Voucher Question

[Ben_G]

Some may recall the incident in the Chi lounge a month or so ago the wife and myself had to deal with. I did call and make a report with Amtrak customer service dept. Well yesterday in the mail was a voucher for $75, I told the youngman I talked with at cutomer service he didn't have to send us one but he insisted. Just wanted the lounge workers to go by the rules and not the ones they made up at the time.

OK now how do I go about useing this voucher....Wife and myself are thinking of taking our 2 youngest grandkids on a Chicago day trip...neither have ever been on a train.... Been to Chi several times when we lived up that way but never on a train. Up on the Saluki out of CDL do lunch and back on the Illini that afternoon. Being a three hour drive from the station and these trains being reserved seats, I am thinking I need to purchase tickets ahead of time rather than on the morning at the station. Can I buy thru a Amtrak agent over the phone useing the voucher ? Do I have to wait till at the station and buy from the station master and turn in the voucher at that time. I don't see any option to purchase online reading the back of the voucher but it does have a code they would have a record of I think.

 

[printman2000]

Vouchers use to be items you had to present to a ticket agent to use. I believe now they are e-vouchers which can be redeemed when speaking to an agent on the phone. Were there no instructions printed with the voucher on how to use it? If not, call and make your reservations with an agent, telling them you have this voucher to redeem.

 

[pennyk]

I have an e-voucher for $100 and I thought I could use it to offset some of the cost of my upcoming trip. When I made my rez, I notified the ticket agent that I had a voucher. The agent told me I had to talk to customer relations because they are the only ones that deal with vouchers. After 20+ minutes on hold, I spoke to a CR representative who told me that to use the e-voucher, I would have to go to a station and pay for and pick up my tickets. I am not ready to print out my tickets for my July trip. The agent offered to mail the voucher to me and told me that when I eventually pick up the tickets, I should bring the voucher and I should get a $100 credit on my credit card.

I have used an e-voucher in the past when the amount of the voucher was almost the amount of the ticket. In that case, they did not require payment until the day of travel and the amount was reduced by the voucher.

Based on my limited experience, it may depend on how much your voucher is in relation to the cost of your reservation.

 

[disgruntled in dallas]

Wow $75. and you didn't even want it! I guess I got the wrong CS agent when I made my complaint. Shortly after we left SPI on the TE all the toilets in our sleeping car quit working. Jim our SCA kept re-setting the switch until that quit working. He said that someone in Chicago had neglected their duty ,leaving us with a full holding tank. He appeared to be just as upset about the situation as the rest of the SC pax were.We had to go to the next coach the entire trip to use the RR. He told us to call CS and COMPLAIN since we had paid for a sleeper. I did. They sent me a voucher for $100. (kinda chinchy IMO) I tried to make a reservervation over the phone and first agent said I had to go to station, so I did. The reservation I wanted(straight from Amtrak's website) did not come up on her screen and therefore didn't exist :unsure: I went out to my truck called Julie and was transferred to an agent who made the reservation with no problem, when I informed her I intended to use a voucher for the $94.?? fare she said that would be fine. She would just extend the normal 3 day pay/pick up time until the day of travel which is at the end of June. So that's how I get to use my voucher. Happy rails to ya