frugalist
Lead Service Attendant
This is my first post since returning from my July cross-country round trip Amtrak Adventure. I’ve waited this long to post because I had an ongoing Customer Relations case under investigation and didn’t want to post anything until it got closer to resolution and until I had calmed down a bit. Today, I finally received a letter from Corporate Headquarters in DC, so now I want to talk a bit about the issues involved. In this post, I’ll just go over the basics of my case. If more details are requested by the community, I’ll provide as much as I can.
My wife and I booked a “Trip Of A Lifetime” going from SBG – NYP – CHI – LAX – SEA – VAC, then returning VAC – SEA - SAC – CHI - WAS – SBG, with a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska in between. This was an AGR reward trip. Booked all the way in bedrooms, except the segments between VAC and SEA, which were on the Cascades in Business Class.
The outbound trip was marvelous and uneventful. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the return trip, from SAC all the way to SBG.
I need to emphasize that I understand that Amtrak has been plagued by weather-related delays this year. A delay on one route can have rippling effects on other routes. This happens. The delays were NOT, in and of themselves, the issue. It was all about how the delays were handled by the onboard staff of both the CZ and the Cap. Ltd., as well as Customer Relations, Metropolitan Lounge and ticket office staff at Chicago Union Station.
The CZ was late into CHI (due primarily to flooding in the midwest) resulting in us missing our connection to the Cap. Ltd. After being assured by the CZ’s onboard staff and by everyone we dealt with in Chicago Union Station, that we would be reaccomodated on the next day’s CL in a bedroom, the next day we were involuntarily downgraded to a roomette accomodation. This, even though three eastbound trains missed their connections with the CL in CHI, which opened up many bedrooms. On the CL, I asked the conductor about this situation and was told that all the bedrooms that were booked to people who missed their connections in CHI were subsequently sold to people getting on that night farther down the line. She also said the same was true about the empty roomette that was directly across the hall from us, and another one farther down the car. Both of those roomettes stayed empty the entire trip into WAS. I hate to use such strong language, but I’m convinced the conductor lied to us. I’m hoping that someone can come up with a plausible explanation for why we were told all of the sleeping accomodations were sold out, when I could see with my own eyes that at least 2 roomettes stayed vacant. I’d stake my life on the fact that there were also bedrooms that went vacant on that train. Our sleeping car attendent never came by to offer to put down our beds at night. We had to do that ourselves. And, he never came by to offer to put up our beds the next morning. We had to do that ourselves too. There’s more, but this is getting too long already. The key issue is the involuntary downgrading when there were, very likely, bedrooms available.
On our ride to Florida on the Silver Meteor, we had a fabulous sleeping car attendant who had only been with Amtrak for six months. Having said that, the air conditioning in our room was not working. The fan was merely recirculating the car's air without cooling it. In the morning, when the sun came up things really started heating up. The heat in our room was intolerable. After breakfast, our SCA worked with the conductor to move us to a roomette in the other end of the car that was properly air conditioned. We had to give up our roomy bedroom for about 6 hours during the day, but at least we were cool. After lunch, I had to go back to our bedroom to retrieve something I left there, and it was stiflingly hot.
Finally, to finish our trip with one final issue, our checked baggage was not off-loaded in SBG. It was, however, delivered to us the next day.
I spoke with a Customer Relations agent on the phone the day after we got home. After going through my story, I was offered a travel voucher that I consider insufficient for what we were put through. I was told that I could write a letter to Corporate CR in Washington. I got that letter out the next day. In that letter I specifically requested a return of 10,000 points to my AGR account, representing the difference between a 2-zone bedroom and a 2-zone roomette award (CHI – WAS is a 2-zone trip) since we were involuntarily downgraded on the CL. I also asked for a more substantial voucher than originally offered. This letter went out July 28.
By August 22, I still had not received a reply to my letter, so I called CR again. After waiting on hold for 45 minutes, I had to go somewhere, so I hung up. I now knew I had to block out a good portion of my morning the next time I called.
On August 30, still no sign of a reply. So, I got ahold of a CR agent who told me a response letter was written August 16, but she could not tell if or when it had been actually sent to me. She suggested I wait a week and call back if I still hadn’t received it.
September 6 came and still no letter. Another call to CR revealed that the letter was sent out September 2. Even with the Labor Day holiday, I was sure to receive it any day now.
“Any day now” turned out to be September 12. The envelope is postmarked Sept. 9! When I called on the 6th, the letter hadn’t even been posted, even though I was told it was mailed on the 2nd. Can there possibly be a reasonable explanation for this?
I was given a more substantial voucher than originally offered. But I was told that since travel had been completed, AGR will not refund any points to my account even though we were involuntarily downgraded. I guess the voucher is supposed to be their equivalent of a points refund.
This post has gotten way longer than I hoped it would. Right now, I have a few questions for the community: is it true that AGR points are never refunded to a passenger’s account if the trip was taken, although the passenger was involuntarily downgraded? If someone has been refunded AGR points if travel has been completed, was this before or after AGR was moved in-house last October? Should I press for a points refund? If so, who should I contact next?
If you’ve read this far, thanks. Any feedback, good or bad, would be appreciated.
My wife and I booked a “Trip Of A Lifetime” going from SBG – NYP – CHI – LAX – SEA – VAC, then returning VAC – SEA - SAC – CHI - WAS – SBG, with a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska in between. This was an AGR reward trip. Booked all the way in bedrooms, except the segments between VAC and SEA, which were on the Cascades in Business Class.
The outbound trip was marvelous and uneventful. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the return trip, from SAC all the way to SBG.
I need to emphasize that I understand that Amtrak has been plagued by weather-related delays this year. A delay on one route can have rippling effects on other routes. This happens. The delays were NOT, in and of themselves, the issue. It was all about how the delays were handled by the onboard staff of both the CZ and the Cap. Ltd., as well as Customer Relations, Metropolitan Lounge and ticket office staff at Chicago Union Station.
The CZ was late into CHI (due primarily to flooding in the midwest) resulting in us missing our connection to the Cap. Ltd. After being assured by the CZ’s onboard staff and by everyone we dealt with in Chicago Union Station, that we would be reaccomodated on the next day’s CL in a bedroom, the next day we were involuntarily downgraded to a roomette accomodation. This, even though three eastbound trains missed their connections with the CL in CHI, which opened up many bedrooms. On the CL, I asked the conductor about this situation and was told that all the bedrooms that were booked to people who missed their connections in CHI were subsequently sold to people getting on that night farther down the line. She also said the same was true about the empty roomette that was directly across the hall from us, and another one farther down the car. Both of those roomettes stayed empty the entire trip into WAS. I hate to use such strong language, but I’m convinced the conductor lied to us. I’m hoping that someone can come up with a plausible explanation for why we were told all of the sleeping accomodations were sold out, when I could see with my own eyes that at least 2 roomettes stayed vacant. I’d stake my life on the fact that there were also bedrooms that went vacant on that train. Our sleeping car attendent never came by to offer to put down our beds at night. We had to do that ourselves. And, he never came by to offer to put up our beds the next morning. We had to do that ourselves too. There’s more, but this is getting too long already. The key issue is the involuntary downgrading when there were, very likely, bedrooms available.
On our ride to Florida on the Silver Meteor, we had a fabulous sleeping car attendant who had only been with Amtrak for six months. Having said that, the air conditioning in our room was not working. The fan was merely recirculating the car's air without cooling it. In the morning, when the sun came up things really started heating up. The heat in our room was intolerable. After breakfast, our SCA worked with the conductor to move us to a roomette in the other end of the car that was properly air conditioned. We had to give up our roomy bedroom for about 6 hours during the day, but at least we were cool. After lunch, I had to go back to our bedroom to retrieve something I left there, and it was stiflingly hot.
Finally, to finish our trip with one final issue, our checked baggage was not off-loaded in SBG. It was, however, delivered to us the next day.
I spoke with a Customer Relations agent on the phone the day after we got home. After going through my story, I was offered a travel voucher that I consider insufficient for what we were put through. I was told that I could write a letter to Corporate CR in Washington. I got that letter out the next day. In that letter I specifically requested a return of 10,000 points to my AGR account, representing the difference between a 2-zone bedroom and a 2-zone roomette award (CHI – WAS is a 2-zone trip) since we were involuntarily downgraded on the CL. I also asked for a more substantial voucher than originally offered. This letter went out July 28.
By August 22, I still had not received a reply to my letter, so I called CR again. After waiting on hold for 45 minutes, I had to go somewhere, so I hung up. I now knew I had to block out a good portion of my morning the next time I called.
On August 30, still no sign of a reply. So, I got ahold of a CR agent who told me a response letter was written August 16, but she could not tell if or when it had been actually sent to me. She suggested I wait a week and call back if I still hadn’t received it.
September 6 came and still no letter. Another call to CR revealed that the letter was sent out September 2. Even with the Labor Day holiday, I was sure to receive it any day now.
“Any day now” turned out to be September 12. The envelope is postmarked Sept. 9! When I called on the 6th, the letter hadn’t even been posted, even though I was told it was mailed on the 2nd. Can there possibly be a reasonable explanation for this?
I was given a more substantial voucher than originally offered. But I was told that since travel had been completed, AGR will not refund any points to my account even though we were involuntarily downgraded. I guess the voucher is supposed to be their equivalent of a points refund.
This post has gotten way longer than I hoped it would. Right now, I have a few questions for the community: is it true that AGR points are never refunded to a passenger’s account if the trip was taken, although the passenger was involuntarily downgraded? If someone has been refunded AGR points if travel has been completed, was this before or after AGR was moved in-house last October? Should I press for a points refund? If so, who should I contact next?
If you’ve read this far, thanks. Any feedback, good or bad, would be appreciated.
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