Amtrak has a new Chief Commercial Officer (09/2023)

[jis]

Amtrak has appointed Eliot Hamlisch from Wyndham Hotels as its new Chief Commercial Officer and EVP effective September 26...

https://media.amtrak.com/2023/09/am...-vice-president-and-chief-commercial-officer/

 

[Steve4031]

This is interesting IMHO. Would this mean that there are going to be steps taken to make improvements to the customer service experience?

 

[Palmland]

I’m glad to see Amtrak at least making an effort to have a competent sales and marketing leader.

My concern is that he has worked mostly for mediocre companies - AMC and Wyndham- but you don’t work for Deloitte Consulting if you don’t have something on the ball. I’ll be ‘cautiously optimistic’.

But what is he marketing? Unless Amtrak quickly ramps up equipment repairs and increases consist size, I’m afraid this will be his main focus:

“Prior to AMC, Hamlisch served as EVP, Loyalty and Revenue Optimization at Wyndham Hotels”

 

[trainman74]

He was in charge of marketing for AMC, you say? Sounds like they're going to bring back TV screens on board solely so they can show a one-minute commercial for Amtrak after every stop. "Somehow, being delayed 4 hours by a disabled freight feels good in a place like this."

(Actually, in all seriousness, I assume he had a hand in AMC's A-List monthly subscription offer -- which is an excellent exemplar of that kind of thing: straightforward and reasonably easy to understand, with no extra fees.)

 

[Brian Battuello]

"If we are going to achieve our goal of doubling our ridership by 2040, we need to delight our customers at every step of their journey with us,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris."

Um, has he ever eaten a flex meal?

 

[user 29618]

We can hope for the best.
However, AMC stock sold for ~$100 a share when he took over, and now it's around $7 and change.