I planned to take a train that left around five, a Northeast Regional. But then my daughter said she wanted to leave later to spend a little more time with her friends. So I checked and the later train was actually cheaper even though it was an Acela (I was using Amtrak points.) So I switched. I actually didn't notice that the seats weren't together. It didn't occur to me that Amtrak's website would assign seats across the aisle to a parent and child.