SubwayNut
Conductor
I realize we already have a nice, long thread about eTickets but over the passed three days going from Chicago to Washington on #30 Sunday Night and up to New York this afternoon on #176 (had the CL not been delayed I woud have had 23.5 hours in DC the longest layover for Amtrak to consider for a continuos trip costing just $87) I realized Amtrak needs a clear posted policy for what kind of boarding documentation is required at a station with gate agents, or ideally give them their own iPhones for confirming eTickets. I made a point of using the Amtrak app on my iPhone exclusively on this trip, which I witnessed the conductor can scan the QR code on faster than with the regularly printed electronic ticket documents. There is still a bug in the app that means soon after your first segment departs (and you don't have any other upcoming reservations) you have to click a grey button saying No Active Trips (without a > sign telling you there is another screen) to access your reservation. The app also never bothered to update the departure times for the delayed Capital Limited on the first screen, only updating them on the second (after clicking View) where the eTicket and QR code appears. They also never notified me (I think my notification was stopping at a QuikTrak machine on Wednesday to pick up the electronic boarding document just to confirm the itinerary was eTicket eligible) about the schedule change and I called the Select number (I recently qualified as a member think I'll reach S+ by the end of the year) Sunday morning just to confirm (with an apology from the agent saying I should have been informed).
The Gate Agents though were another story:
Boarding in Chicago: I boarding around 7:00 after the regular line was gone (the lounge, my least favorite place on Amtrak, nearly empty) and the friendly agent saw immediately that I was on train 30 and asked to see the QR code to confirm I had an eTicket
Boarding in DC: This was a real annoyance, the gate agent screamed at me "I need to see the number for 176" and I held up the long line of an already late train (we left 5 minutes late, arrived in NYP 5 minutes early) for about 30 seconds while I scrolled my iPhone to finally put my finger under 176 to prove I was on it.. (We left from one of the lower level platforms since this is the Lynchburger and I wonder what the response would have been if I had decided to use the one staircase in the VRE gate area instead which looks public with a sign for the track, where I left the platform from the Capital Limited yesterday. In NYP I generally avoid gate agents by boarding at other entrances, and I have a friend who takes the train to Rhode Island all the time and tells me he hasn't showed his ticket to a gate agent in years just by using the lower-level corridor.)
What I witnessed while assembling my Bicycle in a corner of New York-Penn Station (which had been sent via the Lake Shore and arrived the day before): Today's #49 was boarding and as they made the All Aboard, Last Call announcement, I overheard a lady screaming that she had a ticket on the train and was told by customer service (I assume had changed her reservation over the phone) that the barcode was all she needed and she didn't need a new ticket and needed to get to Seattle. Se became understandably quite irate being prevented from boarding. Eventually 3 gate agents (with an Amtrak Cop standing by) surrounded her to prevent her from going down the escalator at 5-East and they led her away to I think the ticket windows on the opposite end of the concourse. #49 did leave ten minutes late today so perhaps they scanned her ticket and did find out she had just changed her reservation and she just made the train.
As a witness to this event the passenger did have an electronic ticket on #49 today and was told according to Amtrak's new policy she could use her old one (over the phone when she changed her ticket) to board her train. This fact is something Amtrak has made a big deal over is that you can still use your old eTicket if you change your itinerary, and the phone agents have clearly been told to tell passengers this. They need to be told that is true except in stations with gate agents: WAS, PHL, NYP, ALB, CHI, STL, KCY (any of the Boston's?, Baltimore?) are the ones that immediately come to mind you need written or electronic screen proof of a reservation. What would be the full list of stations with gate agents?
Amtrak ideally needs to abolish gate agents (I personally wish every major station was like LAX) or if they insist on keeping them have iPhones available for passengers like this or (and the least friendly passenger option) is to have all phone agents trained, the policy clearly posted in the effective stations, and the actual stations with the gate agents listed under important information on the e-mail confirmations for eTickets that presently only says: "Your latest eTicket shows the services you have reserved. If you changed your reservation but did not reprint the eTicket, it will not reflect your current itinerary. At some stations, a gate agent may need to view your current itinerary. You can obtain an updated copy of your eTicket at Quik-Trak or a ticket office, or you can reprint it at home."
For the curious I will add that I didn't try and check my bike in the bowels of Union Station with just the Amtrak app (didn't have an eMail to show with the full itinerary on one screen since I booked the reservation before it was eTicket eligible). Bikes aren't handeld at the ticket window there, an Amtrak employee must let you down to the basement baggage level where you disassemble your bike in a corner avoiding the electric baggage carts and pay and get it tagged by who I believe is the manager of baggage services. I did have an extremely mangled electronic travel document which I showed him. In DC 10 minutes before I boarded I scanned my AGR Select card to see what would happen and got an eTicket document only listing #176 and not the trip on #30 that I had already taken (they can only list two segments per eTicket I believe).
The Gate Agents though were another story:
Boarding in Chicago: I boarding around 7:00 after the regular line was gone (the lounge, my least favorite place on Amtrak, nearly empty) and the friendly agent saw immediately that I was on train 30 and asked to see the QR code to confirm I had an eTicket
Boarding in DC: This was a real annoyance, the gate agent screamed at me "I need to see the number for 176" and I held up the long line of an already late train (we left 5 minutes late, arrived in NYP 5 minutes early) for about 30 seconds while I scrolled my iPhone to finally put my finger under 176 to prove I was on it.. (We left from one of the lower level platforms since this is the Lynchburger and I wonder what the response would have been if I had decided to use the one staircase in the VRE gate area instead which looks public with a sign for the track, where I left the platform from the Capital Limited yesterday. In NYP I generally avoid gate agents by boarding at other entrances, and I have a friend who takes the train to Rhode Island all the time and tells me he hasn't showed his ticket to a gate agent in years just by using the lower-level corridor.)
What I witnessed while assembling my Bicycle in a corner of New York-Penn Station (which had been sent via the Lake Shore and arrived the day before): Today's #49 was boarding and as they made the All Aboard, Last Call announcement, I overheard a lady screaming that she had a ticket on the train and was told by customer service (I assume had changed her reservation over the phone) that the barcode was all she needed and she didn't need a new ticket and needed to get to Seattle. Se became understandably quite irate being prevented from boarding. Eventually 3 gate agents (with an Amtrak Cop standing by) surrounded her to prevent her from going down the escalator at 5-East and they led her away to I think the ticket windows on the opposite end of the concourse. #49 did leave ten minutes late today so perhaps they scanned her ticket and did find out she had just changed her reservation and she just made the train.
As a witness to this event the passenger did have an electronic ticket on #49 today and was told according to Amtrak's new policy she could use her old one (over the phone when she changed her ticket) to board her train. This fact is something Amtrak has made a big deal over is that you can still use your old eTicket if you change your itinerary, and the phone agents have clearly been told to tell passengers this. They need to be told that is true except in stations with gate agents: WAS, PHL, NYP, ALB, CHI, STL, KCY (any of the Boston's?, Baltimore?) are the ones that immediately come to mind you need written or electronic screen proof of a reservation. What would be the full list of stations with gate agents?
Amtrak ideally needs to abolish gate agents (I personally wish every major station was like LAX) or if they insist on keeping them have iPhones available for passengers like this or (and the least friendly passenger option) is to have all phone agents trained, the policy clearly posted in the effective stations, and the actual stations with the gate agents listed under important information on the e-mail confirmations for eTickets that presently only says: "Your latest eTicket shows the services you have reserved. If you changed your reservation but did not reprint the eTicket, it will not reflect your current itinerary. At some stations, a gate agent may need to view your current itinerary. You can obtain an updated copy of your eTicket at Quik-Trak or a ticket office, or you can reprint it at home."
For the curious I will add that I didn't try and check my bike in the bowels of Union Station with just the Amtrak app (didn't have an eMail to show with the full itinerary on one screen since I booked the reservation before it was eTicket eligible). Bikes aren't handeld at the ticket window there, an Amtrak employee must let you down to the basement baggage level where you disassemble your bike in a corner avoiding the electric baggage carts and pay and get it tagged by who I believe is the manager of baggage services. I did have an extremely mangled electronic travel document which I showed him. In DC 10 minutes before I boarded I scanned my AGR Select card to see what would happen and got an eTicket document only listing #176 and not the trip on #30 that I had already taken (they can only list two segments per eTicket I believe).
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They appear to serve a relatively marginal purpose and are one of the worst offenders in making up their own random policies on the fly.
