eTickets not appearing in app

[vickinish]

I used my AGR points to purchase two Business Class tickets on the Surfliner online via my PC. Neither ticket appears in my iPhone Amtrak app. I can look them up by the reservation number and they appear in the Recent Lookup area but are not to be found in My Reservations. I presume if I clear Recent Lookups they will disappear. Since the trips do not appear in my reservation area I also cannot get them into Passbook.

What is happening here?

 

[saturn04]

They don't, you might be able to save them to your passbook if you have a iPhone.

 

[vickinish]

What does "they don't" mean? And, as I stated above, I do have an iPhone. In order to put the tickets in Passbook they need to appear in my reservations in the Amtrak app.

 

[SarahZ]

The only tickets you'll see in the app are those purchased through Amtrak.com. If you purchased them through AGR, they won't show up in the app.

I save the e-ticket to iBooks (under PDFs).

 

[saturn04]

"They" mean tickets

 

[saturn04]

If you want to use your phone instead of printing tickets, bring up the email Amtrak sent you and they can scan that.

 

[jis]

For AGR issued tickets I usually save away the PDF received from Amtrak in iBooks on my iPhone. Depending on the network being available when the ticket is needed or depending on iPhone not deciding to toss away an email from its cache is a fool's errand IMHO.

 

[BCL]

The only tickets you'll see in the app are those purchased through Amtrak.com. If you purchased them through AGR, they won't show up in the app.

I save the e-ticket to iBooks (under PDFs).

Tickets bought directly through the app also show up. I've bought tickets at a ticket window or Quik-Trak, and those don't show up directly even if the AGR number is used. I have been able to look up the reservation number via the app, although that gets flushed out after I'm done. That was long enough to add it to Passbook.

I rather like Passbook since it's not reliant on an internet connection and doesn't use a lot of processing to come up. However, some conductors have problems scanning the code. I've seen some who won't even try and go directly to entering the res # manually. I've also been there for 20 seconds while the conductor keeps on trying, gives up, and looks up my name or enters the number.

All in all I think the conductors prefer a paper ticket or printout. They seem to be the most reliable, especially since the size of the code is pretty standard and they don't have to deal with glare. When I pull up a reservation on my iPad mini (doesn't have Passbook), it's really just a blown up version of the iPhone app. I've seen someone with a saved PDF being asked to increase the size, all the while claiming other conductors were able to scan it as is.

 

[SarahZ]

The only tickets you'll see in the app are those purchased through Amtrak.com. If you purchased them through AGR, they won't show up in the app.

I save the e-ticket to iBooks (under PDFs).

Tickets bought directly through the app also show up.

Correct. I forgot that one. Thanks!

Like Jis, I add the e-ticket to iBooks so I can access it if I'm in an area without cell/data service. If it's in my email and I can't connect, I'm hosed.

 

[BCL]

The only tickets you'll see in the app are those purchased through Amtrak.com. If you purchased them through AGR, they won't show up in the app.

I save the e-ticket to iBooks (under PDFs).

Tickets bought directly through the app also show up.

Correct. I forgot that one. Thanks!

Like Jis, I add the e-ticket to iBooks so I can access it if I'm in an area without cell/data service. If it's in my email and I can't connect, I'm hosed.

I've got Adobe Reader for iOS and prefer that. Just a personal preference however.

I don't know if you're really hosed if you can just give your name. That happened to me yesterday, although I have a pretty common name for this area. There are also lots of open tickets on Capitol Corridor, even though not all specifically purchased a ticket for my specific train. I think they end up scrolling through every name attached to an open ticket, including multi-rides and monthlies. My given name was among the last alphabetically for my family name. So I heard about five names before the conductor just scrolled to it after asking me what it was.

 

[iggy]

It has been my experience that the iPhone APP actually refreshes to latest reservation data faster than on Android. Although I prefer Android for many reasons. Normally if you logout and log back into the APP - this will refresh to your latest reservation data.

As to glare etc I find the whole scanning of e-tickets to be hit and miss depending on conductor. Many of the old timers hate the new system - feel punching tickets was faster. I've had some conductors that have no problem scanning the QR - especially when I blow it up for them. Others have all kinds of drama with the scan. Of course some will blame it being blown up or something other than their technique.

As to Adobe Reader - on any platform you are asking for security and performance issues using any Adobe product. History recent and past have shown this to be a truth.

You can also use e-tickets on old flip phones. Just take a screen capture - send it to phone. Conductors were always amazed when I had e-tickets on my flip phone - asked me how I did it.

 

[me_little_me]

Any online reservation modified by calling Amtrak also becomes unviewable.

Their ancient system needs lots of work.

 

[jis]

As to Adobe Reader - on any platform you are asking for security and performance issues using any Adobe product. History recent and past have shown this to be a truth.

Not to mention just plain stability issues. In my experience Facebook is the worst when it comes to stability and predictability of behavior, with Adobe close behind.

 

[afigg]

Any online reservation modified by calling Amtrak also becomes unviewable.

Their ancient system needs lots of work.

Amtrak posted an RFI (or was it an RFP?) on their procurement portal site for a entirely new reservation and IT scheduling system to work across multiple platforms, so they are seeking to replace their current system. But it will take years and almost certainly the new software and system will be very buggy when they switch over.

Meanwhile, it is a strange and irritating quirk that AGR and reservations changed by phone calls don't show up on the Amtrak smartphone app. I always use paper printouts, since it is easy for me to print them out at home, paper does not have dead or low batteries, and I can place the folded paper eTicket on the table or seat for the conductor to scan rather or wave at the gate keeper than fumble for the phone.