Major Change? - Multi-City Booking

Emphasis added

"The multi-city booking tool is different than our standard booking tool in the travel options it displays, allowing you to build a more complex trip. As such, connections are not guaranteed. Passengers are responsible for ensuring they build a trip that allows them to make their connecting trains. Any missed connections are the passenger's responsibility."

https://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak/complexrail

I don't see anywhere on the new web site that states Amtrak's guaranteed connection policy.

Amtrak offer many connections between trains and Thruway services. Connections are valid if they're shown in the Amtrak reservation system. If a valid connection is missed due to reasons beyond your control, Amtrak will protect you by providing alternate transportation. (from search box: guaranteed connection)

If you put in a city pair and they show the connection in the system, that is different than building a trip on your own.....

Ya I tried putting "guaranteed connection" in the search box and got 190 hits that were all stations.

being Amtrak's website I won't even venture a guess.......I should buy a lotto ticket tonight....

KmH said:

I don't see anywhere on the new web site that states Amtrak's guaranteed connection policy.

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I found this:

Connecting Trains

Amtrak does not normally guarantee connections of less than 60 minutes (90 minutes between arriving long-distance trains and local trains in the Northeast Corridor). Please call Amtrak 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245) or your travel agent if your planned itinerary includes a shorter connection. A guaranteed connection does not ensure that such a connection will always be made. In the case of a missed guaranteed connection, Amtrak will provide alternate transportation on Amtrak, another carrier, or overnight hotel accommodations, at Amtrak's discretion.

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https://www.amtrak.com/at-the-station.html

That's what I was looking for, has not changed, and says nothing about Multi-City booking.

So now I wonder how you navigated to that page from the Home page?

I had been looking for it under the EXPERIENCE icon near the top of the page.

Yep. There it is under Experience. I didn't see it yesterday.

I'm pretty sure that if an individual connection is normally guaranteed, that multi-city will still guarantee it if that particular connection is entered. But you have to research that. When they're looking at your ticket and figuring out if you can be accommodated, it won't be obvious if you booked multi-city or not.

It's pretty easy to combine guaranteed connections with connections that aren't guaranteed. I've done that a few times myself in order to book a separate bus. At least in California one is required to book most Amtrak bus segments with a rail segment. It doesn't even have to make sense. I've done stuff like book a trip EMY-GAC, then SFC-EMY. I was on my own getting to San Francisco.

BCL said:

I'm pretty sure that if an individual connection is normally guaranteed, that multi-city will still guarantee it if that particular connection is entered. . . . When they're looking at your ticket and figuring out if you can be accommodated, it won't be obvious if you booked multi-city or not.

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That could well be, but what it says on the Multi-City booking web page So it seems the Multi-City booking page should say something like:Passengers building a trip that includes connecting trains should be mindful of Amtrak's guaranteed connections policies

BCL said:

I'm pretty sure that if an individual connection is normally guaranteed, that multi-city will still guarantee it if that particular connection is entered.

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I'm pretty sure I've never read that anywhere on Amtrak's website. It's been repeated here on the fan forum over and over again, but that's about it. Yes, people have been fully accommodated in the past, but if your own misconnection recovery happens to be declined do you think Amtrak is going to know or care that someone who came before you was treated differently?

BCL said:

When they're looking at your ticket and figuring out if you can be accommodated, it won't be obvious if you booked multi-city or not.

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I'd say it's much more likely it won't be obvious that you intended to book a guaranteed connection.

Devil said:

BCL said:

I'm pretty sure that if an individual connection is normally guaranteed, that multi-city will still guarantee it if that particular connection is entered.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I've never read that anywhere on Amtrak's website. It's been repeated here on the fan forum over and over again, but that's about it. Yes, people have been fully accommodated in the past, but if your own misconnection recovery happens to be declined do you think Amtrak is going to know or care that someone who came before you was treated differently?

BCL said:

When they're looking at your ticket and figuring out if you can be accommodated, it won't be obvious if you booked multi-city or not.

Click to expand...

I'd say it's much more likely it won't be obvious that you intended to book a guaranteed connection.

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I have never seen anything about the topic on the website either, but I have had only positive experiences with multi-city bookings. Amtrak actually blocks some if not all multi-city bookings that have too close of a connection. I have even experienced a train late enough on a multi-city booking where I had to skip a planned stop and they had no problem accommodating me. In addition, I have a Rail Pass trip booked during December and January, but the segments from Chicago to Tampa at the end are on a multi-city ticket. Not only did both agents I spoke to assure me that the Washington connection is guaranteed, but also that the two bookings were somehow linked so that the Chicgao connection is also guaranteed.
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