Agent changed One-way to Multi-City

[hankster211]

A couple of weeks ago, I booked an AGR roomette for 2 for Chicago to Seattle on the SW Chief connecting in LA to Coast Starlight.

Because my sister decided to go with us, I called AGR to book her a paid fare and do whatever it took to get our roomettes across the aisle from each other.

The agent told me the roomette across the aisle on both segments was not available, so I asked if he could change our roomette in order to get 2 roomettes across from each other.

At first he said I would be charged 10% penalty under the new rules for doing this.

I replied, "just to change rooms?" He put me on hold about ten minutes while he checked with management.

He came back on and said they could do it without penalty, so he moved me and wife from 003 to 007 and put sister in 008 for both segments.

My original eTicket said

Chi-Sea -One-Way,

but the new eTicket with the changed roomette states:

Chi-Multiple Cities - Multi-City Trip.

Sister's paid ticket states Multi-City also

My question is, and I haven't called AGR back yet, Will this cause any problems with guaranteed connection or anything like that?

Thanks,

Hank

 

[districtRich]

A couple of weeks ago, I booked an AGR roomette for 2 for Chicago to Seattle on the SW Chief connecting in LA to Coast Starlight.

Because my sister decided to go with us, I called AGR to book her a paid fare and do whatever it took to get our roomettes across the aisle from each other.

The agent told me the roomette across the aisle on both segments was not available, so I asked if he could change our roomette in order to get 2 roomettes across from each other.

At first he said I would be charged 10% penalty under the new rules for doing this.

I replied, "just to change rooms?" He put me on hold about ten minutes while he checked with management.

He came back on and said they could do it without penalty, so he moved me and wife from 003 to 007 and put sister in 008 for both segments.

My original eTicket said

Chi-Sea -One-Way,

but the new eTicket with the changed roomette states:

Chi-Multiple Cities - Multi-City Trip.

Sister's paid ticket states Multi-City also

My question is, and I haven't called AGR back yet, Will this cause any problems with guaranteed connection or anything like that?

Thanks,

Hank

This also happened to me when I called to change rooms last week. It now says multi-city trip on my ticket.

 

[Ryan]

No problem.

 

[City of Miami]

It's probably a work around to get the program to do the change without charging the penalty. I, too, suspect it might also nullify the guaranteed connection. I imagine that Customer Service would honor the connection in the end but it would take some work on your part. Let's hope it's a moot point since the connection almost always works.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I would hope that any legal connections would remain guaranteed by policy. However, I would not simply assume that any misconnect on a mulit-city itinerary would be self correcting. Instead I would consider it my personal responsibility to monitor the situation and inform any staff of a potential misconnect before it became an active problem. Multi-city ticketing allows you to book illegal connections and even if otherwise guaranteed connections remain enforced they may not be flagged correctly in the connection reporting process for proactive resolution should a misconnect occur. Better safe than sorry and all that.

No problem.

No source?

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

In January, I rode New Orleans to Emeryville. I made and paid for this trip on Amtrak.com. It also came out as "Multi-City Trip". I think this may be the new standard way of classifying any ticket requiring changing of trains. I made my trip January 12-15 and had no problems at all with using this ticket and checked a bag from New Orleans to Emeryville no problem.

 

[Ryan]

No problem.

No source?

We've been over this. There are plenty of them, you disagree. Maybe you can let it drop?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

No problem.

No source?

We've been over this. There are plenty of them, you disagree. Maybe you can let it drop?

Says the one member who routinely expects written evidence from anyone else? Have you ever been on multi-city ticket and missed your connection or is this a hypothetical answer masquerading as unquestioned fact? This specific situation doesn't have enough direct evidence or secondary data points to accurately anticipate the outcome. Regardless if the connection policy applies or not there is still the matter of how Amtrak's corrective process is applied and whether or not it will identify every legal connection regardless of the booking type. That being the case I'm suggesting passengers monitor the situation and self identify to the staff should their connection be jeopardized. Having you come along and casually wave off any concerns about a situation you've never actually experienced only serves to muddy the water with erroneous comfort and a false sense of security.

 

[KmH]

I have. Been on a multi-city ticket and Amtrak could not make a guaranteed connection that is.

And so have lots of other Amtrak riders.

It was handled like a regular ticket.

As long as those Multi-City tickets are a single reservation - guaranteed connections are still guaranteed.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I have. Been on a multi-city ticket and Amtrak could not make a guaranteed connection that is. And so have lots of other Amtrak riders. It was handled like a regular ticket. As long as those Multi-City tickets are a single reservation - guaranteed connections are still guaranteed.

That's good to know but thus far you're the only member I've seen state this as first hand knowledge. That being the case I'd like to inquire as to some of the details. For instance, did Amtrak come to you or did you need to self identify? Were multi-city ticketed passengers at any sort of disadvantage compared to through ticketed passengers? Did muti-city tickets enjoy equal corrective priority and did they have equal claim to corrective resolutions as through tickets? In other words, if a muti-city ticketed sleeper passenger is competing for a limited number of replacement rooms do they have equal protection and priority as through-ticketed passengers? I'm not asking how the de jure policy is written so much as how the de facto corrective process is applied in actual practice. I ask because on my own multi-city trips the SCA's and other staff did not appear to realize I was connecting whereas when I was traveling on conventional through tickets they did.

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

I have. Been on a multi-city ticket and Amtrak could not make a guaranteed connection that is. And so have lots of other Amtrak riders. It was handled like a regular ticket. As long as those Multi-City tickets are a single reservation - guaranteed connections are still guaranteed.

That's good to know but thus far you're the only member I've seen state this as first hand knowledge. That being the case I'd like to inquire as to some of the details. For instance, did Amtrak come to you or did you need to self identify? Were multi-city ticketed passengers at any sort of disadvantage compared to through ticketed passengers? Did muti-city tickets enjoy equal corrective priority and did they have equal claim to corrective resolutions as through tickets? In other words, if a muti-city ticketed sleeper passenger is competing for a limited number of replacement rooms do they have equal protection and priority as through-ticketed passengers? I'm not asking how the de jure policy is written so much as how the de facto corrective process is applied in actual practice. I ask because on my own multi-city trips the SCA's and other staff did not appear to realize I was connecting whereas when I was traveling on conventional through tickets they did.

I am one who considers a multi city on a single reservation to be guaranteed connection. I actually experienced this January 13 connecting from Train 58 to Train 5 in Chicago. I checked my bag in New Orleans all the way through to Emeryville so the Amtrak personnel in NOLA were aware. Unless there is a mis-connect I see no reason for the SCA or even conductor to acknowledge to me they are aware of my connection.

I know DA will invalidate my experience. That is just what you do, Devil's Advocate.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I have. Been on a multi-city ticket and Amtrak could not make a guaranteed connection that is. And so have lots of other Amtrak riders. It was handled like a regular ticket. As long as those Multi-City tickets are a single reservation - guaranteed connections are still guaranteed.

That's good to know but thus far you're the only member I've seen state this as first hand knowledge. That being the case I'd like to inquire as to some of the details. For instance, did Amtrak come to you or did you need to self identify? Were multi-city ticketed passengers at any sort of disadvantage compared to through ticketed passengers? Did muti-city tickets enjoy equal corrective priority and did they have equal claim to corrective resolutions as through tickets? In other words, if a muti-city ticketed sleeper passenger is competing for a limited number of replacement rooms do they have equal protection and priority as through-ticketed passengers? I'm not asking how the de jure policy is written so much as how the de facto corrective process is applied in actual practice. I ask because on my own multi-city trips the SCA's and other staff did not appear to realize I was connecting whereas when I was traveling on conventional through tickets they did.

I am one who considers a multi city on a single reservation to be guaranteed connection. I actually experienced this January 13 connecting from Train 58 to Train 5 in Chicago. I checked my bag in New Orleans all the way through to Emeryville so the Amtrak personnel in NOLA were aware. Unless there is a mis-connect I see no reason for the SCA or even conductor to acknowledge to me they are aware of my connection. I know DA will invalidate my experience. That is just what you do, Devil's Advocate.

It would be impossible for me to invalidate your direct experience since I have never had this happen to me on a train. I have had this happen to me on an airline before and discovered that multi-city bookings can fail to trigger any proactive correction process which can put you at a disadvantage compared to other travelers. The policy isn't different but the practical result can leave you with fewer options since you will end up at the back of the virtual queue so to speak. If this doesn't happen on Amtrak then that's a good thing. I'll still avoid multi-city tickets whenever possible since I prefer to avoid adding unnecessary variables if I can help it. If the agent created a multi-city ticket without my involvement then I guess I'd just have to hope for the best and live with the outcome.

 

[abcnews]

We travelled through Chicago one winter (on the Empire Builder) and we missed our connection. Our Eastbound Empire Builder was very late - and as we were heading towards Chicago we got to know many of the other sleeper passengers riding with us on the Empire Builder.

One of the other passengers actually had a AGR redemption (two zone roomette) to Chicago, and he had a new ticket (separate ticket) from Chicago to Washington, DC on the Capital Limited. I mentioned to him that he really had no guaranteed connection, since one was a free AGR two zone award (from West Coast to Chicago), and the other was a cash/credit card ticket from Chicago to Washington, DC. It was two different ticket types, two different reservation numbers, etc... I did not think they would help him with a missed connection, but I was wrong...

When we went into Chicago's Union Station, the special services agent met us, and we all received hotel rooms and cash, including the passenger with two different ticket types. They considered it a guarantee connection, regardless of how the tickets were reserved. A connection is a connection, and it was honored by Amtrak. All of us were on the next days Capital Limited, and we were all given hotel rooms.

 

[Ryan]

Wow, that's amazing!

(By "amazing", I mean "exactly what I said would happen")

 

[chakk]

I agree with Ryan. Amtrak's computers are smart enough (IMO) to match up the separate tickets for connecting trains and guarantee the connection -- so long as the tickets are booked with the same name, same AGR member number, same record locater ...

 

[the_traveler]

I was on the CS that was running late. In OR, there was an announcement that said, "All passengers connecting to the EB are to get off at Albany to board buses to PDX to connect to the EB!" It did not say "Only those with reservations that were not booked as multi-city ..." nor did they ask to see your reservation as you boarded the bus. (The CS also continued to PDX and SEA, but got to PDX over a 1/2 hour after the buses arrived and the EB departed - I-5 is actually faster!)

 

[PaulM]

Multi-city ticketing allows you to book illegal connections ..

Don't forget that there are many cases where "legal", as you call them, connections are not "published". This is especially true where AB and BC are legal, but ABC is not published. This was a big problem with the old AGR; but shouldn't be any longer, as long multi-city reservations with legal connections are guaranteed.

Your suggestion that one alert Amtrak when a multi-city connection is about to missed is only common sense.