Amtrak changes website look

[acelafan]

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!

I'm pretty sure you could only do the drop-downs for choosing the dates on the old site, unless you could do it on a page that I wasn't using. I actually took a few screenshots before the new design rolled out, just for fun. Here are some oldies but goodies, right?

Amtrak.com front page as viewed on Oct 24, 2009

Amtrak.com Multi-City page as viewed on Oct 24, 2009

 

[wayman]

I'm pretty sure you could only do the drop-downs for choosing the dates on the old site, unless you could do it on a page that I wasn't using. I actually took a few screenshots before the new design rolled out, just for fun. Here are some oldies but goodies, right?

While a drop-down box is the active element on a website, you can do any of the following:

1) use the mouse, locate what you want, and click on it

2) use the down arrow to go through the elements one by one, then hit tab when what you want is selected

3) type a letter/number, and the first element to begin with that character will be selected; type the same letter/number again after a brief pause, and the second element to begin with that character will be selected; etc; then hit tab when what you want is selected

4) type several letters/numbers quickly, and the first element to begin with that string will be selected; then hit tab when what you want is selected

Say I want "August".

An example of (2) is if I tab over to the month field, and hit down once to open the drop-down box, then down to Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, and Aug, then tab once Aug is selected. So, tab, down (x9), tab.

An example of (3) is if I tab over to the month field, and type A which opens the drop-down box and selects April, and then type A again to select the next "A" element, August, and then tab once Aug is selected. So, tab, A (x2), tab.

An example of (4) is if I tab over to the month field, and type AUG quickly, which opens the drop-down box and selects August, then tab once Aug is selected. So, tab, AUG, tab.

This works with most drop-down boxes on most websites; it wasn't anything special to the Amtrak site.

 

[PetalumaLoco]

 

[Guest]

Remember when in ancient times people actually made and used flow charts! A museum piece along with IBM cards and sorters and readers, magnetic tape, floppy disks etc. Glad Im retired and out of the rat race, a luddite like me would starve in this high tech world today! Maybe thats why I like diner food on Amtrak (except the flat iron train kill!

 

[Montanan]

Oh, how I love XKCD! Thanks, PetalumaLoco.

 

[BillyJo]

I'm working on a cross-country trip for next summer, and I've noticed some things that are puzzling, particularly when trying to book roomettes. It lists a specific price for a room, but when you try to book two of them, the price goes up dramatically. I've tried this many times on several different routes and days, and most of the time, I could only get one room at the quoted price.

This may have been the same on the older site, but I don't recall.

I understand the bucket system (or so I thought), but it make planning a trip rather confusing! Any ideas/solutions?

 

[Ryan]

Sounds like you're running into the last room available at low bucket, so the second room you are trying to get is more expensive.

 

[darien-l]

Sounds like you're running into the last room available at low bucket, so the second room you are trying to get is more expensive.

I remember running into this problem on the old website as well. Unfortunately, in this case BOTH rooms go up a fare bucket. The only way to avoid it is to book one room at a time.

 

[AlanB]

Sounds like you're running into the last room available at low bucket, so the second room you are trying to get is more expensive.

I remember running into this problem on the old website as well. Unfortunately, in this case BOTH rooms go up a fare bucket. The only way to avoid it is to book one room at a time.

Actually I'm not sure that both rooms go up to the same price even on line, but if they do an agent should be able to book one at the low bucket price and the other at the next bucket.

 

[JackieTakestheTrain]

Hi:

So, there is definitely no way to save a trip on the new website?

I am searching frantically here to find the save trip feature for a business trip I am scheduling. I don't want to do this twice!

-- Jackie

 

[the_traveler]

Hi:So, there is definitely no way to save a trip on the new website?

I am searching frantically here to find the save trip feature for a business trip I am scheduling. I don't want to do this twice!

-- Jackie

I don't believe there is.

Actually, I never used that feature. I've always just bought a ticket and the res was saved in (IIRC) "My Trips". It still is - although in a different format than before.

 

[rrdude]

Remember when in ancient times people actually made and used flow charts! A museum piece along with IBM cards and sorters and readers, magnetic tape, floppy disks etc. Glad Im retired and out of the rat race, a luddite like me would starve in this high tech world today! Maybe thats why I like diner food on Amtrak (except the flat iron train kill!

HA! I posed a question today to one of our programmers, and he responded, get this, via Skype, holding up a simple hand-drawn flow-chart....

I almost fell off my chair laughing...................