Booking online/Amtrak website

[acelafan]

"We are unable to process your request. Try again or call 1-800-USA-RAIL for assistance. (Ref.27Q28SQQ)"

I've been noticing this error almost word for word on many websites lately. It's what I call the lazy programmer error.

I once got this error when I was trying to log on to a bank website. Calling customer service was useless. It wasn't until several days later that I realized I was entering the wrong password.

I wonder whether this is a bug or a feature.

I checked Amtrak this morning and tickets for Cary are working for 3/11. So who knows what happened.

 

[MARC Rider]

So I spent the day making bookings for a Canadian/Empire Builder circle trip for November. Everything worked out nicely, except when I tried to book on the Cascades from Vancouver to Seattle. Oh, I found the trains, all right, and went through the booking process, entered my passport information and then clicked the "purchase ticket" button. I was then informed that the "selected promotion does not apply to this trip." There seemed to be no way to remove the "promotion," and the transaction did not go through. I rechecked the booking and could not see that I had attempted to buy on any sort of "promotion." I then tried booking it on the app on my phone (I had been using the website on my laptop) and I got the same error message. Then I tried calling the AGR Select Plus phone number, and was on hold for so long that I gave up. I'm going to try calling tomorrow and seeing if things work better. Otherwise, I might have to hitch-hike from Vancouver to Seattle.

I had no problems with the other Amtrak reservations, including a NER/Empire service to Albany, the Maple Leaf from Albany to Toronto, the Empire builder to Chicago, and the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington. All of them took my money (or points, in the case of the Empire Builder segment) with no problem. Oh, and I', booked in the 830 sleeper on the Empire Builder. Is that the base sleeper that will always run or do I need to call to get switched to minimize my chance of having my ride cancelled due to having a sleeper pulled at the last minute? Also, Amtrak sleeper prices are really high, even for November -- Coach from Chicago to Baltimore via the Capitol was priced at $78, you don't want to know what the roomette cost.

 

[zephyr17]

1. To my mind, the Cascades problem sounds like Amtrak IT has struck again. Have to ask, though, did you clear cache before you tried again? I'll likely be booking a trip to Vancouver next week, I'll see how that goes.
2. The 30 car is the base sleeper on the Builder.
3. On my trip in November last year, the roomette prices on the LSL and Builder didn't drop until sometime in June. At this point, both were still high bucket. In June the LSL dropped to low bucket and the Builder to second lowest, which I immediately booked. If you have already booked, keep checking, there's a reasonable chance they'll drop and you can call to get the difference refunded.

We may be on the same Canadian. This year on my November trip, I'll be taking it both ways, one direction on Preference points (westbound so as to avoid the Ontario taxes for trips originating in Toronto). So I'll avoid playing Amtrak's bucket games this year. I'll post it on member trips once I book the non-award points parts (Cascades, eastbound Canadian, Maple Leaf) which should be this week or next week.

 

[trimetbusfan]

So I spent the day making bookings for a Canadian/Empire Builder circle trip for November. Everything worked out nicely, except when I tried to book on the Cascades from Vancouver to Seattle. Oh, I found the trains, all right, and went through the booking process, entered my passport information and then clicked the "purchase ticket" button. I was then informed that the "selected promotion does not apply to this trip." There seemed to be no way to remove the "promotion," and the transaction did not go through. I rechecked the booking and could not see that I had attempted to buy on any sort of "promotion." I then tried booking it on the app on my phone (I had been using the website on my laptop) and I got the same error message. Then I tried calling the AGR Select Plus phone number, and was on hold for so long that I gave up. I'm going to try calling tomorrow and seeing if things work better. Otherwise, I might have to hitch-hike from Vancouver to Seattle.

I had no problems with the other Amtrak reservations, including a NER/Empire service to Albany, the Maple Leaf from Albany to Toronto, the Empire builder to Chicago, and the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington. All of them took my money (or points, in the case of the Empire Builder segment) with no problem. Oh, and I', booked in the 830 sleeper on the Empire Builder. Is that the base sleeper that will always run or do I need to call to get switched to minimize my chance of having my ride cancelled due to having a sleeper pulled at the last minute? Also, Amtrak sleeper prices are really high, even for November -- Coach from Chicago to Baltimore via the Capitol was priced at $78, you don't want to know what the roomette cost.

I would definitely call.

 

[Sidney]

So I spent the day making bookings for a Canadian/Empire Builder circle trip for November. Everything worked out nicely, except when I tried to book on the Cascades from Vancouver to Seattle. Oh, I found the trains, all right, and went through the booking process, entered my passport information and then clicked the "purchase ticket" button. I was then informed that the "selected promotion does not apply to this trip." There seemed to be no way to remove the "promotion," and the transaction did not go through. I rechecked the booking and could not see that I had attempted to buy on any sort of "promotion." I then tried booking it on the app on my phone (I had been using the website on my laptop) and I got the same error message. Then I tried calling the AGR Select Plus phone number, and was on hold for so long that I gave up. I'm going to try calling tomorrow and seeing if things work better. Otherwise, I might have to hitch-hike from Vancouver to Seattle.

I had no problems with the other Amtrak reservations, including a NER/Empire service to Albany, the Maple Leaf from Albany to Toronto, the Empire builder to Chicago, and the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington. All of them took my money (or points, in the case of the Empire Builder segment) with no problem. Oh, and I', booked in the 830 sleeper on the Empire Builder. Is that the base sleeper that will always run or do I need to call to get switched to minimize my chance of having my ride cancelled due to having a sleeper pulled at the last minute? Also, Amtrak sleeper prices are really high, even for November -- Coach from Chicago to Baltimore via the Capitol was priced at $78, you don't want to know what the roomette cost.

Probably high bucket. Think Chicago to DC is around $630. Outrageous price for that short a trip with flex

 

[MARC Rider]

I now have my Vancouver-Seattle ticket in hand. I called the AGR phone number this morning and got answered on the first ring. After verifying my identity, the agent booked the ticket almost instantly. Not sure what happened here. My only guess is that Amtrak's "IT 'Center of Excellence'" struck again. Also, I guess one shouldn't call the AGR number on a Sunday (even though they say it's staffed 7 days a week), as I was on the line for close to a half hour before I decided to bag it and wait for the next day.

 

[moselman66]

Noticed something new today on the Amtrak site in the home page booking engine. When you choose Milwaukee Intermodal or Milwaukee Airport it says the number of departures beneath the station.

Anybody see anything like this before, or see it now with any other stations? I poked around some but didn't find other cities with this. And (at least for the two Milwaukee rail stations) only seems to be when choosing it as the departure. (For what it's worth it must be couting certain or all Thruway busses at MKE to get 24 departures.)

Obviously not anything earth shattering but it makes you wonder what they might be doing or testing.

I'm also wondering if others see this same thing for MIlwaukee. In theory it could be locational / IP related and if I was instead pinging as Baltimore show something similar for BAL and BWI, for example. MIght be a tad on the fancy side for them to do, but it just seems odd that I'm only finding it for MIlwaukee...where I am.


mber of departures right beneath the

 

[TheVig]

Noticed something new today on the Amtrak site in the home page booking engine. When you choose Milwaukee Intermodal or Milwaukee Airport it says the number of departures beneath the station.

Anybody see anything like this before, or see it now with any other stations? I poked around some but didn't find other cities with this. And (at least for the two Milwaukee rail stations) only seems to be when choosing it as the departure. (For what it's worth it must be couting certain or all Thruway busses at MKE to get 24 departures.)

Obviously not anything earth shattering but it makes you wonder what they might be doing or testing.

I'm also wondering if others see this same thing for MIlwaukee. In theory it could be locational / IP related and if I was instead pinging as Baltimore show something similar for BAL and BWI, for example. MIght be a tad on the fancy side for them to do, but it just seems odd that I'm only finding it for MIlwaukee...where I am.


View attachment 32583 mber of departures right beneath the

I'm in CLT. Seeing the same thing you are for Milwaukee.

 

[Willbridge]

It might be an effort to help newbies determine which station is the best for them. There are other ways of doing it, but this might be the easiest way to tack onto the Amtrak site:

Compare PDA versus PDX to see this illustrated.

 

[jis]

There is a tendency to use codes among us aficionados. It does help establish our bonafides as at least a marginal expert afterall, and helps a little in requiring less typing. I do it all the time, and I know I should not.

Anyway, a convenient place to decode can be found at:

Amtrak Station Codes

Here are two web resource to quickly look up Amtrak Station Codes: https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/stations.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amtrak_stations

www.amtraktrains.com

 

[AmtrakMaineiac]

There is a tendency to use codes among us aficionados. It does help establish our bonafides as at least a marginal expert afterall, and helps a little in requiring less typing. I do it all the time, and I know I should not.

Anyway, a convenient place to decode can be found at:

Amtrak Station Codes

Here are two web resource to quickly look up Amtrak Station Codes: https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/stations.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amtrak_stations

www.amtraktrains.com

It gets interesting, especially if one also deals with airport codes which can be IATA or ICAO, after a while your head is spinning

 

[AmtrakBlue]

My quick way to look up codes is to Google Amtrak <code>

 

[Kbyrdleroydogg]

When Amtrak says 3 coach seats left at this price or whatever number sleeper rooms at this price, are they really set aside at certain prices, or is this Amtrak's way to spur sales of the seats and rooms until they become more expensive?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

When Amtrak says 3 coach seats left at this price or whatever number sleeper rooms at this price, are they really set aside at certain prices, or is this Amtrak's way to spur sales of the seats and rooms until they become more expensive?

They have "buckets". X number of seats are set at a low price, then when that # of seats are sold, they price goes up for the next # of seats. So, yes, once those 3 seats (not specific seats in a car) are sold the price will go up. Same with rooms - not specific rooms but # of rooms.

 

[zephyr17]

They have "buckets". X number of seats are set at a low price, then when that # of seats are sold, they price goes up for the next # of seats. So, yes, once those 3 seats (not specific seats in a car) are sold the price will go up. Same with rooms - not specific rooms but # of rooms.

I'd amend that slightly to note that at any given time the entire inventory of every accommodation type is allocated across various buckets. You just see the lowest one with available inventory on the website. When that inventory is sold, the next one up with inventory assigned is shown.

Not every bucket price point will necessarily have inventory allocated to it on any given train, but the entire inventory will be assigned against some of them.

It goes the other way, too. When someone cancels it might open inventory in a lower bucket.

Individual rooms are not assigned to buckets, just a given number of them are allocated to each bucket. Sometimes agents will say that they are, and if you want to change you have to pay the bucket for the new room. That is not true and reflects the agents relative lack of skill with ARROW. They just requested another room while holding one, consuming inventory and jumping into the next bucket. Experienced agents can change rooms without forcing a bucket jump.

 

[thully]

I was looking for the Gathering and seeing similar fares in late October on the Capitol Limited. The Lake Shore Limited was even more, but a couple days ago came down to about $480 CHI-NYP and the reverse. Grabbed that from NYP-TOL (with a PHI-NYP Regional on one end+TOL-ARB bus connection the other) for $333, though hoping the Cap goes down for the way there (as it’s schedule is better eastbound, particularly boarding in Toledo). May just book for now as I can always call for a refund if it goes down…

Probably high bucket. Think Chicago to DC is around $630. Outrageous price for that short a trip with flex

 

[Anderson]

What it says on the tin. I'm looking at BAL-NFK for Monday. Aside from the midday train not having a bus to NPN (I'm going to gripe about that...), I've noticed a BIG discrepancy on the through-DC fare vs splitting the fare there - like $50 in coach and $18 or so in business. What's up with this?