Can't believe what an AGR rep told me.

[RRrich]

I have an AGR ticket to board the NB Texas Eagle in STL but I realized I would prefer to board at Alton, the next stop, so I called AGR but the clerk there warned me that since the train is SOLD OUT there is a slight chance that in the time between when she canceled my reservation and when she made the new one someone else might snatch the room from me (as I like to do on ebay) OK, I recognized that she was telling me is correct.

So I told her that I didn't want to take that risk (I'm a big pansy) and that I would just board in Alton.

Here comes the goodie

She said "You can't board in Alton if you have a St Louis ticket"

She probably never even saw an Amtrak train!

 

[AlanB]

Well to some extent she is correct. Yes, you can still board at Alton since you've paid the fare. However, there is a slight (and I admit it's very slight) chance that your room could get sold as an onboard upgrade when you no-show in STL.

 

[RRrich]

Well Alan with all the stories I see about LAZY CODUCTORS and fuguring its only about 30 minutes, I'll take that risk - but I'll bet that the AGR girl was thinking of something else

 

[rrdude]

Well Alan with all the stories I see about LAZY CODUCTORS and fuguring its only about 30 minutes, I'll take that risk - but I'll bet that the AGR girl was thinking of something else

Just to be safe, you may wanna call "Julie" right at the scheduled departure time from STL, and tell them you can't make STL, but will pick up the train in Alton..............

 

[Rick J]

I had a similar situation last week. I had an AGR bedroom reward round trip from Edmonds, WA to East Glacier. A few days before the trip I called AGR to see if we could get on and off at Everett, WA, the next stop after Edmonds. The agent said she would have to book a new reservation then cancel the old one, and that we would be in bedroom A on the first leg. I said no thanks, I'll just call Amtrak the day of the trip to let them know what I'm doing. The AGR agent asked if I wanted to be connected to Amtrak now, so I said OK.

I explained the situation to the regular Amtrak agent, and asked if she could attach a note to my reservation saying where I was actually getting on. She said it would be easier if she just modified the reservation. To make a long story slightly shorter, the regular Amtrak agent was able to modify the existing reservation, keeping the original room numbers and reservation number and just change the beginning and ending station, something the AGR agent wasn't able to do, even though it was an AGR reservation.

The moral of the story: If you need to make a minor change to an AGR reward, such as getting on at a later station, call Amtrak, not AGR.

 

[the_traveler]

The moral of the story: If you need to make a minor change to an AGR reward, such as getting on at a later station, call Amtrak, not AGR.

I always thought that an Amtrak agent (either on the phone or at the station) could not touch an AGR reservation, except in certain circumstances - like if AGR is closed or a missed connection?

 

[Guest]

Alan has always said that Dave but I have had reservations modified by agents including changeing my room # (ie move from downstairs to upstairs,bedroom A to E etc.).Perhaps with Amtrak in the process of taking over AGR they are transitioning to this?