Reservation number works in "My Trip", ticket number does not

[Customer B]

When I purchased my ticket I recieved both a reservation number (6 digit) and a ticket number (13 digit), although the ticket number doesn't actually show up on the ticket, only the receipt. When I hit "my trip" on the amtrak website, the reservation number works, but the ticket number cannot be found. Is this just how the website works? Or is this abnormal? Does this happen for anyone else?

Thanks

 

[joelkfla]

When I purchased my ticket I recieved both a reservation number (6 digit) and a ticket number (13 digit), although the ticket number doesn't actually show up on the ticket, only the receipt. When I hit "my trip" on the amtrak website, the reservation number works, but the ticket number cannot be found. Is this just how the website works? Or is this abnormal? Does this happen for anyone else?

Thanks

I've never noticed a ticket number. Whenever I talk to Amtrak, they ask for the Reservation Number. I suspect the ticket number is just for accounting use, like the transaction id on a credit card statement.

 

[Customer B]

I've never noticed a ticket number. Whenever I talk to Amtrak, they ask for the Reservation Number. I suspect the ticket number is just for accounting use, like the transaction id on a credit card statement.

I was thinking that too, but right when you enter 13 digits into that section on the site, it automatically adjusts your next options to be different. It even clarifies that the ticket number is not found instead of just saying the reservation number isn't found.

I'm curious if anyone here with an upcoming trip could try to see if this is just how the "my trip" section of the site is.

I'm just an overly cautious person and like to make sure all of my stuff is working, sorry if these messages come across as annoying.

Thank you for replying!!

 

[AmtrakBlue]

The reservation number is what you need to look up your reservation/ticket.

 

[Customer B]

The reservation number is what you need to look up your reservation/ticket.

I just don't understand why it would specify ticket number otherwise

 

[zephyr17]

I was thinking that too, but right when you enter 13 digits into that section on the site, it automatically adjusts your next options to be different. It even clarifies that the ticket number is not found instead of just saying the reservation number isn't found.

I'm curious if anyone here with an upcoming trip could try to see if this is just how the "my trip" section of the site is.

I'm just an overly cautious person and like to make sure all of my stuff is working, sorry if these messages come across as annoying.

Thank you for replying!!

The website, and most everything and everyone a passenger interacts with uses the reservation number/PNR. The ticket number is almost wholly internal and not very useful to look up a reservation pretty much by anybody.

It does not surprise me that using the ticket number does not produce a result. It may adjust the message, but it isn't a primary search criteria and one that is probably not well supported, at least on the website which is several layers removed from the reservations system, ARROW. Amtrak IT has enough trouble with core functions, let alone an edge case.

Your question makes me wonder about airline websites, though. I always check that there is an e-ticket number on the reservation just to make sure a ticket has been issued (a process that fails very infrequently, but causes no end of problems when it does), but never tried to look up a reservation with it. I always use the PNR to look things up with airlines as well as Amtrak.

In any case, you can look up your reservation, and you have a ticket number so you know a ticket was issued. You are basically fooling around with edge use cases on the website at this point to little purpose.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I just don't understand why it would specify ticket number otherwise

"valid cross-honor rail ticket" -- I think this is the confusion. A cross-honor rail ticket might be a VRE (Va Rail Express) train ticket (though I don't think they're valid right now) or maybe other local trains that cross-honor with Amtrak.

 

[zephyr17]

I just don't understand why it would specify ticket number otherwise

All e-ticketing, air or Amtrak, has ticket numbers as well as a reservation number/PNR. The ticket is the entity which actually carries the value. The reservation number/PNR ("Passenger Name Record") is a reference that enables easy reference and carries additional passenger information. They are linked, but they are separate.

Think of e-tickets in terms of old paper "value" tickets. They were called "value" because the ticket is a proxy for the monetary value. With paper tickets, you had a reservation number/PNR but you had physical tickets, too. You could not board a train or airplane with just evidence of a PNR, you had to present a ticket and have it collected. On airlines, you were usually given a boarding pass in exchange that allowed you onboard, on trains, the conductor just took it and pouched it, turning the tickets into accounting at the end of his run. With e-tickets, there is still a ticket there, separate from the PNR, just as physical tickets were, but instead of carrying it, it is held for you electronically and "collected" when scanned. The big advantage is you cannot lose an e-ticket like you could with a paper "value" ticket.

E-tickets are usually so seamless that for practical travel purposes, the reservation number/PNR, the e-ticket and the boarding pass feel like they are all one thing. They really aren't, but feel that way until there is a glitch with e-ticket issuance. Then the difference between an e-ticket and a PNR becomes painfully clear.

Since you have a ticket number, you are not in that position, so have nothing to worry about and need not be concerned with the backend artifact that is the actual e-ticket.