Thought on the new E-Ticket deal

[Ben_G]

Ok ......So now the E-Ticket is on the way system wide....no more printed at the station paper tickets. Is there a hidden reason behind this....I purchase a ticket but don't print it out untill at the station up to that point I can get a full refund. With a E-Ticket purchase would not the ticket be printed out even if just a bar code. Now what happends if you want a refund ? Do you still get 100% or since you printed out the code will there be a surcharge like once you printed the tickets out as before ?

 

[NE933]

Hmmmmm!..... (rubbing chin with devil grin and arched eyebrow)

 

[Anderson]

This has been a real concern...the suspicion I've heard is that they may go to 100% exchange value/90% refund value after printing.

 

[PRR 60]

This has been a real concern...the suspicion I've heard is that they may go to 100% exchange value/90% refund value after printing.

How would know when your printed it? All they will do is e-mail you a PDF. You can print it then, weeks later, or never (show the QR code on your smart phone). In any case, all Amtrak knows is that they e-mailed you a PDF.

 

[Anderson]

This has been a real concern...the suspicion I've heard is that they may go to 100% exchange value/90% refund value after printing.

How would know when your printed it? All they will do is e-mail you a PDF. You can print it then, weeks later, or never (show the QR code on your smart phone). In any case, all Amtrak knows is that they e-mailed you a PDF.

True, but they might count sending the PDF as being analogous to printing now. Basically, you "have" your ticket in a sense.

 

[jphjaxfl]

I assume it will be similar to airlines' process. If you have pdf that Amtrak sends you, you will get a credit to the card you used to buy the ticket. I have never had a problem since airlines have gone to e-ticketing. I love e-ticketing because with my boarding pass on my smart phone, I never have to worry about losing tickets or a piece of paper. Of course, I will never have historic ticket stubs like I have from the private railroads that I traveled on. Thats just fine with me.

 

[Anderson]

...you know, I think I'm going to round up and store all of the stubs I have just for posterity. Sadly, I lack any from the old days (for reasons relating to a relatively recent birth), but I'll hold onto these "just because".

 

[Aaron]

Why speculate when Amtrak already has actual (possibly unclear and incomplete) information available?

From the "Refund and Exchange Policy" page at http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241267362242

"eTicket and Prepaid Tickets
 
When purchased an eTicket (sic) or through other prepaid programs, tickets are considered "paid for" and subject to the refund policies of any component rail fare, passenger type discount, and/or promotional discount, even if paper value tickets have not yet been printed."
It would seem from this that an eTicket is indeed treated like a printed ticket (refunds at 90% in money, or 100% in a voucher) as soon as it's purchased. Reading through the whole refund policy, there's no mention there about 100% cash refund for unprinted traditional tickets. I don't know if that page recently changed in preparation for eticketing, or if that was never spelled out in the policy but was just the side effect of the difference between a "ticket" and a "reservation". Either way, it looks like the future is a 10% hit if you want your money back.

 

[jis]

It appears that Amtrak does not follow that stated policy when it comes to handling value tickets in the case of non-refundable tickets.

For non-refundable fares, as long as the ticket has not actually been printed Amtrak refunds the fare upon cancellation.

If indeed Amtrak decides that it will cash refund only 90% of a refundable fare then it will suddenly become worse than airlines, since at least the ones I deal with, refund 100% of a refundable fare upon cancellation before flight, no fuss, no muss. AFAICT non-refundable tickets get a voucher of equivalent value for use within a year. Actually, at least for United, you just keep the same PNR and rebook it within a year for some other travel, either paying the difference if the new fare is higher, or get a E-voucher if the new fare is lower. In addition you pay any applicable change fee as specified in the original non-refundable fare. Amtrak will remain better than airlines in not exacting a change fee on non-refundable fares I hope.

 

[PRR 60]

This has been a real concern...the suspicion I've heard is that they may go to 100% exchange value/90% refund value after printing.

How would know when your printed it? All they will do is e-mail you a PDF. You can print it then, weeks later, or never (show the QR code on your smart phone). In any case, all Amtrak knows is that they e-mailed you a PDF.

True, but they might count sending the PDF as being analogous to printing now. Basically, you "have" your ticket in a sense.

Since the PDF will be attached to the reservation confirmation e-mail, there will be no period of time during which you have a reservation and not the PDF.