Amtrak iPhone app - Passport feature disabled

[BCL]

There seemed to be a message that they've suspended the Passport feature in the iPhone app. I'm thinking it was probably something to do with the constant crashes on "check-in" if one hadn't already attempted to check-in unsuccessfully.

 

[rickycourtney]

That appears to be true. Here's what my phone says.

I honestly never really used the feature.

 

[PRR 60]

Can someone tell me the attraction of that feature? Is there a practical use, or is it just kind of a self satisfaction thing? (scratching head)

 

[ericr]

It's part of the social aspect that every company is trying to get into. It's suppose to be friendly competition among people who participates.

I used it just to check off station I've been to. It was terrible slow and frequently didn't work.

 

[BCL]

Can someone tell me the attraction of that feature? Is there a practical use, or is it just kind of a self satisfaction thing? (scratching head)

Totally useless but addictive.

The other thing was that bus-only "stations" can be checked-in, but they don't show up on the map. And upon check-in, only the city name pops up and not the station code.

 

[SarahZ]

It crashed all the time, even after they "fixed" the bugs. I tried to check in at every station between Chicago and ABQ and only managed to get seven of them.

 

[BCL]

It crashed all the time, even after they "fixed" the bugs. I tried to check in at every station between Chicago and ABQ and only managed to get seven of them.

Like I said, bus-only stops count too, and there are seven in San Francisco alone.

 

[jis]

Can someone tell me the attraction of that feature? Is there a practical use, or is it just kind of a self satisfaction thing? (scratching head)

I didn't find any use for it so I stopped using that feature long time back. The rest of the features of the Amtrak App are actually quite useful and mostly work pretty well too.

 

[pennyk]

I started using it on my last trip and Alan and the 2 Joes warned me that it was addictive. They were correct. :lol:

 

[CHamilton]

It might be more addictive if it actually worked consistently. As others have commented, it doesn't operate in a lot of places, which I found immensely frustrating. Frankly, I was relieved when I moved to Android, since the Android version of the Amtrak app has never had this "feature."

 

[trainman74]

If you're really desperate to "check in" on your phone, I recommend the Foursquare app, with which you can check in to just about anywhere you go, not just Amtrak stations.

 

[ScottRu]

Can someone tell me the attraction of that feature? Is there a practical use, or is it just kind of a self satisfaction thing? (scratching head)

Sure... the premise (which works with other sites) is that when you approach a station (or a store or restaurant), your appropriate data will automatically appear. For e.g., if you come to a restaurant and have a credit with that place, or a reservation, it will automatically appear and be functional when you enter the restaurant.

In theory when you entered an Amtrak station, if you had a reservation, your reservation would automatically appear and be "scan-able" by the conductor.

Great theory... but it has not worked well with Amtrak. Alas.

 

[BCL]

Can someone tell me the attraction of that feature? Is there a practical use, or is it just kind of a self satisfaction thing? (scratching head)

Sure... the premise (which works with other sites) is that when you approach a station (or a store or restaurant), your appropriate data will automatically appear. For e.g., if you come to a restaurant and have a credit with that place, or a reservation, it will automatically appear and be functional when you enter the restaurant.

In theory when you entered an Amtrak station, if you had a reservation, your reservation would automatically appear and be "scan-able" by the conductor.

Great theory... but it has not worked well with Amtrak. Alas.

That's not what Passport did. Amtrak has made it clear that it's only for entertainment purposes. It doesn't warn you if you're close to a station, checking-in via Passport isn't a substitute for scanning a ticket onboard, and it's up to the user to figure if he/she is within the mile distance to a station required for a check-in.

Now there are other things that do. You can add calendar notifications when you purchase tickets. The iPhone Passbook app actually notifies me if I'm near a station where I have a reservation to depart. It can also be annoying when it keeps on doing so even though I've already used up the reservation.

 

[jis]

Can someone tell me the attraction of that feature? Is there a practical use, or is it just kind of a self satisfaction thing? (scratching head)

Sure... the premise (which works with other sites) is that when you approach a station (or a store or restaurant), your appropriate data will automatically appear. For e.g., if you come to a restaurant and have a credit with that place, or a reservation, it will automatically appear and be functional when you enter the restaurant.

In theory when you entered an Amtrak station, if you had a reservation, your reservation would automatically appear and be "scan-able" by the conductor.

Great theory... but it has not worked well with Amtrak. Alas.

I think you are confusing Amtrak App Passport with iPhone Passbook. They are very different things.

 

[TraneMan]

I've used the Passport on the Amtrak App and had no issues with it.. There were a couple of spots in MT that I couldn't check in since I had no service.

 

[ScottRu]

Can someone tell me the attraction of that feature? Is there a practical use, or is it just kind of a self satisfaction thing? (scratching head)

Sure... the premise (which works with other sites) is that when you approach a station (or a store or restaurant), your appropriate data will automatically appear. For e.g., if you come to a restaurant and have a credit with that place, or a reservation, it will automatically appear and be functional when you enter the restaurant.

In theory when you entered an Amtrak station, if you had a reservation, your reservation would automatically appear and be "scan-able" by the conductor.

Great theory... but it has not worked well with Amtrak. Alas.

I think you are confusing Amtrak App Passport with iPhone Passbook. They are very different things.

My bad - those who responded are correct. I was confusing Passport with Passbook. (Oh well, soon I'll be celebrating our 54th wedding anniversary, so these types of mix-ups are a regular part of my week!)

 

[pennyk]

I did not update the Amtrak app on my iPod touch, used the passport feature yesterday, and it worked fine - for the Orlando station.

 

[Ryan]

Lucky you!

iOS 7 auto updated it for me, so it's gone.

That said, the auto updating is GREAT.

 

[Acela150]

Lucky you!

iOS 7 auto updated it for me, so it's gone.

That said, the auto updating is GREAT.

Should I dare to ask how you managed to got iOS 7 on your phone??

 

[TraneMan]

Wish I would of know that ahead of time, the app worked well for me, and I did an update, and now I lost it.

 

[Mike G.]

I miss looking at which station is coming up next. This saved me once from almost missing getting off the train at my stop.

 

[SarahZ]

I miss looking at which station is coming up next. This saved me once from almost missing getting off the train at my stop.

Do you have an iPhone? You can download the timetables from Amtrak.com and open the .pdf in iBooks.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Lucky you! iOS 7 auto updated it for me, so it's gone. That said, the auto updating is GREAT.

The only iOS device I have is an old iPad 2, but Android has had auto-updates for a long time and I find it rather jarring to suddenly wake up to a new interface in this or that application or even the phone or tablet itself. A hundred things maybe have changed but there's no manual to explain what the differences are. I prefer staggered releases for big changes. Things are starting to change so quickly I have no idea how anyone keeps track of it anymore. The worst of all worlds are those devices that have auto-update disabled while also insisting that you perform manual updates constantly, like with the PS3. What moron came up with that combination? At least on Android you can turn off the auto-update and just use the old versions.

Should I dare to ask how you managed to got iOS 7 on your phone??

Someone leaked the software early?

 

[Ryan]

It''ve had it since it was released to developers just after WWDC in June...

I haven't had to do any manual updates, and things do Just Work...

You can also turn them off if you prefer to control when things update.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

It''ve had it since it was released to developers just after WWDC in June... I haven't had to do any manual updates, and things do Just Work...You can also turn them off if you prefer to control when things update.

If you're a developer I have several ideas for an Amtrak related app.

So automated updates never catch you off guard when you suddenly discover an application you use regularly has a brand new interface while you're in the middle of trying to use it? As for what can go wrong with endless updates, besides the bassackwards non-plus PS3, take a look at today's Firefox. All those endless updates have left 90% of my plugins completely useless. I can choose to keep the old versions that are wide open for attack or the newest versions with most of my plugins disabled. Auto-update is good in some ways, especially since bugs and security holes can be patched on an almost weekly basis, but it also comes with a whole other set of complications that are not yet resolved IMO.