Amtrak changes website look

[colobok]

I was able to login and purchase tickets, the new option for room selection is nice. It includes how many rooms left, thats helpful info.

Where do you see how many rooms left???

It looks like it displays only when 1 or 2 rooms left. But there is no way to see this info when let's say 5-6 rooms left?

 

[transit54]

I also do not see anything about how many rooms are left. Anyone lead me to it?

While booking an upcoming trip when it was time to put in Buy Rooms, a "Only2 rooms left @ this price message" appeared when I entered the

number of rooms to match the number of passengers, however you still cant find out which rooms are available @ this price, they are still assigned by random choice on the computer, an agent has to be contacted to change your assigned room> Not too much of an improvement here IMHO but a work in Progress, do like the graphics and other features! Surely improvements and bugs out will come! :unsure:

Out of curiosity, what was the train/dates? I'd like to see this feature for myself...

 

[MrEd]

The number of rooms left message only seems to appear at a certain threshold. I happened to hit it on my first reservation attempt. Not sure of the reshold settings though.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I also do not see anything about how many rooms are left. Anyone lead me to it?

While booking an upcoming trip when it was time to put in Buy Rooms, a "Only2 rooms left @ this price message" appeared when I entered the

number of rooms to match the number of passengers, however you still cant find out which rooms are available @ this price, they are still assigned by random choice on the computer, an agent has to be contacted to change your assigned room> Not too much of an improvement here IMHO but a work in Progress, do like the graphics and other features! Surely improvements and bugs out will come! :unsure:

Out of curiosity, what was the train/dates? I'd like to see this feature for myself...

In my case, an actual booking, Thursday 11/05/09, CZ #5 KCY-SAC 1 roomette chosen, Message "Hurry only 1 room left" next to estimate of total price!

Ive seen it on other test bookings but dont have a clue why it appears when it does? Still cant see which rooms, they are assigned per computer according to AGR and Amtrak agents??? Hope that helps?

 

[transit54]

In my case, an actual booking, Thursday 11/05/09, CZ #5 KCY-SAC 1 roomette chosen, Message "Hurry only 1 room left" next to estimate of total price!Ive seen it on other test bookings but dont have a clue why it appears when it does? Still cant see which rooms, they are assigned per computer according to AGR and Amtrak agents??? Hope that helps?

Ah, there it is! I had to click on the room to see it come up. Thanks Jim!

 

[BeckysBarn]

The number of rooms left message only seems to appear at a certain threshold. I happened to hit it on my first reservation attempt. Not sure of the reshold settings though.

It seems to be if there are 3 or less rooms left. Doesn't matter how many pax you put in either. For example, if you have 1 passenger, it will still let you know that there are only 2 rooms left.

 

[acelafan]

Anyone find the fall system-wide timetable on the site? I can't find it. The old link doesn't work of course.

I asked Amtrak on several occasions to post the system-wide timetables and they actually did it. It's on the Timetables page and here is the direct link:

Amtrak System Timetable - Fall 2009/Winter 2010

 

[AAARGH!]

Anyone find the fall system-wide timetable on the site? I can't find it. The old link doesn't work of course.

I asked Amtrak on several occasions to post the system-wide timetables and they actually did it. It's on the Timetables page and here is the direct link:

Amtrak System Timetable - Fall 2009/Winter 2010

THANKS! Downloading it as I write this.

 

[Crescent ATN & TCL]

Works fine for me in IE7, Firefox 3.5.3 and Safari 4.x.x.

Just to clarify, you have no problems at all manually typing a date into the Departs text box?

No, when I click it the calendar opens up.

Isn't that what is supposed to happen? Pick a date from the calendar and you don't have to type it in.

Another way to put it is that you can't type it in. That means that if you're booking a sleeper 11 months out you have to click the arrow key 10 times and then click on the date, rather than just enter the date. I understand what they've done, but it's not an improvement to me.

I see what you are saying. I had never tried to type a date in and have always used the calendar.

I've heard from ticket agents and phone agents that a lot of people had problems with dates resetting on the old site to current date of chosen month resulting in in accurate reservations, that had to be corrected.

 

[rrdude]

Works fine for me in IE7, Firefox 3.5.3 and Safari 4.x.x.

For me, all that really matters is if it works on my pc or not. That's the bottom line.

I had no problems with the old website, even with IE8.

Now, the new website doesn't work. And nothing changed on my end.

I really love these companies which feel a compelling need to fancy up their websites; take something that works, and create out of it something that is broken. What a way to run a railroad.

Chill, chill, chill guys THAT's software. You TRY LIKE HELL, to create a new interface/version that works better than the old, and works on all platforms (mac, Linux, PC) and all browsers (Mozilla, Safari, IE, Chrome, Opera) ..........THAT's the EZ part. What NO DEVELOPER can EVER foresee is all the permutations that individual computer users have on their PC's/laptops. Anti-virus, cameras, RSS feeds, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah the "impact of the change" sucks, 'specially when it doesn't work for you, AT FIRST. But it WILL. I guess if we didn't "change" we'd still be using the old card catalog system down at the library...........

 

[Donctor]

Is this right?

From Chicago to Boston on October 30, a roomette costs more than a bedroom. What?

Roomette: Add $431.00 per room.

Bedroom: Add $370.00 per room.

Again, how is this possible?

 

[wayman]

Is this right?
From Chicago to Boston on October 30, a roomette costs more than a bedroom. What?

Roomette: Add $431.00 per room.

Bedroom: Add $370.00 per room.

Again, how is this possible?

Because lots of roomettes have been sold already (they're now in a high bucket) and few bedrooms have been sold (they're still in a low bucket). This isn't all that unusual. I've seen it often.

But on that particular train and date, I can tell you that it's probably actually the fault of this forum -- a number of those roomettes are going to be occupied by regular posters at Amtrak Unlimited

 

[wayman]

Another way to put it is that you can't type it in. That means that if you're booking a sleeper 11 months out you have to click the arrow key 10 times and then click on the date, rather than just enter the date. I understand what they've done, but it's not an improvement to me.

I see what you are saying. I had never tried to type a date in and have always used the calendar.

I've heard from ticket agents and phone agents that a lot of people had problems with dates resetting on the old site to current date of chosen month resulting in in accurate reservations, that had to be corrected.

The previous website often worked as follows for me:

I told it origin and destination, date and time, clicked through, and it showed me a list of trains. I decided "ok, what about another date", clicked "back" on my browser ... and the previous screen had lost the date and time I had typed in. Whereas, if I changed the date in the left part of the frames, there was never any confusion. But I never had an issue where the date reset while making a reservation, so long as I never clicked "back".

My beef with the new "choose date on calendar" system is that under the old website I could make a reservation entirely with the keyboard -- no mouse required. Now there seems to be no way to select a date without a mouse. For me, this is largely just an efficiency issue. I like to keep my hands on the keyboard, and I'm adept at doing things like "PHL tab tab LYH tab tab tab AA tab 22222 tab tab tab enter" if I wanted to travel on August 23nd, for instance. (I could be misremembering the number of tabs, but I think that was right; anyway, I could see how many I needed to type when I was doing it, so that part was less important.) But I suspect it means the Amtrak website is no longer compatible with text browsers (I haven't yet tested it with lynx or w3m).

(Who uses lynx??? I can hear you saying. Or possibly even What is lynx??? from younger forum members. And perhaps you're right that this is irrelevant in 2009. I think the last time I was in a situation where I actually needed to use a text browser was about 2005. But the issue of text browsers used to be linked to browsing for the blind as well, which is an technology issue I haven't kept abreast of for years. Perhaps technology has changed such that readers for the blind work differently today than they used to. But I know it's an issue many web developers don't take into consideration, too, and always has been, so it wouldn't surprise me if Amtrak chose a "pretty" way to do something which actually removes functionality for a small and often forgotten segment of the population.)

 

[AlanB]

Actually the date reverting to the current date, instead of the originally typed/selected date, was fixed several years ago. It was a huge problem with the site way back when, and many people did get caught booking the wrong dates because of it.

But again, it's been fixed for a while.

 

[Ispolkom]

Yeah the "impact of the change" sucks, 'specially when it doesn't work for you, AT FIRST. But it WILL. I guess if we didn't "change" we'd still be using the old card catalog system down at the library...........

I don't want to hear any trash talk about card catalogs. There were real advantages to card catalogs, especially for big research libraries, and you have no idea how much wailing and gnashing of teeth saw their disappearance. After all, card catalogs work even when a hard disk crashes or a network goes down, and paper is still the best way to conserve data.

What annoys me is that the new amtrak.com is just a new front end. You still have the same problems that you have with the old front end, plus a lot more mouse clicking.

For example, try to do a multi-city itinerary. You still can't find out what sleeper accommodations cost when you choose them, although now there are little drawings of the room layouts.

Change with increased functionality is great. Change with no increased functionality is pointless.

 

[transit54]

Yeah the "impact of the change" sucks, 'specially when it doesn't work for you, AT FIRST. But it WILL. I guess if we didn't "change" we'd still be using the old card catalog system down at the library...........

I don't want to hear any trash talk about card catalogs. There were real advantages to card catalogs, especially for big research libraries, and you have no idea how much wailing and gnashing of teeth saw their disappearance. After all, card catalogs work even when a hard disk crashes or a network goes down, and paper is still the best way to conserve data.

What annoys me is that the new amtrak.com is just a new front end. You still have the same problems that you have with the old front end, plus a lot more mouse clicking.

For example, try to do a multi-city itinerary. You still can't find out what sleeper accommodations cost when you choose them, although now there are little drawings of the room layouts.

Change with increased functionality is great. Change with no increased functionality is pointless.

Card catalogs and computer databases aren't mutually exclusive...if the former is significantly better than the latter, why not continue to maintain it?

I'm wondering how much of the increased functionality you suggest is beyond the scope of what ARROW can handle, or at least can be built easily. If that's the case, I don't think that the Amtrak site should be cast in stone till they upgrade to a new reservations system. I agree with you, I have a long wish-list of features I'd like to see added to the website, including the ones you mentioned. But perhaps this website provides the framework to allow them to roll out these changes over time?

 

[Ispolkom]

Card catalogs and computer databases aren't mutually exclusive...if the former is significantly better than the latter, why not continue to maintain it?
I'm wondering how much of the increased functionality you suggest is beyond the scope of what ARROW can handle, or at least can be built easily. If that's the case, I don't think that the Amtrak site should be cast in stone till they upgrade to a new reservations system. I agree with you, I have a long wish-list of features I'd like to see added to the website, including the ones you mentioned. But perhaps this website provides the framework to allow them to roll out these changes over time?

Card catalogs were abandoned because computer catalogs were cheaper, end of story. Spending even more money to maintain both a card catalog and a computer database wasn't going to happen. At best you leave a closed card catalog, which is no longer maintained. This was even the case at the Library of Congress, where a low-bid effort to computerize the old card catalog was wildly unsuccessful. I haven't worked there in ages, so I don't know if they still have the old card catalogs.

You might well be correct that the new amtrak.com web site is somehow more compatible to improvements in arrow. Given my experience with web designers, I doubt it, but it doesn't really matter. I think that it's wrong headed and bad costumer service to make changes to a consumer web site that merely improve things for the developer, not for the end-user.

On the other hand, I'm probably over-reacting. It isn't as though the old site was any great shakes. I misremembered thinking I could type in a date on amtrak.com. Even on the old site I had to use drop-downs, as if I weren't trusted to type correctly.

 

[rrdude]

Yeah the "impact of the change" sucks, 'specially when it doesn't work for you, AT FIRST. But it WILL. I guess if we didn't "change" we'd still be using the old card catalog system down at the library...........

I don't want to hear any trash talk about card catalogs. There were real advantages to card catalogs, especially for big research libraries, and you have no idea how much wailing and gnashing of teeth saw their disappearance. After all, card catalogs work even when a hard disk crashes or a network goes down, and paper is still the best way to conserve data.

What annoys me is that the new amtrak.com is just a new front end. You still have the same problems that you have with the old front end, plus a lot more mouse clicking.

For example, try to do a multi-city itinerary. You still can't find out what sleeper accommodations cost when you choose them, although now there are little drawings of the room layouts.

Change with increased functionality is great. Change with no increased functionality is pointless.

Umm, HOW MANY DAYS has the new web site been out now? 'Nuff said.

 

[the_traveler]

I guess if we didn't "change" we'd still be using the old card catalog system down at the library...........

You mean they don't use the card catalog anymore?

Maybe I should get of trains and stay at home more often! (Banish that thought! :lol: )

 

[AlanB]

I misremembered thinking I could type in a date on amtrak.com. Even on the old site I had to use drop-downs, as if I weren't trusted to type correctly.

You didn't misremember, you could indeed type in the date on the old site. You had the option of typing the date, or clicking the little calendar icon next to the date field if you didn't feel like typing the date. A vastly superior design to the current one where you have no choice; IMHO.

 

[the_traveler]

I misremembered thinking I could type in a date on amtrak.com. Even on the old site I had to use drop-downs, as if I weren't trusted to type correctly.

You didn't misremember, you could indeed type in the date on the old site. You had the option of typing the date, or clicking the little calendar icon next to the date field if you didn't feel like typing the date. A vastly superior design to the current one where you have no choice; IMHO.

Could you type in the date on the old website? :huh:

If I remember correctly, if you wanted January 15, as soon as you typed "J", a drop down list of the months starting with "J" (January, June, July) opened. If you weren't paying attention and typed in "A", a drop down list of the months starting with "A" (April, August) opened!

 

[leemell]

Wow, Amtrak new website really sucks! :angry:
It doesn't work!

I can enter (type) text into the "From" box, and the "To" box. but I cannot enter anything into the "Departs" box! It has today's date, and I can't change it. If I click on the calendar icon, nothing happens. However, the "Time" pull down works.

What do I do, if I don't want to travel today? :huh:

Doesn't Amtrak bother to test this first? If anyone is interested, I am running IE8.

Boy this really sucks. The old website didn't look as pretty, but it worked.

Works fine for me in IE7, Firefox 3.5.3 and Safari 4.x.x.

Works fine in Google Chrome 3.0.195.27, Firefox 3.5.3 and IE 8.0.6001.18702.

 

[BigBlueBuddha]

The other negatives above I agree withNo saved trips. . .

Amtrak responded to my email query about saved trips:

----------

Thank you for your inquiry.

At this time we have removed the "My Saved Plans" feature from the new website. Our IT Department is working on resolving this issue, but do not yet have a definite date when/if this feature will be restored.

We hope that this information will assist you.

Sincerely,

Maureen

Amtrak Customer Service

----------

I only hope "if" becomes a "when". . . :unsure:

 

[GoldenSpike]

Is this right?
From Chicago to Boston on October 30, a roomette costs more than a bedroom. What?

Roomette: Add $431.00 per room.

Bedroom: Add $370.00 per room.

Again, how is this possible?

It happens. Once I ran across a Family Bedroom $60 LESS than a Roomette. Thinking a system error, I went out and back in. It was still there. I grabbed it in a flash MSP-SEA, even though I preferred MSP-PDX. On boarding the car attendant couldn't believe it either.

 

[Ispolkom]

It happens. Once I ran across a Family Bedroom $60 LESS than a Roomette. Thinking a system error, I went out and back in. It was still there. I grabbed it in a flash MSP-SEA, even though I preferred MSP-PDX. On boarding the car attendant couldn't believe it either.

I booked almost exactly the same family room, for August 2008, though in my case it was MSP-PDX. I also couldn't believe the deal, and wondered what was so wrong with the family bedroom. On that trip it was clear that several travel groups had offered their guests the choice of roomette or bedroom, thus leaving out the family bedrooms. My wife was so happy with the accommodations on that trip, she forgave me for forgetting the gin. Fortunately, in Portland we attended the Great American Distillers Festival.

Alan, are you right? I swear I remember cussing about the drop downs. I'm old school. I like typing.