Phone Reservations Not Online or on App

Undoubtedly the topic has been discussed previously so I apologize bringing it up again, but is there any good reason why reservations made by phone are not available to be viewed online or through the app? I'm guessing it's a technology issue but it sure is inconvenient. There's no easy way to scan the "e-ticket" outside of awkwardly downloading the .pdf to one's phone, and I've noticed scanning this way is hit or miss, or carrying the "paper ticket." Surely Amtrak has to address this issue.

Although the phone reservation is not automatically available on the phone app, it is easily retrievable. Go the the "trips" section and then "lookup". You will need to enter the reservation number and then your valid Amtrak.com email address or phone number and the reservation will appear in your trips list. From there it is easy to open that trip and then add to Iphone Wallet. I don't know but assume you can do similarly to the android phones. Be sure to do this as that reservation will only stay in your phone app's trip list for a short period of time. When that happens you have to do the lookup again.

As for the online Amtrak.com, there is currently no way of pulling up trips similarly.

The above solution works sporadically in my experiences. Sometimes I can retrieve the reservation but it rarely stays in the app after I close it and then reopen it.

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I usually just download the .pdf Amtrak sends me with my e-Ticket on it, that way I can still open it even if I don't have signal, ex. in a tunnel on the NEC. I've also found the Amtrak app to be very buggy when it comes to integrating with an Amtrak account.

daybeers said:

I usually just download the .pdf Amtrak sends me with my e-Ticket on it, that way I can still open it even if I don't have signal, ex. in a tunnel on the NEC. I've also found the Amtrak app to be very buggy when it comes to integrating with an Amtrak account.

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Same here...the PDF is easy to open and display and faster than doing a "look up".

You are correct, it is a technology issue. Amtrak’s computer systems are antiquated and cobbled together and various bits of it can’t talk to other bits.

Hopefully one of these days we’ll decide as a nation that passenger rail is worthwhile and throw them a bit of change so that they can rectify the situation.

It's not a technology issue, although it would require a technology solution.

The issue is that nobody is willing (or able) to pay someone to enhance the feature set to provide this additional functionality. Just because a system is old doesn't mean it's broken. It's still doing what it was originally created to do decades later. ^_^

It would be nice if even some sort of manual functionality could be added so I could tie a phone reservation in manually. They're able to be looked up online and in the app; there's just no way to save them for future use (on Android/web, sounds like iOS allows saving it to Passbook.) Thus, while it's nice to be able to look it up, I still need to remember the information or have it written down (or wade through a bunch of emails.)

Because of Irma, my return home on the Silver Meteor to South Florida had to be redone several times because Amtrak cancelled the trains (ultimately we had to cancel the reservation and fly back or we still would not be home). Each time I was able by phone to have the agent book the new reservation using the same reservation number. The new reservation was emailed and PDF ed to me. Additionally, I was able to access through the Amtrak app without any issue. Perhaps it was because the reservation number did not change.

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In that same vein, it appears Amtrak is printing fewer route schedules as well as dropping the printed version of the national timetable. Currently configured, the full train schedules are not available through the app and it would be a convenience to download the .pdfs onto your device. It appears Amtrak is printing fewer of the route schedules after having dropped the printed national timetable. There are no printed schedules at all in Pittsburgh's Amtrak station, just a sign directing people to the website.

I went to the website and downloaded the schedules to my iPad in iBooks.

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