New Amtrak Restrictions on Tickets By Mail

[jccollins]

My apologies if this has already been posted, but I could not find it through a site search and just noticed it when trying to book train tickets today. Amtrak has implemented a new website restriction that no longer allows passengers to receive their tickets for free in the mail unless they are departing from an unstaffed station or the ticket office is closed at the time of departure.

While this might not seem to be a big deal (and was likely implemented to save Amtrak money on postage costs) is is a minor inconvenience, especially for those of us who liberally use the abundance of Amtrak discount codes floating around on the internet. You can still opt to receive your tickets in the mail if you do not meet the qualifications but are forced to pay the $12 express shipping fee regardless of how far in advance the tickets are booked.

On a positive note... it looks like Amtrak now allows passengers to have their tickets mailed to a P.O. Box (when the tickets by mail service is available). I never really understood that restriction... especially since I have always been able to work around it and have tickets mailed right to my P.O. box simply by inputting the post office's physical address into the system with a "mail slot" number instead of P.O. box number.

Here's the new ticket delivery restrictions text directly from the Amtrak website:

"Receiving Your Tickets by Mail

Qualifications

Amtrak will mail tickets to U.S. addresses only if one of the following circumstances occurs. 1) The ticket window at your station is closed at the time of your departure, or 2) you are departing from an unstaffed station."

 

[Anthony]

I never thought about post office physical address and "mail slot". I've gotta try that!

 

[rmgreenesq]

This looks like Amtrak's latest cost cutting measure. Amtrak saves in two ways:

1. By forcing the passenger to go to the train station to get the tickets, Amtrak saves on postage costs. This may sound like a trivial cost, but I'm sure it is a large amount of money spent each month. Consider that on my family's upcoming trip to Fullerton, I opted for tickets by mail (I didnt know any better). Amtrak mailed me 18 tickets at a cost of $0.87. Multiply that by the number of people ordering tickets via Amtrak.com every day and the postage mounts quickly.

2. Second savings is in the accouning department. I would be willing to bet it is easier to process a refund or change to a reservation before the reservation is ticketed. Less paper to account for, less work for accounting.

My concern is with the former TBM passenger who is now arriving at the staffed train station unticketed. If the train is running on time, all the passenger need do is arrive a few minutes earlier and pick up their tickets. But what if the train is running obnoxiously late and is now due to arrive after the ticketing window has closed? The former TBM and now unticketed passenger calls Julie or uses Amtrak.com and learns that the trainis obnoxiously late and arrives at the station a few minutes in advance of the train's new arrival. Will Amtrak re-open the ticketing window? I hope so. Otherwise the conductor and passenger are going to have an intersting conversation shortly after pulling out of the station.

Rick

 

[frj1983]

This looks like Amtrak's latest cost cutting measure. Amtrak saves in two ways:
1. By forcing the passenger to go to the train station to get the tickets, Amtrak saves on postage costs. This may sound like a trivial cost, but I'm sure it is a large amount of money spent each month. Consider that on my family's upcoming trip to Fullerton, I opted for tickets by mail (I didnt know any better). Amtrak mailed me 18 tickets at a cost of $0.87. Multiply that by the number of people ordering tickets via Amtrak.com every day and the postage mounts quickly.

2. Second savings is in the accouning department. I would be willing to bet it is easier to process a refund or change to a reservation before the reservation is ticketed. Less paper to account for, less work for accounting.

My concern is with the former TBM passenger who is now arriving at the staffed train station unticketed. If the train is running on time, all the passenger need do is arrive a few minutes earlier and pick up their tickets. But what if the train is running obnoxiously late and is now due to arrive after the ticketing window has closed? The former TBM and now unticketed passenger calls Julie or uses Amtrak.com and learns that the trainis obnoxiously late and arrives at the station a few minutes in advance of the train's new arrival. Will Amtrak re-open the ticketing window? I hope so. Otherwise the conductor and passenger are going to have an intersting conversation shortly after pulling out of the station.

Rick

Rick,

I would be interested in knowing how many tickets Amtrak was actually sending out by mail. In my case, I live 40 miles from Chicago and this means I must come into Chicago to get my tickets. Now that is not a gigantic hassle for me, since I come into Union Station every day on Metra. But I think about people like my neighbor who is in her 70's and likes to travel on Amtrak, she, like many of us, wants to have her ticket ahead of time, rather than stand in long lines on the day of departure. Is it possible that this will turn people like her away from traveling on Amtrak? I think the answer might be yes.

Does anyone wonder when Amtrak will enter the 21st century and go to electronic tickets like the airlines?

 

[Guest]

Better still, perhaps Amtrak might get really smart, and use cell phone tickets just as DB has introduced.

Enter the above URL into your favorite translation engine to get the idea. Sorry, but the original press release is nur auf Deutsch.

 

[jccollins]

My concern is with the former TBM passenger who is now arriving at the staffed train station unticketed. If the train is running on time, all the passenger need do is arrive a few minutes earlier and pick up their tickets. But what if the train is running obnoxiously late and is now due to arrive after the ticketing window has closed? The former TBM and now unticketed passenger calls Julie or uses Amtrak.com and learns that the trainis obnoxiously late and arrives at the station a few minutes in advance of the train's new arrival. Will Amtrak re-open the ticketing window? I hope so. Otherwise the conductor and passenger are going to have an intersting conversation shortly after pulling out of the station.
Rick

Most staffed Amtrak stations remain open until the train has arrived/departed for this reason. On many of the longhaul train routes the ticket offices are open with hours centered specifically around the trains arrival and departure times and agents work overtime if the train is running late. I can't really think of any stations out there that wouldn't remain open if a longhaul train was running late, but I am sure there are a few of them somewhere... probably in the corridor-centered markets.

 

[jccollins]

This looks like Amtrak's latest cost cutting measure. Amtrak saves in two ways:

It also forces more people into the Amtrak ticket offices so that live agents can verify IDs and the promotion codes we choose to use when booking tickets online. I suppose there will be a small increase in revenue due to less promotion code abuse as a result as well.

h34r:

 

[gswager]

Other possibility is Quik-Trac. It may work good in heavily used unstaffed stations or lightly used stations if they have security in place such as stores, bus depot, etc.