Booking Tickets ~ Advice

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
U

user 6862

Engineer
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
2,201
Starting to plan some Fall Amtrak travel. When checking the schedules and tickets I saw the banner headline:

Trip Flexibility
Amtrak is waiving all change fees for reservations made by March 31, 2021.

... followed by

Fee waivers: Amtrak is waiving all change fees for reservations made by March 31, 2021. The removal of some restrictions on Multi-Ride tickets on the Northeast Corridor is extended through March 31, 2021.

In the past seen similar offers but with the rider that travel must be completed by a certain date, this time the travel date appears to be open ended. Does anyone have further information on this please?

Our plan is to book the 422 Texas Eagle from Los Angeles to Chicago in early October and stay in the region to be able to easily get to the Gathering if it happens. Our plans are very flexible to the point that if the world Covid situation worsens we delay travel until the following year, therfore what is the timescale for rebooking without fees.

Thanks
 
Thank you both Amtrak Blue and m_l_m, I did understand and appreciate your answers but as times are so uncertain I was bothered at not finding a specific answer on the Amtrak site as to if there was a time limit when I could re-book and more important travel.

I wrote to Amtrak and now completely confused by their answer to the above questions, here is is:

"The change fee waiver expires March 31, 2021. However, there is no 'Travel by date' as this is not a promotional offer. Please note, any reservation changes beyond the expiration date of the waiver is subject to fees. "

In 2020 we had a wonderful journey planned a year ahead, almost 4 months of back-packer type travelling overland including the USA. More than half of the journey travel costs were booked and paid for, we lost quite a bit money having to cancel the lot and accept partial refunds. I'm happy to write that Amtrak were the exception with a 100% refund, can't praise them enough.
We are still optomistic about travel though, have seen the effect in the UK of high levels of vaccination with corresponding reductions in all the Covid numbers, but... we are slightly nervous now about bookings where we don't fully understand the implications of booking rules, once bitten...

Thanks for any help, failing a definitive answer here I will phone Amtrak next week and keep asking until I get a clear answer.
 
Any reservations booked before April 1st (I assume the expires March 31st means 11:59 pm in some time zone), no matter when you travel (travel by date) will have it's change fee waived. Any changes you make after March 31st will have change fees.
 
AmtrakBlue said:
Any reservations booked before April 1st (I assume the expires March 31st means 11:59 pm in some time zone), no matter when you travel (travel by date) will have it's change fee waived. Any changes you make after March 31st will have change fees.
Click to expand...

Thank you ma'am.

So, if I book tickets for travel 11 months ahead by 31 March there will be no change fees (except any fare differences) even if I make the change 9 months or more after a March 2021 booking? Also I may want to change travel dates to say a further 6 months ahead if I have to change just before the journey, 15-18 months after the original booking was made, this should still be honoured under the original offer?

If I book travel from the 1 April onwards there will be change fees unless a new fee waiver offer is made by Amtrak?

Have I got that about right?
 
v v said:
Thank you ma'am.

So, if I book tickets for travel 11 months ahead by 31 March there will be no change fees (except any fare differences) even if I make the change 9 months or more after a March 2021 booking? Also I may want to change travel dates to say a further 6 months ahead if I have to change just before the journey, 15-18 months after the original booking was made, this should still be honoured under the original offer?

If I book travel from the 1 April onwards there will be change fees unless a new fee waiver offer is made by Amtrak?

Have I got that about right?
Click to expand...
Sorry, I think I got it wrong. Rereading their reply to you I think it's "any travel booked, not matter when the travel date is, will not be charged a change fee if the changes are made by March 31st (or before the end of day March 31st)".

I'm so confused now. :confused:
 
I asked last year, and the answer I received is that travel must be booked, and any changes made, before the expiration date. If the offer is not extended, and you make changes or cancellations after the expiration, there will be the usual penalties.

Turns out I could have made and then canceled a reservation for my usual winter travel to see my family. The "no penalty" offer got extended several times. It may indeed be extended again until everyone can be confident traveling. But since my travel was never going to happen, I am glad I made the choice not to take the chance based on wishful thinking.

I will make my own reservations when I am sure I can travel, and my family can allow me to visit, safely.
 
oregon pioneer said:
I asked last year, and the answer I received is that travel must be booked, and any changes made, before the expiration date. If the offer is not extended, and you make changes or cancellations after the expiration, there will be the usual penalties.
Click to expand...

That makes sense Jennifer, thanks for that.

The Amtrak offer only works if the problem that causes a re-schedule appears in a relatively short time after booking. Booking 6 or 9 months ahead leaves too much leeway for something to go wrong after the fee waiver ends.

When booking a long way ahead the logic is to not to. Rather wait until nearer departure time either for a renewed fee waiver offer or a price drop at some point that could make up for paying a waiver fee if a change were required.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top