When Did Amtrak Plan On Telling Me?

[Long Train Runnin']

:angry: :angry: I am so upset right now I can hardly speak! Train 79 is canceled on one of the days I am planning to ride it and its been on the site over a week, and Amtrak is yet to inform me that my reservation is no longer going to work! :angry: I've never had this happen to me so I have a few questions. Can I get the money back since they canceled the train or will there be a 10% fee like usual. I am sure I'll have more questions once I calm down.

 

[user 2160]

:angry: :angry: I am so upset right now I can hardly speak! Train 79 is canceled on one of the days I am planning to ride it and its been on the site over a week, and Amtrak is yet to inform me that my reservation is no longer going to work! :angry: I've never had this happen to me so I have a few questions. Can I get the money back since they canceled the train or will there be a 10% fee like usual. I am sure I'll have more questions once I calm down.

unlikely you'll be paying any fees

kinda lame that you haven't received a call yet

 

[PetalumaLoco]

I don't understand.

from the Amtrak website.

Trains 79 and 80 Cancelled

March 2, 9, 16, 30 and April 6 and 20

your member trip post,

Train #79 4/13/09 NYP CLT

Train #80 4/18/09 CLTNYP

I think your trains are still running.

Scratch all that, I didn't read far enough down the notice.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

Train 79 and 80 Temporary Weekday Schedule Change
On certain dates beginning March 10 through April 17, track work being performed by CSX Transportation will affect the Carolinian Trains 79 and 80. Trains will operate between Charlotte and Raleigh only during the weekday periods below:

Tuesday - Friday

March 10 - March 13

March 17 - March 20

Monday - Friday

March 23 - March 27

Tuesday - Friday

March 31 - April 3

Tuesday - Thursday

April 7 - April 9

Monday - Friday

April 13 - April 17

I am screwed on that part. What you posted before used to be all there was. Now they added this section

 

[Amtrak OBS Gone Freight]

:angry: :angry: I am so upset right now I can hardly speak! Train 79 is canceled on one of the days I am planning to ride it and its been on the site over a week, and Amtrak is yet to inform me that my reservation is no longer going to work! :angry: I've never had this happen to me so I have a few questions. Can I get the money back since they canceled the train or will there be a 10% fee like usual. I am sure I'll have more questions once I calm down.

Usually in situations such as this they waive the fees for changing being it is not your fault. Now as far as the notification part, I personally believe Amtrak has a fairly good reputation in notifying folks when changes (that were planned after the fact) like this occur. But on many occasions passengers had not provided a good contact number (especially at the away from home point between round trips) or had changed their contact number without updating Amtrak.

But in your defense, I have seen Amtrak wait and notify people on the night before or the day of travel, too. But IMO, it still doesn't relieve the passenger from checking and verifying their travel plans at some point prior to travel. If the travel is very important, get that "backup plan" in place or you stand to face possible troubles without a solution right away. I can't preach that enough!

OBS gone freight...

 

[PetalumaLoco]

Train 79 and 80 Temporary Weekday Schedule Change
On certain dates beginning March 10 through April 17, track work being performed by CSX Transportation will affect the Carolinian Trains 79 and 80. Trains will operate between Charlotte and Raleigh only during the weekday periods below:

Tuesday - Friday

March 10 - March 13

March 17 - March 20

Monday - Friday

March 23 - March 27

Tuesday - Friday

March 31 - April 3

Tuesday - Thursday

April 7 - April 9

Monday - Friday

April 13 - April 17

I am screwed on that part. What you posted before used to be all there was. Now they added this section

Yeah, that's terrible. Wish it didn't work out that way for you.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

. If the travel is very important, get that "backup plan" in place or you stand to face possible troubles without a solution right away. I can't preach that enough!

Yeah, have to talk it over with the family what we will do now. Personally, I hope my parents plan there own trip and go somewhere they wanna go, and give me that voucher That way I dont have to get off the train to enjoy my vacation... I just hope the rental cars and hotel reservations can get canceled with out to many problems.

 

[AlanB]

Well if you look at the Amtrak site, you'll notice a long list of service notices and changes. I've no doubt that the department that handles calling people is very, very busy right now. They prioritize the calls based upon whose going to be impacted first and then try to work their way through the list. And in many cases, they have to help the customer rebook things, so the calls can take a while. I'm betting that you would have received a call either this week or next.

And yes, you should be able to get a 100% refund if that's what you want. Since you have other travel plans though, it probably doesn't matter one way or the other. For you, a voucher is equally useful.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

Well if you look at the Amtrak site, you'll notice a long list of service notices and changes. I've no doubt that the department that handles calling people is very, very busy right now. They prioritize the calls based upon whose going to be impacted first and then try to work their way through the list. And in many cases, they have to help the customer rebook things, so the calls can take a while. I'm betting that you would have received a call either this week or next.
And yes, you should be able to get a 100% refund if that's what you want. Since you have other travel plans though, it probably doesn't matter one way or the other. For you, a voucher is equally useful.

Alright thanks. Haven't spoken to the folks yet since they would consider this something that can wait until morning. So I am not sure what they will want to do in this case.

What a bummer, first trip I get convince my mom to take the train instead of fly and now this headache. Ah, I guess thats life..

 

[PRR 60]

...And yes, you should be able to get a 100% refund if that's what you want. Since you have other travel plans though, it probably doesn't matter one way or the other. For you, a voucher is equally useful.

I would still rather have the refund. A voucher requires using phone reservations and turning in the voucher at an attended station to get your tickets. With a refund, you can rebook on Amtrak.com, have full cancel and change flexibility, and use Quik Trak to print your tickets day of travel. Dollar-wise it's the same, but for convenience in booking future travel, the refund is better.

 

[PRR 60]

Well if you look at the Amtrak site, you'll notice a long list of service notices and changes. I've no doubt that the department that handles calling people is very, very busy right now. They prioritize the calls based upon whose going to be impacted first and then try to work their way through the list. And in many cases, they have to help the customer rebook things, so the calls can take a while. I'm betting that you would have received a call either this week or next.
And yes, you should be able to get a 100% refund if that's what you want. Since you have other travel plans though, it probably doesn't matter one way or the other. For you, a voucher is equally useful.

It's a shame Amtrak can't auto-generate e-mails to those passengers affected by a schedule change or disruption. It would not get to everyone, but I bet it would get to 75%. They could follow-up with a call, but it would be a good heads-up to permit customers to consider options. United Airlines does that even if there is a five-minute schedule change.

 

[Everydaymatters]

Coming back from Seattle last September the passengers on our train found out about bridge work, being bused, a detour and missed stops from another passenger. This other passenger got a call from Amtrak on her cell phone while she was on the train!

Sorry this happened to you. I hope it will all work out well for you.

 

[Tony]

kinda lame that you haven't received a call yet

Yea, I have been there too.

Being kind-of anal, I always double check my reservations a day or two before my trip (I make my reservations, usually, months in advance to get the lowest bucket possible). Over the years, yep, twice that I can remember, I found things changed.

No phone call.

No email.

Nothing from Amtrak.

IMHO, it is pretty lame that Amtrak relies on my own double checking, instead of being pro-active and contacting me. I mean, Amtrak sent a confirmation to be via email. It should be trivial to send a follow-up email.

 

[Tony]

I would still rather have the refund. A voucher requires using phone reservations and turning in the voucher at an attended station to get your tickets. With a refund, you can rebook on Amtrak.com, have full cancel and change flexibility, and use Quik Trak to print your tickets day of travel. Dollar-wise it's the same, but for convenience in booking future travel, the refund is better.

I know this is going off on a tangent, but I just couldn't miss an opportunity to jump onto Amtrak's Voucher program. IMHO, there is no valid reason why it needs to be as difficult as it is, to use vouchers. Well, other than Amtrak's inherent desire to make it difficult as possible to redeem them.

I mean, just how difficult would it be, by phone or by website, to simply provide the unique serial number off of the voucher when making reservations? There has to be a way for the person on the phone or for the website, then, to check the serial number against the passenger name it was issued against if fraud is truly the motive behind Amtrak's practice.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

What I find odd is I went to the review reservations page, it doesn't have any red flags with the reservation. It shows me and my family onboard a train that isn't running. It seems like they should put some kind of alert on the reservations page?

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

What a bummer. All I can say is, man, I am sorry.

And yet I can recall a time or two in thr past when I have been notified about say,a 10 minute schedule change.

 

[ThayerATM]

:angry: :angry: I am so upset right now I can hardly speak! Train 79 is canceled on one of the days I am planning to ride it and its been on the site over a week, and Amtrak is yet to inform me that my reservation is no longer going to work! :angry: I've never had this happen to me so I have a few questions. Can I get the money back since they canceled the train or will there be a 10% fee like usual. I am sure I'll have more questions once I calm down.

Last year we had tickets from ROC to CHI on the LSL (49), then from CHI to SAC on the CZ (5). We also had tickets on the CZ (6)back to CHI, then back to ROC on the LSL (48). We were set to depart ROC at 11:00 PM on Saturday.

Friday morning I learned (on this board) that the CZ (5) had been cancelled due to flooding in Iowa, with no alternate transportation available. I quick called Amtrak to confirm this info, and was given a cancellation number for ALL the tickets. No questions asked. Plan B immediately went into effect. The rest of Friday and part of Saturday were spent cancelling car rentals, hotel reservations, and like that... THEN making flight reservations, new car rental reservations, and new hotel reservations. The entire trip turned out to be a pleasant experience despite the disappointment of not being able to take a long train trip.

Upon our return to ROC I applied for, and within two weeks had, 100% of the cost of the train trip credited back to our credit card.

I have no idea why Amtrak never notified me of the train 5 cancellation, (they had my cell phone and home phone number) but it might well be because I got on the phone to them before they had time to react.

Somebody said they were anal about confirming reservations. I think it's just good common sense to watch this board, and call and confirm your reservations directly with an Amtrak Agent a month before, then a week before, then the day before, then the day of any long distance trip.

There's no way of anticipating emergency land/train situations (landslides, floods, derailments), but scheduled stuff is usually known ahead of time, and certainly it will come to your attention before you leave and get half way across the country.

And I firmly beleive Amtrak will make your costs good if it's their fault. I also think I've read that if the cancellation is even YOUR request, if it's because of a death in the family, or a medical emergency, Amtrak will still give you a 100% refund.

 

[x-press]

:angry: :angry: I am so upset right now I can hardly speak! Train 79 is canceled on one of the days I am planning to ride it and its been on the site over a week, and Amtrak is yet to inform me that my reservation is no longer going to work! :angry: I've never had this happen to me so I have a few questions. Can I get the money back since they canceled the train or will there be a 10% fee like usual. I am sure I'll have more questions once I calm down.

LTR, this particular round of cancellations seemed very last-minute and unorganized; I suspect CSX shenanigans, though I don't understand Amtrak's plan to deal with it, either. I noticed my 03/20/09 Baltimore-Charleston trip on the Palmetto (89) was being "bustituted" Richmond-Rocky Mount (resulting in adding 2 hours to my schedule) just a couple weeks ago. I re-scheduled onto the Meteor of the night before. At the time I found out, the Carolinian was cancelled entirely, and it was only several days later that it "re-appeared" between Raleigh-Charlotte, suggesting that Amtrak was scrambling to get a plan together. I don't understand why they're not doing the same "bustitute" treatment for your Carolinian. They could even merge the Carolinian/Palmetto (79/89) north of Richmond, have passengers share the bus bridge, and have the separate sets south of Rocky Mount.

Of course the root of the problem here is the inadequate infrastructure that results in yearly (at least) shutdowns of popular trains for a month at a time. AlanB's theory of it being largely due to the single tracked line is a good one.

 

[Bigval109]

What a bummer. All I can say is, man, I am sorry.
And yet I can recall a time or two in thr past when I have been notified about say,a 10 minute schedule change.

I agree also. I have been called as well for minor changes. Also I was booked to ride the SL coast to coast before the Katrina and it showed up on their website when I went to check my reservation. Back then they thought it would be up and running by that following May. No luck yet.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

they call for minor things but can't be bothered to call for major things.

 

[AlanB]

they call for minor things but can't be bothered to call for major things.

That's so far from correct. I'll never be the first person to say that Amtrak does everything right, because they don't. But phone calls for schedule changes and disruptions are one thing that Amtrak is actually pretty good at. Now I'm not suggesting that they are perfect, people do fall through the cracks unfortunately for various reasons. But again, Amtrak is pretty darn good at this. Even one of our members who got stranded by Amtrak two years ago when the Coast Starlight was taken out by the landslide did get a call. Unfortunately it wasn't helpful to him since he was already on his vacation and the message was left on his home answering machine. And how Amtrak dealt with him when he arrived at the station for his non-existant trip home was far from correct and appropriate. But they did call him!

So I'm sorry, to say that they don't call for major things is incorrect. I've been called for big and small things, as have many other members here.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

ok then customer service is slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

ok then customer service is slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

OR more likely grossly understaffed..