joelkfla
Engineer
Would a phone agent be constrained by those blockouts?
Booking online on Amtrak website
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The inventory allocation/blocks would be in ARROW itself, not the surrounding layers supporting the website and app, so probably not. There could be overrides available to someone with the necessary authority on ARROW's native greenscreen interface, so I won't say there absolutely is no way an agent could do it. But I really doubt it.
vap0rtranz
Train Attendant
OK, thanks for explaining the blocked inventory. I wasn't aware of it.
I'll retry with One-way to see if I can get around it.
It also may be that the system is not allowing “connections” from one segment to the next on the same train that have too short of time between arrival and departure. Had this happen on the Lake Shore Limited when attempting to book PHI-TOL-ARB when my desired Regional showed up for PHI-TOL but not PHI-ARB. It wouldn’t let me book split segments on the same LSL anywhere except ALB (where there is a lengthy stop), and wouldn’t even show any availability for the second segment in multi-city. I was eventually able to get an agent to book it, though they didn’t end up splitting any segments on the same train. Figure calling is worth a try, as they can probably book all the segments as one ticket if they show up as one-ways.
Yeah, that could be. I keep thinking in terms of the older Multi-CIty version which didn't try to "help" you as much. Multi-City was the last bit of the booking website that they "modernized".
If I may relate our experience booking for trips it seldom works online. Last time around for a multi-city trip, we had points, a 2 for 1 coupon, a voucher and needed to pay cash for the balance. Just could not get it all to work online. Called in and and a very nice agent (who did a great job) helped us get ticketed What I would like to see is a check list for all possible options when you first begin so that when you arrive at at the final price for the tickets everything is accurate.
If I am doing anything that complicated, I will book with an agent anyway. I doubt the website can handle vouchers and coupons on one reservation and you flat cannot mix points and cash on one reservation, even with an agent. Points and cash have to broken between segments on separate reservations. When I've done it, the AGR agents do two reservations.
If they could do an accurate checklist, they could do an accurate booking in such situations. An accurate checklist would be 90%+ of the work required for booking it, too.
In either case, given Amtrak IT's results in their woeful website "modernization" I wouldn't trust to its accuracy in any case. I'd do the calculations myself to check against.
I always call agent. When getting a roomette I want to be in upper level and like room 5 or 6. Online automatically assigns room and it can be on lower level. It seems a pain to change it.
I was able to get upper level roomettes on the California Zephyr in both directions when I booked online in January for a fall trip -- but I had to call 1-800-USA-RAIL when our plans changed and I had to cancel. (Still bummed about having to cancel, but perhaps the hubby & I can book a different trip in the spring -- and use AGR points for it, too!)
caravanman
Engineer
I have happily booked a couple of Amtrak trains and paid on my UK bank card. Trying to book another, a day later, the whole thing seems to work, I complete the acceptance in my banks app, head back to Amtrak, but no, not worked. Tried a couple of cards, no money taken.
Is Amtrak having booking issues or ???
Is Amtrak having booking issues or ???
caravanman
Engineer
Well, a strange couple of days...
I couldn't (and still can't) find out what the problems with my attempts to book more Amtrak tickets were. I tried splitting the rides, which issued me one ticket as normal, but then the second part of the journey threw up the "unknown error" again.
I managed to get all trains booked in the end by using the "Paypal" option.
Having half the tickets booked and paid by random acceptance one time, and failure the next time, using identical cards, etc, is something that I am more accustomed to with Indian Railways, who are very hard to pay with foreign credit cards.
If any foreigners complain of Amtrak internet booking problems, maybe try advising them to try the paypal option?
Sometimes my credit cards don't "work" with even local vendors. I call the credit card company to find out what the problem is, but there is no problem according to the credit card company. In your case, perhaps it is a function of your credit card fraud alert system. Maybe trying to pay for something from 1 vendor several days in a row sets up a potential "fraud" alert in their system?
caravanman
Engineer
It "could" be something like that, I don't know how things work stateside, but for each internet card transaction, I get a message from my bank to log in to the bank app, and confirm the transaction is genuine. This happened each time, the confirmation was sent by me, but somehow things still not complete. Who knows? But the Paypal route worked 100% each try...
It's almost like these computers and smartphones are not always as smart as they imagine they are...
joelkfla
Engineer
I've never had that happen locally, but I have had multiple failures booking on the Amtrak site using several cards, and they've always gone thru when I then called to book by phone. I called the bank a couple of times and they said they had no record of a denial, so there is something weird about Amtrak's system.
I also recently had an out-of-town hotel charge denied by Discover, despite their insistence that it's no longer necessary to give them advance notice of travel.
While checking fares for a March trip to Seattle from NYP both the app and the website failed to offer me a 2 train trip, i.e., LSL-EB. They had me going through Pittsburgh, DC, or Sacramento. The LSL is running the day I inquired about and, in fact, was one of the options for me - only from Chicago I was only offered the CZ to Sacramento. Strange way to run a business.
It’s probably just a glitch. Arrow requires “manual” input of city pairs. Maybe the 49-7 one was missed. The 49-27 is shown for March 13
How about contacting them to let them know. Would help you and others.
How about contacting them to let them know. Would help you and others.
Will do but I,ve been regularly checking and before today the 49-7 had been offered so I know it's in the system. And the LSL is running on my tentative date - 3/23.I want to avoid a call.
This is a good thread and affirms that mix and match reservations on the website are not worth even trying - which has been our experience, as well. but the phone is your friend, the agents are useful, and the wait times [for reservations, not complaints] in our experience have been short.
Most recent example for us - booking for five, using points, money, and discount and companion coupons on the Starlight.
Agent actually figured out the optimal use of all.
Most recent example for us - booking for five, using points, money, and discount and companion coupons on the Starlight.
Agent actually figured out the optimal use of all.
Rizla Ronnie
Train Attendant
I'm trying to book a couple of seats from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando in November partly using vouchers supplied by Amtrak after they were unable to provide cooked food for most of a California Zephyr's journey from SF to Chicago.
The online booking site won't let me.
I emailed Customer Service who a few days later responded with this message.
" Thank you for contacting us.
If you are having difficulty using voucher online and need assistance we can assist you via our “Live Chat” through our mobile application or Amtrak.com. Chat agents are available Monday through Friday between 8am and 8pm EST.
In addition, our phone agents are available 24 hours daily at 1-800-872-7245. Press 0 to bypass the automated phone menu."
Living in the Uk the Live Chat fuction would be very useful rather than hanging on to an international 'phone line.
The problem is I can't find any " Live Chat " option on Amtrak.com.
Am I missing something ?
The online booking site won't let me.
I emailed Customer Service who a few days later responded with this message.
" Thank you for contacting us.
If you are having difficulty using voucher online and need assistance we can assist you via our “Live Chat” through our mobile application or Amtrak.com. Chat agents are available Monday through Friday between 8am and 8pm EST.
In addition, our phone agents are available 24 hours daily at 1-800-872-7245. Press 0 to bypass the automated phone menu."
Living in the Uk the Live Chat fuction would be very useful rather than hanging on to an international 'phone line.
The problem is I can't find any " Live Chat " option on Amtrak.com.
Am I missing something ?
Go to the home page, click on "contact us" at the bottom of the page, then see if "Julie" comes to your rescue.
Rizla Ronnie
Train Attendant
I tried that but even " Julie " is not responding on the home page ...
I would say the Amtrak ticketing website needs significant improvement . I can only get it to work on the simplest requests like for a R/T NE Regional or Acela ticket to Washington Union Station and back. Start putting in info on the travelers like senior on one an adult on the other and it might or might not work. Also all Amtrak sites do not respond al all when I use my VPN (Surfshark) . They want to clog up your computer with cookies.
Hello ! We do our bookings through my hubby’s select plus FNBO amtrak CC.
My husband and I are both seniors, and when booking trips for the 2 of us, it automatically makes him passenger 1.
A couple of days ago I was attempting to book a Keystone trip for the 2 of us, and my adult daughter and her hubby. No matter what I tried, the 2 adults listed as passenger 1 and 2, and the 2 senior as Pass. 3 and 4. This happened on both website and app. I finally gave up and booked over the phone with guest rewards.
How do you keep the senior bookings as passenger 1 and 2?
My husband and I are both seniors, and when booking trips for the 2 of us, it automatically makes him passenger 1.
A couple of days ago I was attempting to book a Keystone trip for the 2 of us, and my adult daughter and her hubby. No matter what I tried, the 2 adults listed as passenger 1 and 2, and the 2 senior as Pass. 3 and 4. This happened on both website and app. I finally gave up and booked over the phone with guest rewards.
How do you keep the senior bookings as passenger 1 and 2?
trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
The website is set up to automatically make the ‘higher paying fare’ the passenger 1, it’s been an issue for a while and it’s very annoying. I think the only way around is by booking directly with an agent on the phone or at a station.
