Anyone ever get a multi-city ticket pulled for the wrong segment?

Happened to me a few days ago. I had a split-segment trip planned with about a 1+ hour stopover. Just before I was about to get off I took a look up at my electronically printed seat check and realized the wrong segment was entered.

So I tracked down a conductor. Actually, I saw this conductor enter the cab and waited for her to exit the cab (almost at my destination). I showed my ticket and the seat check, and the conductor realized the mistake and apparently was able to undo the lifting of this segment. The gist I got was since it was a conductor's mistake, I was free to keep the segment that should have been lifted.

Still - I'm not sure what would be the deal with this ticket - if I can still use one segment or both segments. I had a change of plans and ended up getting home via alternate transportation. So theoretically the first segment was never lifted and the second segment was restored.

Nothing is showing up on AGR and I don't think it's supposed to since the segment was restored. I've looked to see if I can see the reservation on Amtrak.com. It shows up initially, but any attempt to look up the details and I get a message that the reservation can't be retrieved.

I'm thinking of scanning my ticket at a Quik-Trak kiosk. Those usually indicate if a segment is still valid.

I have had conductors who haven't lifted my ticket at all on a 900 mile trip. So I believe it

Seaboard92 said:

I have had conductors who haven't lifted my ticket at all on a 900 mile trip. So I believe it

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What does it mesan to have a ticket 'lifted'?

Thanks

Collected.

crabby_appleton1950 said:

What does it mean to have a ticket 'lifted'?

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As Ryan says, it's RR jargon for the conductor collecting a ticket.

But it does begs the question of whether this was a paper ticket. Most tickets are scanned now. And a multi-city or multi-segment eTicket has only one code containing information for the entire reservation. I presume the scanning software will record, not lift, the correct segment as having been used.



Now electronically printed seat checks is a new one on me. Must be a California thing.

PaulM said:

crabby_appleton1950 said:

What does it mean to have a ticket 'lifted'?

Click to expand...

As Ryan says, it's RR jargon for the conductor collecting a ticket.

But it does begs the question of whether this was a paper ticket. Most tickets are scanned now. And a multi-city or multi-segment eTicket has only one code containing information for the entire reservation. I presume the scanning software will record, not lift, the correct segment as having been used.

Now electronically printed seat checks is a new one on me. Must be a California thing.

Click to expand...

It was an eTicket, although the version I showed was from a Quik-Trak kiosk on Amtrak ticket stock. I remember the conductor saying something about the number of rides I had left, which was odd since it wasn't a 10-ride ticket. And in the end I think she just scanned the later segment I had planned and didn't lift the initial segment.

As for the seat checks - yeah they have these portable printers now. They print a whole bunch of info, including the current date, the destination in big block letters, the origin, the train number, the day of the week, the reservation number, and a PDF417 code with the reservation number (I checked with a phone app). Someone else posted a photo here:



So these sort of make it difficult to palm one of these things and try to reuse them to confuse a conductor into thinking you might have been checked by another conductor. By the next day/week/whatever all the info on the seat check is already outdated.

I just showed my ticket to a conductor to see what happened. Turns out the previous conductor lifted the first segment then restored the second segment. I also checked my AGR activity and it's showing the first segment acruing points.

I'm not quite sure what I can do with it now, but at least I know what I have.