eVouchers Redeemable on-line Beginning Mid-October

In an interview with the Economist published today (9/16), Amtrak spokesperson Kimberly Woods announced that eVouchers will be redeemable toward the cost of future travel at Amtrak.com beginning in mid-October. No need to go to a staffed station or do a work-around on the phone.

Finally, the "e" in eVoucher will have real meaning.

Nice! Sounds good! Thanks for the find Bill!

FINALLY.

There's a 200-point bonus for booking online, so I've been hesitant about booking my next trip with my voucher. I'll wait until October so I can get my points. Thank you so much for the heads-up!

Awesome!!!!!

(that reminds me, I have an eVoucher laying around that I need to use up)

SarahZ said:

FINALLY.

There's a 200-point bonus for booking online, so I've been hesitant about booking my next trip with my voucher. I'll wait until October so I can get my points. Thank you so much for the heads-up!

Click to expand...

What bonus is this?

Must be a targeted promotion, I'm not showing it.

Great News! It seems the IT Department is finally starting to hum and enter, if not the 21st Century, the 20th! :giggle:

And the 200 Point Bonus Promo is a Targeted Promo, most of us wont get it!

jimhudson said:

enter, if not the 21st Century, the 20th! :giggle:

Click to expand...

But I still wish I could ride aboard the 20th Century Limited!

Anderson said:

SarahZ said:

FINALLY.

There's a 200-point bonus for booking online, so I've been hesitant about booking my next trip with my voucher. I'll wait until October so I can get my points. Thank you so much for the heads-up!

Click to expand...

What bonus is this?

Click to expand...

Apparently, I signed up for it a long time ago. It runs from 10/4/12 - 12/31/13. I didn't even know it was there until the points posted from my recent trip. I'm sure I earned the 200 points before; it's just been a while since I paid for a trip, so I didn't remember earning them back in March or whenever it was that I paid for a trip.

i echo the others who say "finally". we live 30 miles from our station(spk)and it's only open in the middle of the night anyway so it will be especially helpful for us

I think the 200 point bonus is a one time only thing. I earned it last year and it still shows on my promotions page. I think the T&C will say whether it's a one time only bonus.

Question: I have a voucher to use. I'm going to use it on the SC next spring. The roommette prices have been fluctuating around but on the day I need to leave the price is the lowest I've seen. I called Reservations to book and have it held for me to get to a station. Once I ticket at the station, will I be able to see the res online? Will I be able to use the app and my phone for travel or am I resigned to paper? Right now I can't pull it up at all since the web says only trips booked on Amtrak.com can be viewed there.

Good news.

Amtrak seems to be making real progress toward a more modern operation.

New functionality is often accompanied with new rules and restrictions, as we've already seen.

Nonetheless this is still a substantial improvement for those who had no easy access to the tedious voucher process of the past.

Slowly but surely there is less and less to criticize about Amtrak's consumer facing operations.

yarrow said:

i echo the others who say "finally". we live 30 miles from our station(spk)and it's only open in the middle of the night anyway so it will be especially helpful for us

Click to expand...

We live more than 4 hours from the nearest manned station so it will REALLY be helpful for us.

Me too-I have 3 exchange vouchers I need to burn, but Ft Worth is a ways away. This is good news. Even if it is a decade or two late, I'll take it!

Good news, I too am some miles from a station. My voucher is a small amount. With gas prices what they are it will save money. It would have been an almost brake even deal for me.

Via NARP:

Amtrak eVouchers (issued to passengers when a reservation is canceled and all or part of the fare paid is non-refundable) can now be redeemed over the phone by speaking to a reservations sales agent at 1-800-USA-RAIL. Simply provide the agent with the eVoucher number and your phone number and email address (which should match the ones printed on the eVoucher). Previously, eVouchers could only be redeemed by ticket agents at staffed Amtrak stations. Passengers should soon also be able to use eVouchers as a form of payment online at Amtrak.com and by using “Julie,” the automated agent, at 1-800-USA-RAIL. Amtrak is still performing testing on the latter capabilities.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Charlie.

The word on AU has been (at least as I understood it) that when you redeem part of a voucher that resets the expiration date on the remainder to one year from THAT date. I have used part of 2 vouchers in the last few weeks and that does not seem to be the case any longer. The expiration date remains the same, i.e. the date that the voucher was created. I did not question the station agent about it so it's possible I'm misinterpreting the receipt but it sure looks like that.

Under the "old rules", the new voucher was good for one year from that date. However, the "new rules" have the remaining value good for one year from the original issue date! (A $100 voucher was issued in December 2012. You use $70 of that in October 2013. The remainder of $30 will expire in December 2013! )

My EB was late, as I figured, and they bused us from CHI to CIN (figures for once the 50 was running ahead of schedule/on time). I missed my roomette between the two cities, (at CIN I transferred to coach). Amtrak reimbursed me the difference between the roomette and coach and then gave me an additional $100 for the late arriving Builder. They offered this in the form of a voucher and gave me the option of either receiving a paper voucher, or having Amtrak hold my voucher and I could call anytime and use it. I chose to have Amtrak keep mine for me so I could call and use it. Now my husband and I are left trying to decide what to do with $315 voucher. :giggle: