Missed train - revised fare - your advice, please

Could this have been handled differently?

• We (4) knew we would be late for our Train 130 (BWI to NYP Round-Trip) departing at 6:57 AM. This was a Saver ticket at $392.00. Departure from BWI was on Feb. 17th. Departure from NYP was Feb. 20th.
• En route to the station, in advance of departure, we tried calling Amtrak and going online to cancel and change our departure from Train 130 to Train 172 departing at 7:53 AM without success.
• At the station, we were able to apply our $392.00 toward a revised fare of $840.00 (more than double the original fare).
• We paid the $448 balance; our ticket was converted to Train 172 departing BWI and it maintained our Train 99 departing NYP at the original date and time.
• The only change to our ticket was the departure at BWI; no change to departure at NYP.

Our questions:

• Was the new fare reasonable under the conditions described?
• Should fare have only changed for the BWI to NYP portion of the trip?
• Could we have just boarded the later train without incident? If not, what would have likely happened when the conductor scanned the ticket?
• Do we have any recourse at this point?

Any insights and clarifications will be appreciated.

It is unknown if both segments were canceled by the agent and then rebooked, or if justthe BWI-NYP segment was cancelled and rebooked. (I can't tell.) That is one reason we recommend to book 2 separate one way trips. A round trip costs the same as 2 one way trips. This way, you can be sure to cancel just the outbound and not both ways. The return was less than 14 days in advance, so you may have lost the lower fare also.

If you boarded a later train, the Conductor would have seen you were a no show (and your whole reservation was cancelled - both ways) and you would have had to purchase a new ticket at the current fare.

Unfortunately, you have no recourse.

Need more information - but if you had a saver fare it's certainly possible the high bucket rate could be that much more expensive. When you book a train only a few minutes before departure it's often at high bucket and $$$$$.

For example if I try to book a ticket for tomorrow morning, one way for one person from bwi-nyp the fare is $161 for several regionals in coach. That's $644 for four people. There might be a higher bucket than that.

It's worth calling Amtrak customer service and explaining it to them and asking questions. If you are nice and explain your delay etc. They may give you a voucher for future travel for a portion of the difference.

Tandem Studios said:

This was a Saver ticket at $392.00.

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There are restrictions for Saver Tickets, such as requiring tickets be purchased 7 or 14 days before travel and they are non-refundable. What I get, you were trying to book travel on train 172, on the day of travel. So, it doesn't surprise me that these tickets on the 172 are not eligible for Saver fares.

Personally, the fact your tickets on the 130 were non-refundable, that Amtrak applied their value to the tickets for 172, is already a nice benefit in your favor.

amamba said:

For example if I try to book a ticket for tomorrow morning, one way for one person from bwi-nyp the fare is $161 for several regionals in coach. That's $644 for four people. There might be a higher bucket than that.

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High bucket for a Regional BWI-NYP is indeed $161. The most likely math is that the original $392 equals four Saver round trips at $49 each way, and the revised $840 equals four high-bucket to NYP at $161 each, and four Saver from NYP at $49 each.

Thanks to all for your replies, insights and guidance. Suppose it could have been worse. Grateful that Amtrak applied our original cost to the new tickets. Our take-away is to book travel one-way each way in the event we are late again. Sure does pay to be on time. Thanks again to everyone!