Bus Luggage

[gary]

Hello,

I just booked my first trip on the Coast Starlight Lax to VAC with a stop in Seattle, so we could continue on with the 510 cascades in the morning. On the trip back I had to opt for the Amtrak bus from VAC to Seattle due to a time requirement. The reservation agent told me that while we could take three bags each on the train part of the trip, we could only take two carry on aboard the bus. Does this sound correct; I thought the bus had room underneath for luggage.

 

[jccollins]

On the train you will be able to check in up to three bags per person at no charge from Los Angeles through to Seattle or Vancouver. You can carry on an additional two bags per person + any bags that are exempt from the included carry on list (strollers, laptops, etc.). Since the Amtrak Thruway Motorcoaches are operated to connect to the trains, they will allow you to carry the maximum allowed bags that the train you are connecting to permits (five per person in your case since you will be checking in three of them upon your arrival into Seattle.) All Amtrak Thruway Motorcoaches do have storage underneath for baggage.

The telephone reservation agents do their best, but you must remember that most of them have never even ridden an Amtrak train before, so they are nearly clueless on actual operating conditions, especially outside the northeast corridor.

 

[IceColdMintJulep]

We are traveling SLC to SFP in July. We have to bus from EMY to SFP and they said nothing about additional baggage restrictions pretaining to the bus. The last time we were on an Amtrak Thruway, they didn't seem like they were counting, they just stuffed the cargo area. If all that stuff fit under the old rules (we had a full bus), it should definately fit now

 

[amtrakmichigan]

The telephone reservation agents do their best, but you must remember that most of them have never even ridden an Amtrak train before, so they are nearly clueless on actual operating conditions, especially outside the northeast corridor.

This is for another whole topic, but I can't contain myself. Part of a reservation center employee's training should be a 1 week paid trip across the country and back traveling in all possible ways such as std. room, deluxe room, coach etc..

How can any company expect someone to sell their product or service effectively if they don't have a clue of what that product or service is? JMO

 

[Guest]

I don't think you can logically expect Amtrak to pay for one week of travel for every reservations person, however they should be receving orientation at the closest Amtrak station so they understand the product they are selling. Would you expect the airlines to fly every reservations person on every type of plane of have the hotel reservations staff visit every type of property a chain might have?