Amtrak E Ticketing Procedures

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Mrs. Crockett rode VIA FC last summer, and according to her - IF she is to be believed :giggle: - she requested and got specific seating. She was with her parents and they requested and got a table seat for four. They were told that since there were only three of them that they might end up with a fourth person, but this did not happen. Anybody know more about this?
Last I knew online you could only request a window seat or an aisle seat, but not a specific seat within the car. Never tried calling, but I suppose that an agent could select a specific seat for you. This of course was for the corridor trains. I have no idea if seats are assigned in coach on long distance trains.
Upon further questioning (cross :angry: examining? :giggle: ) of Mrs. Crockett, here is what I'm told, with a bit of an explanation...

Her brother rides the VIA corridor trains an a weekly basis. Her father actually bought the tickets, with instructions from said brother on how to proceed, so the information is second or third hand in some respects, but...

1)They were in FC.

2)Her father called VIA for the tickets.

3)He requested a table, as there were three in the party.

4)Mrs. Crockett's ticket had a specific seat assignment - an aisle seat, which was at a table for four.

5)She asked the conductor if she could sit in the empty window seat next to her, and he said 'yes' - with the condition that she would have to move back to her seat if someone boarded that had the window seat.

So best I can tell, it sounds like it is not quite like choosing a seat online airline style, but somewhat like booking a room on Amtrak - though I'm not positive about that.
 
Why do they have to consider it? They already have the needed software. I used it several times to book my seat on Acela First Class when the train first started service. All they need to do is turn it back on for everything and update the car layouts for specific trains.
But if they're revamping the whole system, they might start all over from scratch, especially if they want to rewrite it in a modern language such as JAVA.
Considering that there are at least a dozen CRS's that they could simply adapt to their use, many even written in Java and already in use for Passenger Rail operating companies. I do not think writing an entire CRS from scratch would be a very good use of Amtrak's limited resources.
 
Often, coach seats are assigned based on destination. This makes sense. User selected seating would void this sensible system. There ARE excellent reasons for lack of user selection on Amtrak that is not an example of lameness. That being said, on day trains, it IS patently lame. And I am NOT an Amtrak appologist.
 
Often, coach seats are assigned based on destination. This makes sense. User selected seating would void this sensible system. There ARE excellent reasons for lack of user selection on Amtrak that is not an example of lameness. That being said, on day trains, it IS patently lame. And I am NOT an Amtrak appologist.
User Selection does not mean they can select any seat they choose. In user selection systems that I have seen, only a subset of seats are available for user selection and the determination of which subset is available can be based on origin and destinations. all free seats are usually not shown as available for user selection. It is not an all or nothing deal.

Very often a fixed quota system is used for a subset of seats that will be made available for user selection based on point to point demand, and said quotas can be adjusted as the train loads up until possibly no further seats are available for user selection even though there are seats available on the train. Dynamic software for inventory allocation in this century allows such flexibility.
 
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Often, coach seats are assigned based on destination. This makes sense. User selected seating would void this sensible system. There ARE excellent reasons for lack of user selection on Amtrak that is not an example of lameness. That being said, on day trains, it IS patently lame. And I am NOT an Amtrak appologist.
I see no reason to make daily commuter services more complicated than necessary. However, for a multiple day train trip that you may have planned months in advance I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to select your own seat if you book early enough. Could this make things harder for the car attendants who may need to check more than one car to see that everyone got off? Yes, it could. Should that reason alone be enough to prevent long-distance passengers from picking their seats? Not in my view.

User Selection does not mean they can select any seat they choose. In user selection systems that I have seen, only a subset of seats are available for user selection and the determination of which subset is available can be based on origin and destinations. All free seats are usually not shown as available for user selection. It is not an all or nothing deal.
Exactly. Some of the responses in this thread make me wonder if people have ever picked their own seat for anything, anywhere, at any time. You'd think it was rocket surgery if you didn't already know better.
 
Exactly. Some of the responses in this thread make me wonder if people have ever picked their own seat for anything, anywhere, at any time. You'd think it was rocket surgery if you didn't already know better.
Maybe the word 'selected' would be more appropriate here than the word 'picked.' :giggle:
 
Why do they have to consider it? They already have the needed software. I used it several times to book my seat on Acela First Class when the train first started service. All they need to do is turn it back on for everything and update the car layouts for specific trains.
Well, I meant I hope they consider actually using the software for booking. It would be a nice feature.
 
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