Cancellation Refunds

[DonaldM]

Can anyone clarify Amtrak's cancellation and refund policy for me. Assuming you cancel at least seven days before do you get a full refund of the train ticket and the sleeper fare? Are there any cancellation fees and is the refund in cash or is it a voucher for future travel?

 

[amamba]

You only get 100% refund if you cancel your sleeper at least 7 days prior to departure AND you have not yet printed out the tickets. I can not emphasize how important it is that you do NOT Print your tickets until as close to departure as possible. If you have printed tickets and cancel prior to a week before depature, you will have to mail your tickets back and then you get a refund minus 10% or a voucher for 100% for future travel.

 

[Katherine]

Hi,

Does anyone know how long refunds take on credit cards? I had to cancel my journey from Chicago to Denver as the line is flooded and haven't been reimbursed yet.

Many thanks!

 

[ThayerATM]

Hi,

Does anyone know how long refunds take on credit cards? I had to cancel my journey from Chicago to Denver as the line is flooded and haven't been reimbursed yet.

Many thanks!

Last time I had to do that (June 2009), it took about a week for it to show up at AMEX. I'm about to do it again (CHI to EMY later this month). Hopefully things haven't changed much. :unsure:

 

[the_traveler]

Yes, usually it takes about a week or less.

 

[Katherine]

Thanks for your replies, I'll keep a hopeful watch on my statement.

 

[jdcnosse]

I used a prepaid visa, and it took a couple business days. I think I cancelled my trip on Thursday, received the refund Monday or Tuesday of that next week

 

[CNW]

I was just refunded the ticket price of the CZ from Den to Kcy. I took the paper tickets to the temporary Den station and saw my refund the second morning after that. I had to ride

Gryehound home on our lifetime pass which my husband received for 30 years service. I hadn't used it in many years and it was actually not bad.. 11 hours as oppsed to 26 hours .

 

[Acela150]

I was just refunded the ticket price of the CZ from Den to Kcy. I took the paper tickets to the temporary Den station and saw my refund the second morning after that. I had to ride

Gryehound home on our lifetime pass which my husband received for 30 years service. I hadn't used it in many years and it was actually not bad.. 11 hours as oppsed to 26 hours .

I'd still take the train over Greyhound! hboy:

 

[CNW]

So would I but when the train was cancelled it provided a pretty good altenative. More than people give it credit for just saying...

 

[jdcnosse]

My preferred choices would be train over greyhound as well, but when your trip consists of GRR-PHX (flying) and then PHX to FLG and the second leg doesn't have any train route...well you take greyhound.

 

[the_traveler]

My preferred choices would be train over greyhound as well, but when your trip consists of GRR-PHX (flying) and then PHX to FLG and the second leg doesn't have any train route...well you take greyhound.

Sure it does, although you have to turn the clocks back like 60 or 70 years or more!

(The route is still there thru Williams, although it has no passenger service.)

 

[jdcnosse]

So all I would need is the time traveling train from Back to the Future part 3! I wonder if it gets up to 88mph haha

 

[Ben_G]

Don't count on getting refunds very fast. I found that out today in a call to Amtrak. After a few minutes wait I was connected to a refund agent. Here is what I learned.

My refund for the canceled CZ trip which was paid with using my debit/credit card. It took 10 minutes after booking for the money to vanish from my account. On debit/credit card refunds your looking at 7 to 10 working days. Credit cards are faster at 3 to 5 days.

 

[CNW]

My refund appeared in 2 days and I was dealimg with printed tickets as well and that was faster than many other companies have shown. Hope you have the same experience.

 

[ThayerATM]

This past Tuesday (9/6/2011) at 2:00 PM I canceled our reservations for our trip on trains 49-5-14-8-48. The full refund was credited back to my AMEX card this morning (Thursday 9/8/2011). It hasn't even been a full 48 hours.

I'm happy with Amtrak's fiscal performace, but definitely not with its ability to get trains through on time, if at all. I'm refering specifically to Amtrak's dragging the California Zephyr (train 5) issue out through September on a day-to-day basis. :unsure: