Amtrak gift card - Update July, 2010
I just went through this entire issue this morning, and thought I'd share my experience. This will NOT be of much use to anyone who lives a prohibitive distance from an Amtrak station however.
I wanted to book a trip from (strangely enough) Cleveland to Chicago for a friend and myself - to take place about 2 & 1/2 weeks in the future. He has an Amtrak gift certificate, and we both have AAA memberships for the 10% discount. I wanted to reserve our seats now, because they were already beginning to fill up. My concerns were not having his AAA number, and that the gift certificate apparently needed to be redeemed at an Amtrak ticket counter. I was also led to believe that I would get a better price if I did all this online (not true).
I tried going online... no luck. I HAD to pay with a credit card right then, but I couldn't enter his AAA number, and there was no way to deal with his gift certificate. So I canceled everything and tried "Julie," the automated telephone system.
Julie got me closer to making a (discounted) reservation and would allow me to present our AAA cards at the station. When we got to the point of payment, it/she asked if I wanted to pay for the reservation with a credit card right then. When I replied "no," it instantly patched me over to the line where you wait for a live agent (I waited about 5 minutes).
To make a long story short-- I should have just started by asking for an agent. For one thing, none of the information I gave to Julie was transferred to him, so all of that time spent with the computer was for naught.
Most of all, the live agent was just GREAT... very helpful. He took care of everything I needed easily and in short order. He booked the seats, and created two separate reservations (which did NOT affect the price at all). My reservation was a piece of cake, and my AAA discount was applied (I gave him my number). Also, for anyone who wonders, my rate was exactly what it would have been online.
My buddy's reservation was just as easy. The agent gave him a separate reservation number, and gave him the AAA price. He can show his AAA card when he goes to get his ticket, and can use his Amtrak gift card toward the payment "just like cash." True- he DOES need to present his gift card at the station (which is what I arranged for -- never asked for an alternative). The reservation needs to be paid for within three days. I could have paid for mine with a credit card over the phone, but since we both live approx. 40 minutes from the station, we just decided to drive up there the next day to purchase them at the counter. At least our seats and discount price were set.
So-- if you have a gift card, just call Amtrak and ask for an agent. They'll make all the arrangements and give you any possible options. Don't waste all the time I did trying the online or automated systems. Now, if we have any problem picking up the tickets, I'll leave another post.