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blondninja

Service Attendant
Joined
Jul 10, 2015
Messages
113
Well, I am finally back from my trip, and I wanted to post this trip report when I could type at a computer and not on my phone. This was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, and in a lot of ways still was. I am fortunate to travel a lot for work, and my job allows me to take the train, so long as I pay the sleeper cost out of pocket. I am Select Executive currently, and on this recent trip, I re-qualified for Select Executive again.

Anyhow, I had to go to D.C. for work over my mom's 70th birthday, so I decided to invite her along for the trip. We departed the Southwest Chief in Fullerton, and stopped first in Kansas City, spending the 4th of July in Kansas City, then headed on to Chicago. We boarded the Capitol Limited to D.C. and then took the Northeast Regional down to Ashland.

Here is where is gets weird. We were in the Acela Lounge and they took everything down, train number, etc. and ordered a red cap for us. We get to the train about 45 minutes before departure, but the conductor says we can board early. He just wants to make sure we have tickets for business class, which we did. We are on board with about 8 others and there is a crew change. New conductor comes by to ask where we are getting off. I tell him Ashland and he adds the appropriate station card above our seat. Later he comes around about three stops from D.C. to scan tickets but doesn't ask for some or ours. The train is not crowded so there is no way he could have missed us. We are about four rows from the front of the car.

I should mention also that through the entire trip up to this point, tickets have not been scanned but lifted remotely. Points have posted to AGR, and in fact in all my travel this year, only twice has the conductor scanned my ticket.

We spend three days in Richmond and then board the Northwest Regional back to D.C. Conductor comes around and scans our ticket without incident.

We spend a week in D.C. (work for me, sightseeing for mom), and then return to Union Station in D.C. We first show our ticket to check our large suitcases. That's fine. Next we check in to the Acela Lounge, where they take our ticket, we leave our smaller carry on bags in the luggage room, they take our dinner reservations on the Capitol and order the red cap for us.

Redcap comes to take us to the train at boarding time. The car attendant does not have us on his list. He has someone else in our room. He curtly tells me he will allow us to board, but that I need to call Amtrak, he won't. We are in our bedroom (this trip cost over $5,000, a point that matters to me as I continue.) I am on the phone with AGR, and they are telling me since we didn't take the Chicago to D.C. trip, the remainder was canceled. I say that is not so, in fact they took dinner reservations in the ML and my points have already posted. While on the phone with them, the conductor comes in with the new occupant and I am treated like I gatecrashed a party. He tells me I am in the wrong room and we need to leave. I explain this is my room and there is an error and I am on the phone with Amtrak at that moment.

Now I am in the hallway as people are trying to board. No one can figure out what is going on, but they admit ultimately it is a glitch and rebook me in a different bedroom. Unfortunately, the last leg home on the Chief is booked and they have to downgrade us to a roomette, and they refund the difference back to my credit card.

My questions to you are the following:

1. Who is at fault? I don't think they can blame this on me as their policy with e tickets is inconsistent. Again, on the return train they did not scan tickets, they lifted them remotely. I even called in and they acted like I was crazy for inquiring. Do I need to be paranoid now to ensure the remainder of my journey is not canceled and ensure my ticket is scanned?

2. Why is this a policy anyhow? I mean, I hear it, I read it. It's never happened to me before though. Shouldn't they call or email before canceling? Is it all system generated? What use is Select Executive? Just double points? Seem there is one sided loyalty. I paid for the ticket, don't I have the right to pay and not show up and forfeit my hard earned money? In any case, I was on the train and can prove it. I have hotel receipts from Ashland, Uber receipts to and from Ashland station, etc.

3. Why the surly attitude like you are lying? He ultimately became nice, but also for the car attendant to inform me he wasn't going to call. A better answer would have been, "I cannot call as I have to board passengers, but I will inform the conductor and he may be able to call for you and assist you." Clearly, they didn't communicate as the conductor had no knowledge of what was going on.

I have had good, great, and horrible Amtrak experiences in the past. Although the remainder of the journey was okay, I did not get what I paid $5000 for, and it put a damper on an otherwise wonderful trip. There is an open case with Customer Relations, and they said to call back when the trip was completed.

4. Would you call back to try to get a travel voucher? Or accept that they refunded the difference between a roomette and a bedroom and be done with it?

My ultimate feeling right now is if Amtrak even deserves my business. I meant, I know s*&t happens, and I accept that, but it's how people handle the situation when things go wrong that really matter. I think they handled it (initially) pretty poorly, and it's not a way to treat your most loyal passengers.
 
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Sadly this type of indifference to surliness with passengers is becoming too common with Amtrak staff.

For sure call back to CR, you deserve an apology, a refund and a good will travel voucher which CR is very good at handling.

Also be sure that the bad attitude staff you mentioned (SCA and the two Conductors involved, the one that failed to scan your ticket resulting in the cancellation and the warden in WAS) are called out as they are in need of retraining or detraining as we say!
 
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This is why I always make separate reservations when I can. Since it doesn't cost any more, it will prevent this from happening.

Here's the thing.... This is not the first time this has happened. When a leg of a trip is going to be cancelled, at the very least an automated e-mail and text should be sent to the ticket holder notifying them so they can call and correct it.

This is the sort of thing that just boggles my mind.

And yes... The attitude problem is common on Amtrak.
 
I beleive the conductor(s) and crappy e ticket system are to blame, they don't work together very well in some cases, although in my case, the conductor scans my ticket, tells me where to go, and all is well.
 
Not trying to generalize, but there seems to be a pattern between Amtrak staff on the East vs West. Anyone else seeing a pattern? Just my personal observation but it seems staff on the West are less surly, especially the conductors.
 
Not trying to generalize, but there seems to be a pattern between Amtrak staff on the East vs West. Anyone else seeing a pattern? Just my personal observation but it seems staff on the West are less surly, especially the conductors.
You might be right, when I was on the Acela, the conductor wasn't too nice, but on my last trip, the assistant conductor let me get off the train in SCD, even though it was half past midnight, because we got in early, and he was super nice, letting me off while loading passengers. Also, the LSL conductor was kind of rude, though the car attendant actually knew something about the train.
 
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