
However, if your Surfliner is running quite late, I would either check the baggage through to the final destination or carry it on and store it on the Surfliner baggage racks, typically located near the car ends on the upper level.
Depending on the trip, these racks can sometimes be quite full or rather empty. On my recent trip, they were quite empty. The biggest hassle would have been lugging the baggage up and down the steps while boarding and exiting the train.
For example, last Sunday I was on the 830 AM departure southbound from Los Angeles. The two rear cars of the 6-car Surfliner were mostly not used and the remaining 4 cars were never more than about 25 to 30 percent full. Storage for large bags would not have been a problem.
Posts: 41 | From: San Diego, CA, USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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I didn't realize AMTRAK had a weight and size limit on checked luggage -- is this something new? The only other train where I have run into this was the VIA Rail Canadian from VAC-TWO last summer -- they had an "airline style" box into which all luggage, even that which was taken to your room with you, had to fit.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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At San Diego, one of the bags was over the weight limit for check-in, so they just carried it onboard themselves. (The bags were checked-in from San Diego to LAX).
At LAX, they had too many bags to take into the sleeping car, so they rechecked-in some bags from LAX to ELP.
Overall, no problems.
Thank you everyone for your help.
Posts: 11 | From: El Paso, Texas | Registered: Jul 2006
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