Is there a user manual for Amtrak.com’s fare search?

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PaulM

PaulM

Engineer
Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
2,352
Location
Quincy, IL
It appears that for the second time since going to 3 day a week, Amtrak has changed its fare search page. I tried a test booking from St-Pete-Clearwater to Denver departing July 1 for two people. The result is shown below. Clicking the details drop down, shows we are dealing with a bus, Silver Meteor, Capitol Limited, and California Zephyr. Note: there is no way to know on which segment or segments coach is sold out.
stp-den1.png

I’m guessing that $2034 is for a single roomette on segments 2,3 and 4. Let’s say I want coach only on segment 3 (CL) and two roomettes on the 3rd (CZ). This was a valid option in the past. The only live button is ROOMS FROM $2034; so I click it and get.
stp-den2.png
Never mind that they seem to be passing off segment 1’s thruway bus as a rail coach. The only live link is the ADD button; so I click it and get room selection for segment 2.
stp-den3.png

I can select between roomette and bedroom with no indication of the price change. However, the quantity selection box is dead; i.e., I can’t see a way to remove the room or purchase two rooms. Moreover, the only way to progress to segment 3 is to click ADD. What am I adding and to what?

When I finally get to segment 4, the $2034 price and an ADD TO CART button appear. Clicking it brings me back to the first results screen. Finally, if I click CONTINUE, I get a screen asking for traveler details. But still haven’t gotten what I want.

Am I missing something here?
 
They may be doing maintenance on the website as someone reported on FB a short while ago that they were getting a message saying that. Maybe your search is caught up in that???
 
PaulM said:
I can select between roomette and bedroom with no indication of the price change. However, the quantity selection box is dead; i.e., I can’t see a way to remove the room or purchase two rooms
Click to expand...
Earlier this week, on a one-leg journey, selecting between roomette and bedroom did result in an immediate change in price. Based on this, I would assume that AmtrakBlue's suggestion might be the issue.

The quantity selection box would not allow me to increase from one room even though I had specified two travelers; I assumed this was because "One room available at this price" was showing. (It seems odd that the web site wouldn't sell the one room and another at the higher bucket, but that's a different discussion.)

In response to the thread title, I'm sure that some user-interface genius believes that the web site is so simple and intuitive that there is on need for a manual. I happen to disagree.
 
Here's your sold out section:


1615929889408.png




I know it's time consuming however I broke up the routes by segments (STP - ORL) (ORL-WAS) (WAS-CHI) (CHI-DEN).
 
I'm a travel agent with a scaled down version of Arrow. I would be happy to place the reservation on hold for you so you can call and pay for it at a later time.

Amtrak doesn't pay commission so I would be doing this completely pro bono which is no issue. For the admins I'm offering not for marketing or self interest just to help.
 
PaulM said:
I assume you are saying chi-den is sold out. Just exactly how would a newbie do this?
Click to expand...
I've booked a lot of trips and still have problems, especially when going back and forth to find alternatives like 2 roomettes vs 1 BR or the next day's train or an alternate train. Amtrak's sit plain sucks. I do as much as possible online and then call for reservations so there is someone to check what I did and offer alternatives.

e.g., I looked at setting the disability choice for those not unable to walk and it is a bear to go through all the menus so I just pick seniors. When I called, I told them I was disabled but not wheelchair and the first question was "who is your companion?" They made it so easy to book that and either she was the fastest typist in the world or her screen was a lot easier than mine.
 
me_little_me said:
I've booked a lot of trips and still have problems, especially when going back and forth to find alternatives like 2 roomettes vs 1 BR or the next day's train or an alternate train. Amtrak's sit plain sucks. I do as much as possible online and then call for reservations so there is someone to check what I did and offer alternatives.

e.g., I looked at setting the disability choice for those not unable to walk and it is a bear to go through all the menus so I just pick seniors. When I called, I told them I was disabled but not wheelchair and the first question was "who is your companion?" They made it so easy to book that and either she was the fastest typist in the world or her screen was a lot easier than mine.
Click to expand...
They’ve improved the disability process, at least a little. If you save your selections for the questions, it will now actually save them and the next time you book - after logging in - it will show a screen asking you to verify your previous selections. I agree the old way was a nuisance with having to answer those questions every time, even after saving the answers during a previous session.
 
Trying to book a trip to PHL to FLG (Grand Canyon) in August and all I can say about the sleeper fares is they are quite high. Might just book and re-book when the fare finally falls. Yes the website to book the tickets is sometimes difficult to use.
 
AmtrakBlue said:
They’ve improved the disability process, at least a little. If you save your selections for the questions, it will now actually save them and the next time you book - after logging in - it will show a screen asking you to verify your previous selections. I agree the old way was a nuisance with having to answer those questions every time, even after saving the answers during a previous session.
Click to expand...
I wonder if that is set in your cookies or in your profile? If in cookies, it won't help me. For security purposes, I clear cookies after finishing with a site. Since I have never seen the feature you mention, my suspicion is that it is the former. Now, I don't often login unless I have seriously decided to purchase so I may be wrong.
 
me_little_me said:
I wonder if that is set in your cookies or in your profile? If in cookies, it won't help me. For security purposes, I clear cookies after finishing with a site. Since I have never seen the feature you mention, my suspicion is that it is the former. Now, I don't often login unless I have seriously decided to purchase so I may be wrong.
Click to expand...
I just started a booking on my Windows laptop, which I only use occasionally and have not used to book tickets in a long time, if ever, so would not have my service request info in the cookies. I tried it on two browsers and got this same pop-up.
EFF5EAE5-0D9C-41D2-83A2-03FDEDF6A993.jpeg

When you’re prompted for information for a service request there should be a place where you can check “save to my profile” (don’t remember the exact wording).
 
I tried checking the Amtrak booking site today for a long distance trip involving two trains. I haven't checked out the booking site for months as I had no plans to travel. This new Amtrak site is a real horror. Makes me want to fly.
 
In my mind, Amtrak downgraded the functionality of the site yet again in their quest to "improve" it. I was fooling around getting price and point information for NYP-CHI-LAX-SEA in November preparation for booking with an agent (which I did), and for EVR-CHI-NYP as a backup for plans if my VIA (EVR-VAC (VCVR-TRTO) TWO-NYP) plans fall through due to border closure or VIA not operating. I found the following:
1. As noted above, the regular one way/round trip booking option without multi-city, does not give you room choices. Mine defaulted to roomette (just labeled as "sleeper" in the box, with a roomette description below) without the ability to change it.
2. Room choices do show up in the multi-city option. You can use the multi-city option even if you have only one segment or continuous leg such as EVR-NYP.
3. Accommodation charges do not show split out anywhere in the regular one-way or round trip options. You can get them split out using multi-city, sort of. The limitation is it doesn't break them up by segment. In EVR-NYP, the Capitol Limited routing through Pittsburgh breakout just showed "2 Superliner Roomettes $410. The Lakeshore Limited routing showed 1 Superliner Roomette $282, 1 Viewliner Roomette $250.
4. Limited routing options. I recall that Amtrak.com used to show a wide variety of trip options. For example, in the case of EVR-NYP, I know it used to show a EVR-CHI-WAS-NYP routing available. Current version only shows EVR-CHI-NYP (via LSL) and EVR-CHI-PGH-NYP (via Capitol Limited).
5. Points quote not an option for multi-city. If you toggle the "Use Points" switch on and then select multi-city from the drop down, the "Use Points" toggle has no effect.

I can see why this version of the website broke Amsnag. Getting the info Amsnag uses would be difficult to impossible in a screen scrape from the current page format and interaction.

For everything except points, I will tend to use the multi-city option as it works better for now until they further break it, too. I use it primarily for research anyway as any trip involving sleepers I do the actual booking by phone, since I am a bit picky about roomette location (don't like downstairs, don't like the transdorm).
 
1. As noted above, the regular one way/round trip booking option without multi-city, does not give you room choices. Mine defaulted to roomette (just labeled as "sleeper" in the box, with a roomette description below) without the ability to change it.

Easy to miss, but there's two circles with Roomette and Bedroom below them - click on the bedroom circle to switch to bedroom. If a superliner, there will be a third circle for family bedroom
044BECAE-1542-4A2D-AECD-B57DDB0F6D8E.jpeg22773F5F-3799-4CCF-9F27-6C70C8992954.jpeg
 
A week or two ago, I wanted to check on the price of taking the Auto Train one-way from SFA to LOR later this summer.

After selecting SFA as the origin station, it immediately jumped me into "Auto Train" in the top bar that has "One Way - Round Trip - Multiride - Auto Train" and demanded that I put in a return date (even though I didn't want one. After a few minutes of messing around with it, I finally said "Screw it" and used the app on my phone, which gave me an answer right away.

The whole site tries to be too damn smart for it's own good and needs to be tossed in the fire.
 
AmtrakBlue said:
1. As noted above, the regular one way/round trip booking option without multi-city, does not give you room choices. Mine defaulted to roomette (just labeled as "sleeper" in the box, with a roomette description below) without the ability to change it.

Easy to miss, but there's two circles with Roomette and Bedroom below them - click on the bedroom circle to switch to bedroom. If a superliner, there will be a third circle for family bedroom
Click to expand...
Only if there are available bedrooms. It might be the case that there were no bedrooms. I noticed that on the Cardinal. One way had no BR circle and the other one did. More confusing then simply saying "Sold Out" or graying out the BR choice.
 

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