Changing rooms - are there any rules?

[AlanB]

From reading your post, I can now see what they did - they let Arrow autoassign a room, & then when they look up the new room (without releasing the old one) it's at a higher bucket.

That is precisely part of the problem. Some agents can make things even worse too!

What you describe can happen if it's the last room at the current bucket. So they request a room, get a lower level and request another and bam you're in the next bucket. But if you want a specific room, say #7. An agent who doesn't know how to request a specific room does the following: Request a room & not getting what you want leaves it on hold, request another room only to still get the wrong one & leave it hanging, request another, and repeat until they get the room you asked for.

Well depending on just how many requests they make, they could easily go through a couple of buckets worth of rooms. Even worse, Amtrak's revenue management tools monitoring things start seeing a run on the rooms on that day's train and so it goes off and moves some of the lower bucket rooms into higher buckets trying to maximize revenue. Now everyone is paying higher prices and all because one agent didn't know what to do and didn't follow the correct procedure.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

From reading your post, I can now see what they did - they let Arrow autoassign a room, & then when they look up the new room (without releasing the old one) it's at a higher bucket.

That is precisely part of the problem. Some agents can make things even worse too!

What you describe can happen if it's the last room at the current bucket. So they request a room, get a lower level and request another and bam you're in the next bucket. But if you want a specific room, say #7. An agent who doesn't know how to request a specific room does the following: Request a room & not getting what you want leaves it on hold, request another room only to still get the wrong one & leave it hanging, request another, and repeat until they get the room you asked for.

Well depending on just how many requests they make, they could easily go through a couple of buckets worth of rooms. Even worse, Amtrak's revenue management tools monitoring things start seeing a run on the rooms on that day's train and so it goes off and moves some of the lower bucket rooms into higher buckets trying to maximize revenue. Now everyone is paying higher prices and all because one agent didn't know what to do and didn't follow the correct procedure.

I sometimes wonder if the same thing happens online if add our choices to the cart but don't proceed (just to see what the total price will be). I usually clear the cart quickly just in case it does affect the prices for others.

 

[Phil S]

Hi folks - I'm the OP. Now in "PPC" (actually a cafe car) on #14. #3 got in 3 hrs late due to no signals coming down from Cajon. A lot of snow. They held #14 for us, maybe in part because there's a 22 person tour group is sleeper making the connection.

Trogdor -- I really appreciate the explanation. I think next time at a ticket counter I just say "I understand you can't do it, but a supervisor can. Is there one on duty?" The whole problem was due originally to the room #s not appearing on the confirmation or reservation message. Just didn't occur to me to open the actual ticket. Next time.....

As for "changing rooms" that reminds me of "baby changing stations" and "trailer disposal stations"

 

[Nathanael]

When making a new reservation, there is a way for the agent to specify what room to book as opposed to letting the computer assign the next one in its internal order (the order of which can vary depending on the situation). However, most agents will let the computer auto-assign the room (which is a slightly different entry).

This is what I always do when making complicated reservations (for instance, if I want to get two roomettes facing each other, or I want to make sure that I get an upstairs roomette, etc.) If I tell the agent on the phone that I have specific roomette requirements at the time of booking, it always seems to go smoothly.

I guess most of the agents know how to specify what room to book at initial reservation. Whereas knowing how to do the "room change" procedure appears to be rarer.

 

[Nathanael]

Like other posters have said, I've had several experiences with Amtrak agents who quoted me higher prices for certain rooms. I see a price on the website, and then call to make a reservation, and ask for an upper level roomette. They usually tell me that they can get me that price, and tell me a roomette number that's on the lower level. I then restate that I wanted upper level. They look that up, and tell me that it's going to cost more. I then get mad, hang up, and call another agent, who happens to assign the room first, and I get the price I see online.

From reading your post, I can now see what they did - they let Arrow autoassign a room, & then when they look up the new room (without releasing the old one) it's at a higher bucket. From now on, when I get that response, I will ask for a supervisor, & maybe we can get this problem eliminated!

Ah. Seems like some agents aren't properly trained, doesn't it? I'll remember to ask for a supervisor if that happens.