21 replies to this topic

[TraneMan]

I booked our trip last Feb for our trip this summer out to WFH. On both ways, I did the roomette... Now I am thinking of maybe doing the bedroom on our return trip.

We are boarding in RDW and since it's not a staffed station, our tickets has been mailed out to us.

Can I call AGR and upgrade into the bedroom since I already got the tickets? I checked and there's two room left so far!

[amamba]

Yes, if you have enough points to upgrade you can do so.

However, its a huge wrinkle that you have already printed your tickets. I believe that since you have been ticketed, you have to mail your tickets back and they must be received before your points will go back into your account. Since i am assuming you need those points to do the upgrade, there will be a lag time between when you cancel the reservation and when the points are back in your account. There is a possibility that during that time the bedrooms will be booked!

[TraneMan]

I do have enough points for the upgrade. But I don't have enough to get another ticket, and wait for the current ticket get refunded. Guess I'll leave it be.

[the_traveler]

What amamba said is true. Since Red Wing is unstaffed, and your tickets were printed, they must be mailed back first. That is why we advise not to print your tickets until needed.

In the OP's case, if you were going to be at a staffed station (even if like NYP, MIA or LAX) prior to your trip, you can tell the agent that you will pick them up at another station! This way, they would not be printed and mailed to you.

[amamba]

Bummer. Like the traveler mentioned, in the future I would recommend not printing your tickets out until much closer to your trip, just in case you want to make changes.

Of course this might be a moot point with e-ticketing though!

[PRR 60]

I would call AGR and ask them if they could make the change for you, and keep it as a hold pending receipt of your tickets. Since it is only a change of accommodation class and not a change of the itinerary, they might do that for you. It is worth a call.

[Rail Freak]

Also, I believe the bedrooms are higher points now than in Feb. But you probably know that! Good Luck!

[AlanB]

I would call AGR and ask them if they could make the change for you, and keep it as a hold pending receipt of your tickets. Since it is only a change of accommodation class and not a change of the itinerary, they might do that for you. It is worth a call.

I did that once many years ago. It took a little doing and the agent made it quite clear that it was a one time thing that they were going to do for me. Interestingly, he wouldn't even tell me what my new reservation number was on the phone. It wasn't until I got the new tickets that I saw my res number.

Also, if you do try this TraneMan, send the tickets back by either a next day or the Post Office's two day service so that they get there faster. And also so that you can track the tickets and provide numbers to AGR if they lose things.

[TraneMan]

I called AGR, and said I have to send it in to get points credited. I don't have enough points to order another ticket.. That would mean i will have to mail it and wait till they get it and for the credit to be applied, and then get the upgrade... I did not want to do that and take chances on it.. I have a feeling by the time the credit shows, the bedroom will be sold out.

I am going to just take a chance to upgrade on the train if there is any open.

[AlanB]

I am going to just take a chance to upgrade on the train if there is any open.

Please don't do that! You'll just waste your points if you do.

The way onboard upgrades work is that they take the low bucket price for the Bedroom for your trip and subtract what you paid for the roomette and you owe either $50 or the difference, whichever is larger. Well you paid zero for your roomette, so they will subtract zero from the low bucket price of the room and you'll pay the difference. In other words, you'll have burned your points for just the railfare. Definitely not a good bargain.

Frankly I think it a shame that Amtrak won't credit you with either the low bucket price for the Roomette, or even what AGR actually pays Amtrak for that room. But they don't unfortunately.

[TraneMan]

Thanks for bringing that up Alan! I'll just stick with the roomette, and keep that extra points for the next trip.

[AlanB]

TraneMan,

By your next trip, it should be a whole lot easier should such a circumstance ever arrive again. With eTicketing this would have been a breeze to fix, and that should be done by the end of this year unless there is a sudden last minute snag. But so far things seem to be going quite well.

Except for the one trip that I noted above, which was several years ago, I've avoided this problem because I'm near a staffed station and so now I wait to pick up my tickets. That of course makes change easier. In the one case that I reported on, back then for some silly reason, AGR couldn't keep the reservation active for more than 3 months. So they always mailed out the tickets no matter what.

Sadly you didn't have the luxury of the option of waiting to pick up your tickets, so you are out of luck this time. But again, by late this year this type of problem will be academic.

[TraneMan]

Alan, since I got your attention... Do I earn rail points since I got my trip though AGR? A friend of mine didn't think using AGR points will allow you to earn rail points, only way a person can get it is when the have purchased the tickets.

[AlanB]

No, you won't get any points for the trip. That said, technically, you do earn points. The trip will show up on your
account. However, since you earn points by multiplying what you paid by 2, 2 X $0 = 0 points.

[TraneMan]

No, you won't get any points for the trip. That said, technically, you do earn points. The trip will show up on your
account. However, since you earn points by multiplying what you paid by 2, 2 X $0 = 0 points.

Thanks Alan! Guess I will have to keep in mind for a trip w/ Promo like last weekend, and pay for it.

[TraneMan]

Now I was thinking, if I earn points when I pay for something, so if I did upgrade into the bedroom, I'd earn points on that right? So it may be a wash in a way?

[Ryan]

Yes, you'll earn points.

A 1 zone roomette is 15,000 points.

You're not going to earn anywhere near that number of points when paying for an upgrade, so it's more "taking the sting out" than a "wash". You'll still come out far behind.

[PRR 60]

One additional thought. You could reserve an available bedroom using a credit card today. That will take the room out of inventory. Then, cancel your AGR roomette reservation and send in your tickets. When the points are returned to your account, call AGR. AGR can then cancel your paid bedroom (with a full refund back to your card) and issue the AGR bedroom. There is a very, very small chance that your bedroom will get lost if someone happens to reserve it during the nanosecond between the cancellation and AGR grabbing it, but realistically, that will not happen.

Edited by PRR 60, 15 May 2012 - 08:45 AM.

[amamba]

Now I was thinking, if I earn points when I pay for something, so if I did upgrade into the bedroom, I'd earn points on that right? So it may be a wash in a way?

It's not really a wash, its a huge loss of points. Because you already paid 15K (or 20K or wahtever) points for your rommette, and you will only receive 2 points per dollar spent on the upgrade. So say the upgrade costs $500, you will receive 1,000 points. But you already spent 15,000 points for the roomette. So your net for the trip is -15,000 points + 1000 points = -14,000 points.

[TraneMan]

One additional thought. You could reserve an available bedroom using a credit card today. That will take the room out of inventory. Then, cancel your AGR roomette reservation and send in your tickets. When the points are returned to your account, call AGR. AGR can then cancel your paid bedroom (with a full refund back to your card) and issue the AGR bedroom. There is a very, very small chance that your bedroom will get lost if someone happens to reserve it during the nanosecond between the cancellation and AGR grabbing it, but realistically, that will not happen.

That's a great ideal PRR! I will talk to my partner and see if he still wants to upgrade into the bedroom.