Is Amsnag Down again?

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M

Minister

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Tried accessing it on two different computers. Looks like it has been blocked. I don't know why Amtrak always does this as the program doesn't harm anything. Anyone got a clue to what is happening??.

This is what I get after entering a search.

Query failed: insert into choice select distinct sessId,conCode,seg,train, depSta, arrSta from result where sessId = order by conCode,seg
Error: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'order by conCode,seg' at line 2
Query failed: delete from result where sessId =
Error: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1
Query failed: select * from choice where choiceId =
Error: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1

Fatal error: Call to a member function fetch_array() on a non-object in /home/biketra1/public_html/common/mysqlI.php on line 87
 
I discovered that Amsnag works (using IE9 on Windows 7)IF you use the link www.biketrain.net and not www.amsnag.net. This is a great resource and we all owe a special word of thanks to John for creating it. It makes it so much easier finding a fare that fits your time frame and budget.
 
dlagrua said:
This is a great resource and we all owe a special word of thanks to John for creating it. It makes it so much easier finding a fare that fits your time frame and budget.
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While John is certainly deserving of kudo's for hosting Amsnag and helping to troubleshoot & keep it running, as well as his other contribution namely the Amtrak status maps, he is not the creator of Amsnag. That honor goes to Paul (PaulM).
 
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AlanB said:
dlagrua said:
This is a great resource and we all owe a special word of thanks to John for creating it. It makes it so much easier finding a fare that fits your time frame and budget.
Click to expand...
While John is certainly deserving of kudo's for hosting Amsnag and helping to troubleshoot & keep it running, as well as his other contribution namely the Amtrak status maps, he is not the creator of Amsnag. That honor goes to Paul (PaulM).
Click to expand...
Alan: Thank you for the correction. We certainly want to give credit where credit is due so with apologies, please allow me to rephrase my comment:We certainly owe a word of thanks to PaulM for creating Amsnag and to JohnB who has offered his technical expertise to keep it running. Amsnag has been a great resource for us LD travelers
 
I just received an e-mail alert that was complete nonsense (absurdly low fares), but for only one of the segments I was watching. Did a manual check and the numbers went back to normal. There does not seem to be a "Contact us" link on their web page.
 
Chuckles said:
I just received an e-mail alert that was complete nonsense (absurdly low fares), but for only one of the segments I was watching. Did a manual check and the numbers went back to normal. There does not seem to be a "Contact us" link on their web page.
Click to expand...
Amsnag is not a "for profit venture". It was designed by a forum member as a courtesy resource for other travelers. Usually websites that have contact links are those where you purchase something. In this case you are paying nothing to use the service..

The site has not only always worked well, it has also saved many forum members money. If you book early enough, are flexible on the dates, and check back regularly (if you are fare watching) you will get the lowest bucket fares that are available on a particular route. Bucket fares will fluctuate depending on factors such as ticket sales for the train on the day of travel, the season and the anticipated demand. .
 
waxman said:
Chuckles said:
I just received an e-mail alert that was complete nonsense (absurdly low fares), but for only one of the segments I was watching. Did a manual check and the numbers went back to normal. There does not seem to be a "Contact us" link on their web page.
Click to expand...
Amsnag is not a "for profit venture". It was designed by a forum member as a courtesy resource for other travelers. Usually websites that have contact links are those where you purchase something. In this case you are paying nothing to use the service..

The site has not only always worked well, it has also saved many forum members money. If you book early enough, are flexible on the dates, and check back regularly (if you are fare watching) you will get the lowest bucket fares that are available on a particular route. Bucket fares will fluctuate depending on factors such as ticket sales for the train on the day of travel, the season and the anticipated demand. .
Click to expand...
Why are you telling me this? I just got an alert from them that had nonsensical fares. There is no mechanism for me to report it to help stop it from happening again. Saying "the site has...always worked well" in response to this report that it is not working well is pointless.
 
Chuckles said:
Why are you telling me this? I just got an alert from them that had nonsensical fares. There is no mechanism for me to report it to help stop it from happening again. Saying "the site has...always worked well" in response to this report that it is not working well is pointless.
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Actually the mechanism, if you will, is to come here and do as you've done; make a post about it. Either Paul or John will see your post and try to look into things. John may well simply hand off the problem to Paul however, since it really is Paul's baby.
 
AmtrakBlue said:
There's an email address posted on the website.
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Cleverly hidden right there on the main page :D
amsnag_contact.png
 
And, just in case some of you haven't looked it up, ""wurfsendungen"" means junk-mail. Go Paul!

Still wasn't working from IE9 last night. FWIW. Which isn't much.

Again, many many thanks to Paul for the filter. For my next trip, Amtrak gives me 13 routings, of which I'm only7 interested in one! What a pleasure to not have to wade through the other 12.

And I like the new feature that tells you which day it's "snagging", especially the "Stand by", which I consider much more polite than "Please wait.".

Cheers
 
Yeah, I found it yesterday. Once you log in you can't see this page again, so yes 'cleverly hidden' is an accurate and unsarcastic description.

I don't know German so I didn't know what the address meant, but in fact I received a response to my e-mail, acknowledging the apparent issue and promising to look into it.
 
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Here's the error. Notice the size of the price drop, e.g. bedroom went from $897 to $224. I received the alert and re-checked manually 35 min later, as you can see below, and the price was in fact the original one ($897 for the bedroom).

x.jpg
 
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Chuckles said:
Here's the error. Notice the size of the price drop, e.g. bedroom went from $897 to $224. I received the alert and re-checked manually 35 min later, as you can see below, and the price was in fact the original one ($897 for the bedroom).
x.jpg
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It would be good to know if anyone else has gotten similar too good to be true results like this. Or cases where they change again very quickly.

When you say you "re-checked manually", do you mean you tried the "Check Fares Manually" button or that you went to to the Amtrak site. I was about to suggest that if you do get an email with strange results, try the "Check Fares Manually" button as soon as possible. The emails are generated by a program that runs automatically in the middle of the night. The Check Fares manually uses the same program but only checks your itineraries.

Could Amtrak have made a mistake and corrected it shortly thereafter?
 
PaulM said:
It would be good to know if anyone else has gotten similar too good to be true results like this. Or cases where they change again very quickly.
When you say you "re-checked manually", do you mean you tried the "Check Fares Manually" button or that you went to to the Amtrak site. I was about to suggest that if you do get an email with strange results, try the "Check Fares Manually" button as soon as possible. The emails are generated by a program that runs automatically in the middle of the night. The Check Fares manually uses the same program but only checks your itineraries.

Could Amtrak have made a mistake and corrected it shortly thereafter?
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Yes, I "checked fares manually". That's what you see as the last set of numbers in the history table I posted above, where the price is normal again.

Amtrak could have made a mistake and then corrected it shortly thereafter, but I believe amsnag checks once a day, and Amtrak would have to have made the mistake just before Amsnag checked it, and then corrected it soon afterwards. Which is possible, but quite a coincidence given that no one finds such errors on amtrak.com at any other time.
 
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Sure, Amtrak could have made a mistake, then observed it an hour or so later and changed it. Airlines make such mistakes, too. One of my spouse's best friends got a trip from California to Germany for $25 each way for her and her daughter a few years ago -- the airline honored the fare and they had a wonderful time.
 
Just curious, but has there been any attempt to interest Amtrak into them making this kind of feature an official part of their website?

I mean, we can use a billion other sites to find the best deals within a given date range for air travel, but not for Amtrak?
 
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