I'm trying to book Amtrak tickets for NY to New Haven and back to do Columbia and Yale in a few weeks. What's the difference (except $12) between "reserved" and "unreserved"?
The main difference is that if too many people booked on that particular train, the reserved peeps get priority and displace the unreserved people. I'm sure there's some more nit picky things, but that's the main thing I'm aware of. Unless you're travelling on a friday or sunday, or holiday volume day, you're probably safe going with the unreserved- i've travelled a lot of amtrak and it wasn't an issue ever. --Trek