2013 S, S+ & SE Packets

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I don't have a dog in the fight either way. I just think it's a little early to claim the new top tier will have little or no impact on the lower tiers. We're still less than a year into this change and we have already heard that major changes are coming to the AGR website in the future. Let's give it a little more time for the pending changes to be implemented before sounding the all-clear.
 
Shanghai & Acela150, it's just like UPS. There's a distribution center about a mile from my house & I don't get my packages till late in the day. :(
 
AmtrakBlue said:
Shanghai & Acela150, it's just like UPS. There's a distribution center about a mile from my house & I don't get my packages till late in the day. :(
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Betty,

I can top that. I grew up in Belleville, NJ just outside of Newark, NJ. I went to college at NJIT in Newark. Most things that the college mailed to me were mailed via third class mail to save money. So it would go to the Newark Post Office since NJIT was in Newark.

Since it was third class mail, all third class mail had to go to this wonderful new sorting facility in the Meadowlands, not far from where Giant's Stadium is and about 10 miles away from Newark. At sorting, they realized that Belleville's post office is really an annex of Newark's post office. So they'd send it back to Newark, who in turn would then route it to the Belleville branch, such that a letter carrier could then deliver it to my front door.

And since it was third class, which gets the lowest priority and therefore moves very slowly through the system, if I was lucky I'd get whatever it was that they mailed 3 to 4 weeks after they'd originally mailed it. I can't tell you how many deadlines and registrations I missed or nearly missed thanks to this "efficient" system of sending all third class mail to that special sorting center in the Meadowlands that was supposed to get things delivered faster. :rolleyes:
 
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Alan,

I have another Post Office story. When we were living in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, my daughter was

in college in Pennsylvania. The college would address her tuition & residence hall bills to me and address

them as Amsterdam, NL and they would be delivered to Amsterdam, NY. I would have to call the college

and they would give me the amount of the bill. Usually, about one month later I would get the letter with

a handwritten word - Holland!!
 
Same thing when I went to College in San Marcos! (between Austin and San Antonio), Local Mail for San Marcos was Collected and sent via Rail or Truck to Austin where it was Sorted, then Returned the next Day or so to San Marcos to be Dellivered the Third of Fourth Day! (Of course there is No more Mail sent via Train down here, its all Trucked to Austin and either Flown out or Trucked to its Destination! Soon there will be No Saturday Service either! :(

Still haven't Received my Lowly Select Packet yet! <_<
 
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In NYC I finally got my S+ card yesterday. Didn't realize those bring a friend coupons are valid on round-trips. Anyone had any luck using them on a multi-city itinerary (thinking about a coach round-trip to the West Coast with a friend) and stopping in Chicago one-way.

How have people used the cupons in the past?
 
SubwayNut said:
In NYC I finally got my S+ card yesterday. Didn't realize those bring a friend coupons are valid on round-trips. Anyone had any luck using them on a multi-city itinerary (thinking about a coach round-trip to the West Coast with a friend) and stopping in Chicago one-way.How have people used the cupons in the past?
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I've used mine for R/Ts on the Acela and the NERs. The thing with the companion coupons, as I see it, is that to 'save' more money, one has to spend more. I've tried to use mine for practical trips. or ones that can qualify me for other specials, like the Take3 Acela or the Take2 NER offers currently going. And despite my annual promise to myself that I'll use my coupons earlier THIS year, the year slips by quickly and then in November I think: "Uh oh, times running short, time to book my coupon trips." From talking to a couple of folks who man the desk at ClubAcela, I'm hardly the only one who finds time runs short for using them. I have no idea if you can use them for multi-leg trips, but I'd like to know the answer to that too.
 
The woman would not take my S+ temp card in the CHI metro lounge. Says they don't take photo copies of cards. I explained to her that it was printed off the amtrak site from my email and she said, "non amtrak don't do that. And this card was 2012, its expired." I then had to point out the expiration date is print on the card, good until 04//13. She accused me of scamming and called a supervisor in! What nerve of these people. I told them my card was sent to minneapolis and I haven't been back in 4 months. Not to mention the cards are just now being shipped out. Went over to their computer and pulled up the email and temp card. Really? What idiots.
 
KrazyKoala said:
The woman would not take my S+ temp card in the CHI metro lounge. Says they don't take photo copies of cards. I explained to her that it was printed off the amtrak site from my email and she said, "non amtrak don't do that. And this card was 2012, its expired." I then had to point out the expiration date is print on the card, good until 04//13. She accused me of scamming and called a supervisor in! What nerve of these people. I told them my card was sent to minneapolis and I haven't been back in 4 months. Not to mention the cards are just now being shipped out. Went over to their computer and pulled up the email and temp card. Really? What idiots.
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If she had any doubts about your card being legitthen the correct procedure was for her to look up your info in her computer. She can see your status in the computer and admit you based upon that.
 
AlanB said:
KrazyKoala said:
The woman would not take my S+ temp card in the CHI metro lounge. Says they don't take photo copies of cards. I explained to her that it was printed off the amtrak site from my email and she said, "non amtrak don't do that. And this card was 2012, its expired." I then had to point out the expiration date is print on the card, good until 04//13. She accused me of scamming and called a supervisor in! What nerve of these people. I told them my card was sent to minneapolis and I haven't been back in 4 months. Not to mention the cards are just now being shipped out. Went over to their computer and pulled up the email and temp card. Really? What idiots.
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If she had any doubts about your card being legitthen the correct procedure was for her to look up your info in her computer. She can see your status in the computer and admit you based upon that.
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Hah! But this is afterall Chicago Met lounge! :help:
 
I told her to look it up and she said there was no way. This is a rather new employee and she should be working by herself.
 
Also: why would those passes not work on sleepers? The price of the sleeper is the same whether it one or two people in them...
 
If Companion Coupons were used for Sleepers Amtrak would lose the Upgrade fee. There are several thousand of Select Plus and Select Executive members. Just imagine losing money for Sleepers on Companion Coupons. That's a lot of money..
 
Acela150 said:
If Companion Coupons were used for Sleepers Amtrak would lose the Upgrade fee. There are several thousand of Select Plus and Select Executive members. Just imagine losing money for Sleepers on Companion Coupons. That's a lot of money..
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they are losing money by issuing the companion coupons in general. The price of the upgrade stays the same whether there's on person in the room or two. Everytime you get a room you are paying the upgrade for two people, even when traveling alone.
 
I went inside the New York ClubAcela many times with my temporary print out S+ card. A couple times to wait for NJT Trains, doing a SubwayNut.com project over there, plus picking up and dropping people off on trains and even just for the clean bathroom in midtown. I still haven't gotten on an Amtrak train in Penn Station yet this year. The reason I'm S+ is from traveling the country on Amtrak last year, my only Amtrak trip so far has been DEN to SLC that yielded me no special S+ privileges, if only NYC had cheeper points runs (like the amazing runs from Philly on the Keystone).

The agents never batted and eye with my temporary print out card (that I even cut out to fit in my wallet and simply wrote my name and S+ in their logbook). The last time I went in I couldn't find the little piece of paper I cut out and put in my wallet so I showed the agent my 2012 Select card and she spent thirty seconds looking me up and double-checking on her computer and let me in.
 

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