too late to print ticket

[wayman]

I have a reservation for the morning train from Fresno (6:50am) to Oakland (11:00am), but I'll be catching it in Merced (7:42am). I'd planned to print the ticket at the station before the train, but just realized the Merced station doesn't open until 7:15am -- after the train has left Fresno. I'm pretty sure that means when I go to a QuikTrak at Merced at 7:15am, I won't be able to print the ticket.

1) Am I wrong? Will I still be able to print the ticket? This would be the best case scenario!

2) If my suspicion is right, can I give my reservation number to the conductor on board? It's been paid for in advance, and I have the email confirmation, etc. It just hasn't been printed.

There's an AGR-related reason I need to use the FNO-OKJ ticket (which cost $43), as opposed to canceling it and re-booking MCD-OKJ (which only costs $39 for that train right now)--the $40+ ticket is worth 10,000 AGR points.

(I fear that if I talk to a station agent at Merced, they will insist on re-ticketing me MCD-OKJ rather than jumping through a hoop to print the FNO-OKJ ticket; if the conductor will definitely accept a reservation number, I'd rather not involve a station agent.)

 

[MrEd]

On my last trip, someone got on without printing ticket. They were seated next to me. Conductor said since they did not print the computer canceled the reservation when train left station. But he sold them new one. Since he can't do AGR not sure what might happen.

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

I'm not sure, but I don't think you can print them.

 

[wayman]

On my last trip, someone got on without printing ticket. They were seated next to me. Conductor said since they did not print the computer canceled the reservation when train left station. But he sold them new one. Since he can't do AGR not sure what might happen.

I know I could jump through a hoop and get AGR points for an on-board sale after the fact -- done that before. Unfortunately that's not helpful if the ticket is under $40 (which it will be, if the conductor sells me a ticket from Merced, unless it bumps up a bucket in the next six hours).

Sounds like I might be better off talking to the station agent after all (if the QuikTrak fails to print) -- if that's a sign that the reservation has been automatically canceled by the system, then I'm actually better off finding this out for sure and taking a later train to ensure I pay enough for it, as opposed to boarding the earlier train and winding up paying too little for it.

Which sounds dumb, but ... If the only options are 1) read a book for three hours in Merced, spend 90 minutes in Oakland, and get 10,000 AGR; or 2) spend five hours in Oakland, then I'll take the former, please Really, as long as I have time for a pint of Lagunitas at Heinhold's First and Last Chance, I'll be happy :lol:

 

[EB_OBS]

Ok, this is out of my normal area of expertise but I think I can help.

One, if the reservation is already paid for, then I don't believe it will be canceled.

Two, it may be possible for the conductor to call or radio ahead, to a manned station, and have them print the ticket. That's what we do on the EB quite a lot.

 

[Guest]

I believe that one can only get a train without a ticket, if boarding at an unmanned station. I am unsure if a station that is simply closed qualifies as an unmanned station.

If you buy a new ticket on-board, I would be worried that you would have to pay the current bucket price. That might be considerably higher.

 

[wayman]

I believe that one can only get a train without a ticket, if boarding at an unmanned station. I am unsure if a station that is simply closed qualifies as an unmanned station.

If you buy a new ticket on-board, I would be worried that you would have to pay the current bucket price. That might be considerably higher.

The buckets seem to only be about $5-6 apart from each other for this city-pair, so oddly my hope has been that the train would fill up overnight and it would be bumped to a higher bucket, so I could wake up this morning and just reserve MCD-OKJ for $44 instead of $39, and not have to worry about this whole old-ticket-mess. Alas, no; I still need to give Amtrak $1 more than they want from me! :blush:

Well, off to the station shortly; I'll let you know what happens....

 

[Trogdor]

If the ticket agent is on duty before your train arrives, he can print out your ticket. It doesn't auto-cancel immediately after departure time.

 

[Conductor OKJ]

You reservation will NOT be honored on the train in Merced. I work this run regurlarly and you will pay the YOSJ (highest bucket) plus a 9 dollar surcharge if you get on the train with no ticket at Merced. Simply go to the station agent in Merced with your reservation number and have them reinstate yoru reservation and print your ticket. Essecentially you can figure the ticket being in the ball park of 80 dollars for a one way if you try to buy on board the train at the Merced station.

"One, if the reservation is already paid for, then I don't believe it will be canceled."

ALL reservations are canceled once the train departs teh originating station, paid for or not.

"Two, it may be possible for the conductor to call or radio ahead, to a manned station, and have them print the ticket"

Wont do it leaveing a staffed station, agents wont print them and we are not supposed to ask. Tickets must be purchaesedat the on board price, wich again is the highest bucket plus a 9 dollar surcharge. If the ticket has been prepaid, well you will pay again as the prepaid ticket has been canceled. The only exception is if the board where there is no ticket office, Merced is staffed so the exception will not apply.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Why Did they issue you a ticket where you have print it out if the station doesn't open before the train arrives? In that situation they mail the tickets no charge.

 

[Guest]

Instead of worrying about it, why didn't you just change your reservation and be done with it?

 

[Ryan]

Because the 10 for 10 promotion only counts tickets over $40. Paying $39 for a ticket would mean forfeiting 10,000 AGR points.

 

[EB_OBS]

Ok, I checked with customer service, and indeed, Guest-conductor-OKJ is correct. All reservations are canceled when the train departs, if the tickets were not printed.

You should have been able to get the reservation reinstated by the ticket agent and have them print the tickets for you. Let us know how it turned out.

 

[EB_OBS]

Two, it may be possible for the conductor to call or radio ahead, to a manned station, and have them print the ticket. That's what we do on the EB quite a lot.

Just to clarify, we do this quite a lot from unmanned stations. There are indeed a different set of policies regarding manned stations.

 

[wayman]

Ok, I checked with customer service, and indeed, Guest-conductor-OKJ is correct. All reservations are canceled when the train departs, if the tickets were not printed.

You should have been able to get the reservation reinstated by the ticket agent and have them print the tickets for you. Let us know how it turned out.

Here's what happened:

Checked price of the 7:42 MCD-OKJ at 7am. Still only $39; had it gone up, I would have just bought it.

Got to Merced station about 7:20. Put my credit card into the QuikTrak and the reservation was not there. This was what I expected.

Explained to station agent that I had a reservation from Fresno and had hoped to print ticket at and board at Merced. He took my reservation number, looked it up, said it was automatically cancelled upon the train's departure from Fresno, and that he could not re-instate *that* reservation, but could give me a $39 ticket for MCD-OKJ.

Though I hadn't seen OKJ's extremely detailed comments at the time, I had gathered enough information to tell that this was not a situation to try resolving on board.

Checked the price of the next OKJ-bound San Joaquin, which turned out to be in a high enough bucket that MCD-OKJ cost $44. Bought/printed it at the QuikTrak.

Had four hours to kill before that train, so went to a local diner for breakfast with a friend, then home to play with her dogs.

Returned to station, caught train to OKJ, and will arrive in about half an hour. Lovely scenery, if you like oil refineries The coastline of the Bay is gorgeous, though!

And, having the $43 OKJ-FNO ticket in my pocket (trip 9) and a $40 FNO-BFD reservation for the 30th (10), I will get my 10 for 10!

Huge thanks to EB_OBS and Conductor_OKJ. It's great to have resources like you here!

 

[AlanB]

Ok, I checked with customer service, and indeed, Guest-conductor-OKJ is correct. All reservations are canceled when the train departs, if the tickets were not printed.

You should have been able to get the reservation reinstated by the ticket agent and have them print the tickets for you. Let us know how it turned out.

Cancelled is the wrong word to use here. A cancelled reservation implies that the customer is refunded the money back to their credit card. That does not happen! I can assure you of that fact, as I had to call to get my money back and actually have the reservation cancelled by the phone agent.

What does happen is that the reservation goes into some in-active state if the ticket isn't picked up before the scheduled departure time. In this state you can no longer go online to cancel the reservation, assuming that it was booked there, and the Quik-Trak machines will no longer spit out the ticket(s).

But as noted by OKJ Conductor and the CS rep, a station agent can still get into the reservation and issue the ticket. Of course one needs to be downline from the originaly booked station, because otherwise there is little point to holding a ticket for a train that has already left the station.

 

[AlanB]

Explained to station agent that I had a reservation from Fresno and had hoped to print ticket at and board at Merced. He took my reservation number, looked it up, said it was automatically cancelled upon the train's departure from Fresno, and that he could not re-instate *that* reservation, but could give me a $39 ticket for MCD-OKJ.

I hope that you had that ticket agent issue you a credit for that reservation. If not, you're going to have to call to get your money back.

And he's wrong, he could have set that reservation back to active and printed you a ticket. He either didn't know how to do that, or didn't want to be bothered doing that.

 

[wayman]

Oh, and then I called Amtrak and asked whether I could get the value of the unprinted ticket in voucher form. The agent asked if I had rebooked myself on a later train on the same route; I said yes, and he offered to just simplify matters by crediting the unprinted ticket's value directly to my credit card. As best I can tell, that was a courtesy at his discretion rather than standard policy; anyway, I thanked him for offering such a simple solution.

 

[wayman]

Explained to station agent that I had a reservation from Fresno and had hoped to print ticket at and board at Merced. He took my reservation number, looked it up, said it was automatically cancelled upon the train's departure from Fresno, and that he could not re-instate *that* reservation, but could give me a $39 ticket for MCD-OKJ.

I hope that you had that ticket agent issue you a credit for that reservation. If not, you're going to have to call to get your money back.

And he's wrong, he could have set that reservation back to active and printed you a ticket. He either didn't know how to do that, or didn't want to be bothered doing that.

The station agent not only didn't offer to re-instate and print that ticket, he also said he couldn't do anything but make me a new reservation and directed me to call Amtrak about the old one. Who's to say whether he was honestly mistaken or just not feeling helpful, but either way it was not a positive customer service moment. I knew better than to ask him whether he was sure about the policies he was telling me--he didn't sound like he was having a good day

But all's well that ends well. Speaking of which, I'm nearly at the end of the line, Jack London Square, and I can hear the Call Of The Wild ... the wild pint of Lagunitas IPA, that is. Gotta go catch it! :lol:

 

[daveyb99]

Excuse the Question -- but why do people think they can buy a ticket from Point A to Point B, get on at Point C, get off at Point D, check baggage to somewhere else, and cram 3 adults into a Roomette along the way.

 

[AlanB]

Oh, and then I called Amtrak and asked whether I could get the value of the unprinted ticket in voucher form. The agent asked if I had rebooked myself on a later train on the same route; I said yes, and he offered to just simplify matters by crediting the unprinted ticket's value directly to my credit card. As best I can tell, that was a courtesy at his discretion rather than standard policy; anyway, I thanked him for offering such a simple solution.

At present, and last I knew, any reservation for which tickets have not been printed can be fully refunded to the customer's credit card, assuming no other restrictions like being in a sleeper or a special non-refundable fare.

However, I've been hearing rumors that Amtrak may be changing that policy, and that soon even unticketed reservations may be subject to the 10% penatly.

Of course in your case, you would have transferred that money right over to the new ticket anyhow. Something that the station agent could have done for you too!

 

[oldtimer]

Excuse the Question -- but why do people think they can buy a ticket from Point A to Point B, get on at Point C, get off at Point D, check baggage to somewhere else, and cram 3 adults into a Roomette along the way.

I don't know, maybe they heard it through the grapevine!!!