Booking a reservation on Amtrak.com.....

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Dakota 400

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Mar 5, 2014
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...is something that I cannot do!

I have tried 3-4x over a period of days to make a round trip reservation. Several issues keep appearing. I give up.

I will call their 1-800 number and make my reservations.

I am probably at fault, but it surely is not as easy as making flight reservations on the Delta web site.
 
Try making 2 one way reservations? I don't think there's any cost advantage to making a round trip booking and by separating each way, you may save yourself some hassle and money if you need to change part or all of either the outbound on inbound reservation.
 
Try making 2 one way reservations? I don't think there's any cost advantage to making a round trip booking and by separating each way, you may save yourself some hassle and money if you need to change part or all of either the outbound on inbound reservation.
I have not even be able to complete a one way reservation.
 
And then my printer printed the receipt but not the ticket!
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Is there any disadvantage of booking a reservation for a Roomette by phone vs. online?
There is no disadvantage at all. An advantage of booking by phone is that you can request a specific room (say #4) with the agent, while online the computer just assigns the room (say #13).
The cost of a round trip ticket on Amtrak (except on the AT) is the same as 2 one way trips. There is no cost savings.
 
Is there any disadvantage of booking a reservation for a Roomette by phone vs. online?
There is no disadvantage at all. An advantage of booking by phone is that you can request a specific room (say #4) with the agent, while online the computer just assigns the room (say #13).The cost of a round trip ticket on Amtrak (except on the AT) is the same as 2 one way trips. There is no cost savings.
The AT has discounted round-trips?
 
The question was asked about where the problems began in my online booking process. The date of travel calendar would not fully display for the month the trip started. My travel date was towards the end of the month. I tried to manually enter the date and the web site would not allow me to do so.

I called the 1-800 number this afternoon to make my reservation. After a short time on hold, about 11 minutes, a helpful agent completed my round trip reservation quickly and efficiently. I was able to book Roomette #1 on Train 97 and #2 on Train 98. I am pleased. I'm looking forward to another Amtrak journey. It's been a very long time since I traveled from Washington to Fort Lauderdale.

Thank you to those who responded to my posting.
 
The new website (I think they introduced it around Cctober) is, in my opinion, much worse from a practical perspective than the old one. The old one wasn't as visually enticing, but I the booking page was much more reliable and easy to use. It's pretty common that the new site won't let me select the date or number of passengers, so you're not alone with that kind of problem.
 
But why do snowbirds need a roundtrip discount any more than a regular vacationer? If anything, someone just on a vacation is likely to need a bit more of an incentive to take the train both ways.
 
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Perhaps the notion of the Auto Train having discounts for round trip bookings is simply due to the choice of dates - return trip obviously at a later date and maybe (but not necessarily) a lower bucket for the second half of the booking because more rooms are available?

Or, conversely, a higher bucket for the first (earliest) half of the booking because fewer rooms are available?

Then too, two separate one-way bookings for a car are 2 X $250 = $500 but for a round trip the car is $48 less at $452.

But whether or not that portion of the booking for just the passenger is discounted for a round trip would take a bit more snooping.
 
Perhaps the notion of the Auto Train having discounts for round trip bookings is simply due to the choice of dates - return trip obviously at a later date and maybe (but not necessarily) a lower bucket for the second half of the booking because more rooms are available?

Or, conversely, a higher bucket for the first (earliest) half of the booking because fewer rooms are available?

Then too, two separate one-way bookings for a car are 2 X $250 = $500 but for a round trip the car is $48 less at $452.

But whether or not that portion of the booking for just the passenger is discounted for a round trip would take a bit more snooping.
That doesn't make any sense. I think if you book a round trip, you'll be charged each way at the current price for each way, so where's the discount you're alluding to?
 
Perhaps the notion of the Auto Train having discounts for round trip bookings is simply due to the choice of dates - return trip obviously at a later date and maybe (but not necessarily) a lower bucket for the second half of the booking because more rooms are available?

Or, conversely, a higher bucket for the first (earliest) half of the booking because fewer rooms are available?

Then too, two separate one-way bookings for a car are 2 X $250 = $500 but for a round trip the car is $48 less at $452.

But whether or not that portion of the booking for just the passenger is discounted for a round trip would take a bit more snooping.
That doesn't make any sense. I think if you book a round trip, you'll be charged each way at the current price for each way, so where's the discount you're alluding to?
On the Auto Train, it seems like that's not the case. If niemi24s checked it correctly, that sure looks like a $48 discount to take a car roundtrip.
 
Did some looking around, and found that there seem to be two price buckets for a car: $250 or $202. Looking at one roundtrip (SFA-LOR is 6/22 – LOR-SFA 6/27), it was $250 to get the car there but $202 to get it back (an obvious total of $452). Since the prices were the same when booked separately, I think that niemi24s might have just seen the total price if it's $250 one leg and $202 for the lower leg, and was in fact not looking at a discounted roundtrip. But that's just for one example.
 
Perhaps the notion of the Auto Train having discounts for round trip bookings is simply due to the choice of dates - return trip obviously at a later date and maybe (but not necessarily) a lower bucket for the second half of the booking because more rooms are available?

Or, conversely, a higher bucket for the first (earliest) half of the booking because fewer rooms are available?

Then too, two separate one-way bookings for a car are 2 X $250 = $500 but for a round trip the car is $48 less at $452.

But whether or not that portion of the booking for just the passenger is discounted for a round trip would take a bit more snooping.
That doesn't make any sense. I think if you book a round trip, you'll be charged each way at the current price for each way, so where's the discount you're alluding to?
On the Auto Train, it seems like that's not the case. If niemi24s checked it correctly, that sure looks like a $48 discount to take a car roundtrip.
One-way 6/1/18

LOR - SFA $139/$272/$343 Vehicle $202

One-way 6/8/18

SFA - LOR $139/$272/$422 Vehicle $202

Round trip 6/1/18 - 6/8/18

LOR - SFA $139/$272/$343

SFA - LOR $139/$272/$422

Vehicle $404
 
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