Student Advantage and Amtrak Rewards

[cbender]

Does anyone else here travel with a Student Advantage card? I've been using it for a few recent trips. I noticed that the travel was not showing up on my Amtrak Rewards account and it has been 6 weeks since the first trip with SA. I emailed Amtrak Rewards this morning and they responded a few minutes ago as follows:

The reason why you have not received credit for this travel is because

your Student Advantage number is provided also when booking a

reservation. The Student Advantage number overrides the Amtrak Guest

Rewards member number. In order to receive credit for your travel,

please contact us at Amtrak Guest Rewards to add your member number to

the reservation manually before you travel or after you travel. Thank

you and we apologize for the inconvenience. I have added the points

from these two reservations onto your account today.

I checked and my account has been credited correctly. However, this seems like a serious bug in Amtrak's online reservation program. I don't know how many people travel using SA, but I imagine a fair number use AAA and have to enter that number when they book travel (granted, I don't know if this problem occurs when using AAA, but a number is a number...). I don't mind contacting them each time, but it seems to do away with any overhead cost savings their realizing by having me book online.

 

[jccollins]

Uh oh - I use SA and Guest Rewards every time I book online. I thought Amtrak just might have been taking their time crediting my reservations, but I guess not... Yes, a serious glitch of the new website if this is true since the old website did not have any problems with my tickets and taking the guest rewards number.

 

[EmpireBuilderFan]

It must be a problem with the new website. When I had Student Advantage, I was frequently able to enter both the SA and AGR numbers without any problems.

 

[cbender]

I was able to put both numbers in when making the reservation, and I know that the Rewards number was saved in the reservation because it showed up at the ticket machine in Penn when I picked the tickets up.

 

[Anthony]

Weird, I've never heard of this problem

 

[saxman]

Hmm, I use the SA all the time and have received all points. But then again, I that was on the old website. I just took a trip last week, and I booked it online. We'll see if they post my points.

Chris

 

[jccollins]

Hmm, I use the SA all the time and have received all points. But then again, I that was on the old website.

yep, me too. But not with the new one...

 

[railman]

If you pick up your tickets at the station using an agent or the QuikTrack machine, I believe your Guest Rewards number can be added either way before printing the tickets. The human agent certainly can do it. I am not 100% sure about the QuikTrack machine....

 

[jccollins]

The GR number shows up on the confirmation page on the new website and is included in the e-mail confirmation... it just doesn't print onto the tickets or automatically process after the tickets are collected on the train. My solution: purchase a senior ticket with the guest rewards number (gives you the same 15% discount) and then show the student advantage card to the conductor onboard if he/she questions it.

 

[Trogdor]

Don't know if the senior ticked deal will work. However, if you're not using an internet discount, you might as well just call "Julie" or a reservations agent, or, if you live near a staffed station, book a ticket that way.

 

[AlanB]

Don't know if the senior ticked deal will work. However, if you're not using an internet discount, you might as well just call "Julie" or a reservations agent, or, if you live near a staffed station, book a ticket that way.

Even if you want to use an internet discount, just book online, but make sure that you pick up your tickets from a live agent. Then warn him/her before they print the tickets to add your GR number.

The key here for automatic posting of points, is to ensure that your GR # shows on the actual printed ticket.

 

[Trogdor]

I can't verify this bug, since I am not currently a member of Student Advantage (though I am a member of NARP, and I have booked NARP-discounted tickets with the new site without any problems getting the points awarded). However, whoever experiences this bug should contact Amtrak Customer Service in addition to Amtrak Guest Rewards, so that this issue can be fixed.

 

[jccollins]

However, whoever experiences this bug should contact Amtrak Customer Service in addition to Amtrak Guest Rewards, so that this issue can be fixed.

They are aware of it. See the first post in this thread. Amtrak is just very SLOW on fixing things. I told them the day they put up the new website that the Southwest Chief does not stop in Las Vegas, Nevada but rather Las Vegas, New Mexico and they just fixed it last week.

 

[Trogdor]

However, whoever experiences this bug should contact Amtrak Customer Service in addition to Amtrak Guest Rewards, so that this issue can be fixed.

They are aware of it. See the first post in this thread. Amtrak is just very SLOW on fixing things. I told them the day they put up the new website that the Southwest Chief does not stop in Las Vegas, Nevada but rather Las Vegas, New Mexico and they just fixed it last week.

The first post in the thread mentioned contacting Amtrak Guest Rewards. They would not necessarily be in a position to correct something with the reservations system.

 

[cbender]

The first post in the thread mentioned contacting Amtrak Guest Rewards. They would not necessarily be in a position to correct something with the reservations system.

That's correct. The email I received was from [email protected]. I have no idea how much interaction they have with the reservation system. However, it only took them a few minutes to correct my points balance using my reservation numbers.

 

[Trogdor]

I'd still contact Amtrak directly. Your point balance may be correct, but the inherent bug is probably still there.

 

[railman]

The GR number shows up on the confirmation page on the new website and is included in the e-mail confirmation... it just doesn't print onto the tickets or automatically process after the tickets are collected on the train.  My solution: purchase a senior ticket with the guest rewards number (gives you the same 15% discount) and then show the student advantage card to the conductor onboard if he/she questions it.

That's a very bad plan. If your ticket says senior on it and you don't look old enough to be one, someone at Amtrak is likely to become confrontational about. It's just plain wrong!

 

[battalion51]

On a seperate, but similar issue, when I bought my Vermonter ticket from a Quik Trak machine there was no option for a NARP discount. Anyone know why?

 

[railman]

The GR number shows up on the confirmation page on the new website and is included in the e-mail confirmation... it just doesn't print onto the tickets or automatically process after the tickets are collected on the train.  My solution: purchase a senior ticket with the guest rewards number (gives you the same 15% discount) and then show the student advantage card to the conductor onboard if he/she questions it.

If the GR number is there in your reservation and in the e-mail confirmation then the fault lies with Guest Rewards for taking too long to give you credit, or no credit at all.

GR numbers do not and will not print on the train tickets themselves.

 

[AlanB]

GR numbers do not and will not print on the train tickets themselves.

Sorry Railman, but the GR number is indeed on my Amtrak tickets. In fact everytime that I pick up my tickets, I make sure that it is indeed there.

 

[jccollins]

The GR number shows up on the confirmation page on the new website and is included in the e-mail confirmation... it just doesn't print onto the tickets or automatically process after the tickets are collected on the train.  My solution: purchase a senior ticket with the guest rewards number (gives you the same 15% discount) and then show the student advantage card to the conductor onboard if he/she questions it.

That's a very bad plan. If your ticket says senior on it and you don't look old enough to be one, someone at Amtrak is likely to become confrontational about. It's just plain wrong!

I've already done it but I brought proof along of the system glitch (e-mail from Amtrak directly, NOT Guest Rewards) AND I showed my student advantage card onboard the train to verify I qualified for a 15% discount. The conductor said he was new and didn't even know that Amtrak printed discount codes and fare types on the tickets... go figure. I ended up showing him how to check those things on the tickets and then he was checking everyones after mine and was asking people what the promo codes on their tickets were for!

 

[jccollins]

GR numbers do not and will not print on the train tickets themselves.

Okay, so technically they print on the top of the ticket stubs/receipt portion.

 

[AlanB]

GR numbers do not and will not print on the train tickets themselves.

Okay, so technically they print on the top of the ticket stubs/receipt portion.

I'm told, although I have no way to decode it, that it is also on the main ticket that the conductor lifts from you as part of the barcode on the ticket.

When the ticket is turned in by the conductor and that barcode is scanned into the computer, that creates a transaction batch that is transmitted to the GR computer and subsequently results in the posting of your points.