Amtrak resold my room

[rosemary]

Fear not: if you have a room and car number listed on your ticket, and you board at the station listed on your ticket, you will get your room. Especially in late September. The initial post smells of falsehood to this Amtrak employee...

thanks a million

HOWEVER, I think most would agree, there is certainly NO HARM in confirming just a day or two before the scheduled departure date. It TOTALLY takes the stress off of thinking, "will I get my room/seat". If overseas, perhaps you have a friend/confidant domestically that you trust, and could send your details to via email, and they could "call" Amtrak for you, then email you back the "good news" that all is A-OK?

just confirmed reservation with amtrak, so no probs, thank's for the input

 

[CNW]

Fear not: if you have a room and car number listed on your ticket, and you board at the station listed on your ticket, you will get your room. Especially in late September. The initial post smells of falsehood to this Amtrak employee...

thanks a million

HOWEVER, I think most would agree, there is certainly NO HARM in confirming just a day or two before the scheduled departure date. It TOTALLY takes the stress off of thinking, "will I get my room/seat". If overseas, perhaps you have a friend/confidant domestically that you trust, and could send your details to via email, and they could "call" Amtrak for you, then email you back the "good news" that all is A-OK?

just confirmed reservation with amtrak, so no probs, thank's for the input

It sounds like it is a good idea to reconfirm a few days ahead of departure and it would surely take the pressure off wondering. Yet it sounds as if some of these double booking nightmares occur close to actual train time. I can only take comfort in the knowledge that they must surely be few and far between and we have just been hearing alot of things that have maybe only happened once or twice in the history of Amtrak.

 

[rosemary]

With reference to Rosemarys question, I have found this guy to be on the ball, he deals with overseas stuff daily:
Ron Stockunas

Amtrak International Sales

[email protected]

You can email him at [email protected] and he should be able to check your original booking. He is also the guy if you want to make advance reservations or book sleepers against a railpass and live overseas..

Cheers,

Eddie.

thanks for the info

 

[Guest]

Amtrak has a policy to the effect of if a passenger does not occupy a sleeper within, I believe, 2 hours or 1 station after scheduled departure time from the origin on the ticket, it can be resold. I am not sure of the exact time and station limits.

 

[MisterRick]

The initial post smells of falsehood to this Amtrak employee...

I have to concur there is definitely something fishy and suspect about the initial posters claims.

 

[Trogdor]

Hearing all of these stories where other users have been doublebooked make me think that it actually is a common occurrence on amtrak.

Hold on a second. I think we need to take "all of these" (how many? Two? Three?) stories into context.

Double-booking a room is not a common occurrence. Arrow won't do it (intentionally). That's why it's very uncommon.

If a travel agent unfamiliar with Amtrak procedures screws something up, it might happen, but that's the travel agent's fault. Occasionally, someone on the Amtrak side may accidentally cancel a valid reservation, and that room can be reopened for booking. Again, this is extremely rare, but can happen.

What happens more often (by far) is someone showing up on the wrong day, and the conductor not noticing the date as they're going through collecting tickets.

The only reason you're reading "all of these" (two or three) stories is because this thread exists, and people are going back on their many years of experience traveling in a sleeper many times (and there are dozens of active members on this forum, and hundreds more occasional posters), and of the collective Amtrak experience of everyone on AU, you've read about a couple of examples of two people with tickets for the same room.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

But is the almost-automatic response claiming Amtrak is perfect, and never ever makes a mistake, therefore, the guest's post must be false, a troll, simply a drunken madness, the best response we can make to it?

Tony,

I do not think Amtrak is perfect, I know they make mistakes. I'm sure things similar to this happen. I also don't mind guests as a concept. What I do object to is people like the OP who came in here spouting vituperation and vitriol of such magnitude I was wishing I could reach through the internet, grab them, whack them upside the head with a newspaper, and clean their mouth out with soap like a teacher did to me in the first grade.

It is bozos like the OP that give guests as a whole a bad name around here, or at least what bad name they have.

Now, the poster could have come in here and said,

Hi. I see you guys like Amtrak around here. Well, I was on a trip and it made me really wonder why you could EVER like Amtrak. Here's why:

1. I paid $315 in advance for a roomette-based trip
   
2. When I got on the train, I found out that my room had been resold.
   
3. According to the Amtrak employees onboard the train, they were not going to give me my room because apparently they made more money from the person now occupying it. I find this ridiculous
   
4. The employees on the train were very rude about all of this, and certainly not accomodating.
   

If this is the way Amtrak runs its business, I sincerely think that its management needs to be given a solid reorganization. I don't think, given my experience, I will ever ride their trains again.

However, since you on this board ride Amtrak a lot, I'd be really interested to hear your opinions on what happened.

And I would have answered them politely, and not thought them a troll. Do you see what I mean?

 

[GAT]

For those who want to take someone out behind the roundhouse I have a better suggestion. There are too many witnesses outside the roundhouse. Why don't we just corner them in the roundhouse!

Well, first you would have to find a round house.

In regards to the double booking, I have never encountered it in about 20 years of booking my own travel. I remember having this happen in the 70's, but it was with hand written tickets that my parents had. Amtrak put us in similar accomodations.

Today, a hand written ticket would could create chaos. I have found most travel agents to be unaware of the details of Amtrak travel, so I could see mistakes happening with their hand written tickets.

Oldtimer2, I love your irony. I guess nobody else got it..........."Why don't we just CORNER them in the roundhouse!" Very funny.......SERIOUSLY! :lol:

 

[caravanman]

Don't worry George, you were not alone, some more of us got it too!

Ed

 

[Chatter163]

I forgot to address this in my earlier post, so I'll make a separate one now regarding guest postings.
The owner of Amtrak Unlimited, Anthony, started AU many years ago to fill a major void that existed at that time; that being a lack of any useful information on the net by Amtrak regarding its services. Initially it was a static site only. Then a forum was added and gradually over the years the static site all but disappeared while the forum became the mainstay of AU.

But when the forum was added, the main idea was that this could be a place where anyone could come to ask questions that they couldn't find answers to elsewhere. And at the time the internet was still very new to most people and many were afraid to register anything online. Additionally, many people have no intention of returning once they get the answer that they are looking for, so they don't want to register.

Over the years many railfans and/or Amtrak fans have of course signed up here too. Some came to ask a question and stayed, others just came for the ability to talk about their passion. Not only do we need you here, as you guys & gals are often the best people to provide answers and we thank you for that, but we of course also enjoy chatting about trains with you all.

However, we've also never forgotten where we got our start; that being trying to help people who have questions about Amtrak, and that includes both good & bad questions. Hence even though it does sometimes pose problems for the staff, like our recent triangle poster(s), we continue to maintain the guest's ability to post here. The staff has had to jump through some hoops over the years to maintain that ability, but it's something that we believe is worth our effort.

I hope that this helps everyone to understand why we continue to allow for guest postings.

Ps. Tony, all that said, you're such a regular here that you really would benefit from joining. I'm not trying to pressure you, but there are some benefits associated with joining. Should you wish to discuss it with me, you can email me by putting my user name in front of our "amtraktrains.com" address and again, I promise no pressure I'd just like to tell you what you would gain.

Thank you, Alan, for your remarks along these lines. We appreciate the service that you and the others offer here. I occasionally tease you about your prepared replies to FAQ, especially about those sliding glass doors at Chicago Union Station (unless they've changed the entrance in the past few months), but that is all in good fun and I realize what a labor of love this board is, and the fine service you offer here. I also understand the reasons for the guest posting policy. Thanks again.

 

[GAT]

For those who want to take someone out behind the roundhouse I have a better suggestion. There are too many witnesses outside the roundhouse. Why don't we just corner them in the roundhouse!

Well, first you would have to find a round house.

In regards to the double booking, I have never encountered it in about 20 years of booking my own travel. I remember having this happen in the 70's, but it was with hand written tickets that my parents had. Amtrak put us in similar accomodations.

Today, a hand written ticket would could create chaos. I have found most travel agents to be unaware of the details of Amtrak travel, so I could see mistakes happening with their hand written tickets.

Oldtimer2, I love your irony. I guess nobody else got it..........."Why don't we just CORNER them in the roundhouse!" Very funny.......SERIOUSLY! :lol:

And for finding a roundhouse, there's one in Vancouver. It houses the locomotive that pulled the first trans-Canada train into British Columbia back in the 1880's.

 

[D T Nelson]

For those who want to take someone out behind the roundhouse I have a better suggestion. There are too many witnesses outside the roundhouse. Why don't we just corner them in the roundhouse!

Well, first you would have to find a round house.

In regards to the double booking, I have never encountered it in about 20 years of booking my own travel. I remember having this happen in the 70's, but it was with hand written tickets that my parents had. Amtrak put us in similar accomodations.

Today, a hand written ticket would could create chaos. I have found most travel agents to be unaware of the details of Amtrak travel, so I could see mistakes happening with their hand written tickets.

Oldtimer2, I love your irony. I guess nobody else got it..........."Why don't we just CORNER them in the roundhouse!" Very funny.......SERIOUSLY! :lol:

And for finding a roundhouse, there's one in Vancouver. It houses the locomotive that pulled the first trans-Canada train into British Columbia back in the 1880's.

There is a roundhouse in the BNSF's Balmer Yard, in Seattle's Interbay neighborhood. You go past it on the Empire Builder, although from ground level you might not realize you are looking at a roundhouse. It's pretty obvious from overhead, though.

 

[transit54]

And for finding a roundhouse, there's one in Vancouver. It houses the locomotive that pulled the first trans-Canada train into British Columbia back in the 1880's.

There is a roundhouse in the BNSF's Balmer Yard, in Seattle's Interbay neighborhood. You go past it on the Empire Builder, although from ground level you might not realize you are looking at a roundhouse. It's pretty obvious from overhead, though.

We've got one here in Burlington, too. Much smaller, but nonetheless, it's there and in active use for the Vermont Rail System.