Don't lose your return ticket - lesson learned

[jmbgeg]

Shytown,
You say he had no idea that the ticket was in that sleve. What happened to that sleve? Did he throw it away? Or is it someplace that you can still get it? If you can recover that lost ticket, your life will be much easier and you'll get more of your money back. In fact, if you can find the ticket, you have up to 1 year to either refund it minus a 10% penalty or trade it in for either another ticket or a voucher, which will give you 100% of its value.

Without the ticket however, life is far less rosy. You'll have to follow the lost ticket procedures and that will require waiting and only getting about $94.50 back, as Amtrak will charge a $75 fee and a 10% penalty. If you request a voucher good for future travel, then you can avoid the 10% penalty, but not the $75 fee.

The ticket is considered cash by Amtrak, and therefore if lost it's like standing on the street corner handing out $10 bills. The agent did indeed follow Amtrak procedures, as outlined here. Note: The form to report a lost ticket can be linked to from that page. But first, make sure that there is no chance of ever finding that ticket.

This really begs the question (which has probably been asked before) as to why Amtrak has not followed the airlines into a system with printed confirmations (to be available on line or at the station) that include bar codes that are scanned as you board the train, since the new confirmation format for Amtrak already has barcodes on it. Purchasing the scanners sounds like a good use for stimulus funds to me. Not only would this eliminate the lost tickets treated as cash problem, if linked to AGR, Amtrak miles would be posted more quickly and accurately.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Shytown,
You say he had no idea that the ticket was in that sleve. What happened to that sleve? Did he throw it away? Or is it someplace that you can still get it? If you can recover that lost ticket, your life will be much easier and you'll get more of your money back. In fact, if you can find the ticket, you have up to 1 year to either refund it minus a 10% penalty or trade it in for either another ticket or a voucher, which will give you 100% of its value.

Without the ticket however, life is far less rosy. You'll have to follow the lost ticket procedures and that will require waiting and only getting about $94.50 back, as Amtrak will charge a $75 fee and a 10% penalty. If you request a voucher good for future travel, then you can avoid the 10% penalty, but not the $75 fee.

The ticket is considered cash by Amtrak, and therefore if lost it's like standing on the street corner handing out $10 bills. The agent did indeed follow Amtrak procedures, as outlined here. Note: The form to report a lost ticket can be linked to from that page. But first, make sure that there is no chance of ever finding that ticket.

This really begs the question (which has probably been asked before) as to why Amtrak has not followed the airlines into a system with printed confirmations (to be available on line or at the station) that include bar codes that are scanned as you board the train, since the new confirmation format for Amtrak already has barcodes on it. Purchasing the scanners sounds like a good use for stimulus funds to me. Not only would this eliminate the lost tickets treated as cash problem, if linked to AGR, Amtrak miles would be posted more quickly and accurately.

see post 35.

 

[jmbgeg]

I sure don't know how Amtrak handles these things and what the rules are, but from a purely logical point of view, it seems to me that if he was reserved in a sleeper and had a room assignment AND had proper identification, all Amtrak had to do was re-issue the ticket. If someone else showed up with the same ticket wanting to use the same room, surely they would be refused boarding.
I would firmly and politely take this one up the chain of command and get a refund for the lost portion. Collect all your facts, documentation, and other evidence and go for it, I say.

If someone did show up (not necessarily at CHI, but at another - even unstaffed - station down the line), who is going to refuse them boarding? :huh: (Even at CHI, they only check to see if you have a ticket, before you go out to the platform.) Unlike an airport, where all passengers go thru 1 gate and they run your boarding pass thru a machine, your Amtrak ticket may not even be pulled until the train is 20 miles out of town! And I hardly think the train will turn around and go back!

There is a procedure where you can file for a refund. But they need to wait for a year before they can issue the refund - to see if the unused ticket had not been used or refunded. (The ticket is valid for 1 year.)

I wonder what they would tell poor souls who don't have a credit card to cover the second fare for the replacement ticket or insufficient cash on them. Walk home cross country? Stick around for the year waiting period and get a refund?

 

[jmbgeg]

Shytown,
You say he had no idea that the ticket was in that sleve. What happened to that sleve? Did he throw it away? Or is it someplace that you can still get it? If you can recover that lost ticket, your life will be much easier and you'll get more of your money back. In fact, if you can find the ticket, you have up to 1 year to either refund it minus a 10% penalty or trade it in for either another ticket or a voucher, which will give you 100% of its value.

Without the ticket however, life is far less rosy. You'll have to follow the lost ticket procedures and that will require waiting and only getting about $94.50 back, as Amtrak will charge a $75 fee and a 10% penalty. If you request a voucher good for future travel, then you can avoid the 10% penalty, but not the $75 fee.

The ticket is considered cash by Amtrak, and therefore if lost it's like standing on the street corner handing out $10 bills. The agent did indeed follow Amtrak procedures, as outlined here. Note: The form to report a lost ticket can be linked to from that page. But first, make sure that there is no chance of ever finding that ticket.

This really begs the question (which has probably been asked before) as to why Amtrak has not followed the airlines into a system with printed confirmations (to be available on line or at the station) that include bar codes that are scanned as you board the train, since the new confirmation format for Amtrak already has barcodes on it. Purchasing the scanners sounds like a good use for stimulus funds to me. Not only would this eliminate the lost tickets treated as cash problem, if linked to AGR, Amtrak miles would be posted more quickly and accurately.

see post 35.

A good reminder to read all the posts before posing a follow-up question or comment.

 

[TVRM610]

As for the sleeping car attendant... you all are jumping to alot of conclusions. Now first of all, I agree with everyone that there are good and bad sleeper attendants, I have been fortunate to have almost all decent ones while only have one real loser but that is not my point.

But let's just say this attendant saw a young man board the train, assumed he had travelled before in a sleeper (amtrak doesn't really have THAT many first-time sleeper passengers probably) and figured "If he needs something he'll let me know." Lets not forget that younger college age adults sometimes give out that "no-need to bother me, I'm cool" vibe. Perhaps the sleeper attendant thought he was doing him a favor....

Another thing to consider is that someone who is not familiar with things like we are will not be able to tell the difference between the Conductor and the Sleeper Attendant.

I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here... I of course have no idea what really happened.

 

[the_traveler]

I wonder what they would tell poor souls who don't have a credit card to cover the second fare for the replacement ticket or insufficient cash on them. Walk home cross country?

What did airlines do way back in the dark ages when they had paper tickets (remember those days :huh: ) and you "forgot them at home"?

 

[AlanB]

Shytown,
You say he had no idea that the ticket was in that sleve. What happened to that sleve? Did he throw it away? Or is it someplace that you can still get it? If you can recover that lost ticket, your life will be much easier and you'll get more of your money back. In fact, if you can find the ticket, you have up to 1 year to either refund it minus a 10% penalty or trade it in for either another ticket or a voucher, which will give you 100% of its value.

Without the ticket however, life is far less rosy. You'll have to follow the lost ticket procedures and that will require waiting and only getting about $94.50 back, as Amtrak will charge a $75 fee and a 10% penalty. If you request a voucher good for future travel, then you can avoid the 10% penalty, but not the $75 fee.

The ticket is considered cash by Amtrak, and therefore if lost it's like standing on the street corner handing out $10 bills. The agent did indeed follow Amtrak procedures, as outlined here. Note: The form to report a lost ticket can be linked to from that page. But first, make sure that there is no chance of ever finding that ticket.

This really begs the question (which has probably been asked before) as to why Amtrak has not followed the airlines into a system with printed confirmations (to be available on line or at the station) that include bar codes that are scanned as you board the train, since the new confirmation format for Amtrak already has barcodes on it. Purchasing the scanners sounds like a good use for stimulus funds to me. Not only would this eliminate the lost tickets treated as cash problem, if linked to AGR, Amtrak miles would be posted more quickly and accurately.

see post 35.

To further elaborate on this however jmbgeg, the biggest reason that Amtrak hasn't followed the airlines more quickly is money. Or lack thereof actually. It takes money to impliment such a system.

Additional reasons include lack of vision as Larry has mentioned in some of his posts and the complexities of electronic ticket collection. It's far easier to deal with electronic ticketing when you have a stable, constant power supply and constant internet/hard wire access to your central computer. Airlines don't need to worry about easily portable ticket collection equipment; Amtrak does. Airlines also don't have to worry about onboard ticket sales and upgrades.

But Amtrak is at long last working on it, although I suspect that it may well be next year before we see it roll out. They did a test recently in California that I understand found some problems and issues that will probably delay things for a bit.

 

[shytown]

As for the sleeping car attendant... you all are jumping to alot of conclusions. Now first of all, I agree with everyone that there are good and bad sleeper attendants, I have been fortunate to have almost all decent ones while only have one real loser but that is not my point.
But let's just say this attendant saw a young man board the train, assumed he had travelled before in a sleeper (amtrak doesn't really have THAT many first-time sleeper passengers probably) and figured "If he needs something he'll let me know." Lets not forget that younger college age adults sometimes give out that "no-need to bother me, I'm cool" vibe. Perhaps the sleeper attendant thought he was doing him a favor....

Another thing to consider is that someone who is not familiar with things like we are will not be able to tell the difference between the Conductor and the Sleeper Attendant.

I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here... I of course have no idea what really happened.

I'm sure this is exactly the case for my son. He really is very self-sufficient & does take pride in figuring new things out on his own. But on the other hand, he enjoys meeting new people and enjoys what would be considered "different" experiences. He would've welcomed the SCA experience that I had told him to expect. But all in all, he didn't feel slighted in the least. In fact, he didn't even mention it until I asked.

 

[TVRM610]

As for the sleeping car attendant... you all are jumping to alot of conclusions. Now first of all, I agree with everyone that there are good and bad sleeper attendants, I have been fortunate to have almost all decent ones while only have one real loser but that is not my point.
But let's just say this attendant saw a young man board the train, assumed he had travelled before in a sleeper (amtrak doesn't really have THAT many first-time sleeper passengers probably) and figured "If he needs something he'll let me know." Lets not forget that younger college age adults sometimes give out that "no-need to bother me, I'm cool" vibe. Perhaps the sleeper attendant thought he was doing him a favor....

Another thing to consider is that someone who is not familiar with things like we are will not be able to tell the difference between the Conductor and the Sleeper Attendant.

I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here... I of course have no idea what really happened.

I'm sure this is exactly the case for my son. He really is very self-sufficient & does take pride in figuring new things out on his own. But on the other hand, he enjoys meeting new people and enjoys what would be considered "different" experiences. He would've welcomed the SCA experience that I had told him to expect. But all in all, he didn't feel slighted in the least. In fact, he didn't even mention it until I asked.

I'm glad he enjoyed the trip. I'm sure if he travels again he'll run into some more outgoing attendants as well. Sorry about your ticketing issue as well, even though I understand Amtrak's policies I think it's a shame you were out so much money.

As for the e-ticketing... I would just assume Amtrak keeps things the way they are. What is the advantage of printing your tickets out at home vs. picking them up at the station? Now to be fair, I always pick the "Will Call" option on Ticketmaster or any other online service when ordering tickets so maybe I'm just in the dark on this. Personally I don't want to worry about losing the tickets.... if I have a confirmation e-mail, I'd rather just pick em up when I get there.

 

[the_traveler]

What is the advantage of printing your tickets out at home vs. picking them up at the station?

The main advantage is when you're boarding at an un-staffed station and the nearest staffed station is 300 miles away. But you can also request to pick the tickets up at some other station that you will be near.

I am doing just that later this year. I am boarding at an un-staffed station, but I said that I would pick the tickets up at a staffed station. So they do not have to mail them, and I do not have to hold them for months and months!

 

[GAT]

I wonder what they would tell poor souls who don't have a credit card to cover the second fare for the replacement ticket or insufficient cash on them. Walk home cross country?

What did airlines do way back in the dark ages when they had paper tickets (remember those days :huh: ) and you "forgot them at home"?

Off topic, but maybe I'll be excused because of the humor in the following......

This question reminds me of Victor Borge's conversation with his wife in the Airport, "Gee I wish I'd brought the piano with me!" "Why? The concert hall in Pittsburgh has a great Steinway." "I know, but our piano is where our plane tickets are!"

 

[Ryan]

There is a unique ticket number for every ticket issued, it's printed by the company that produces Amtrak's ticket stock, not by the ticket printer that puts your info on the ticket.

Actually, there are two unique numbers on each ticket. One is the ticket stock number, which is preprinted. The other is a ticket number, which is printed by the ticket printer at time of issue. The ticket number also appears on your ticket stub, in the lower left hand corner (in fact, if the printer isn't aligned properly, sometimes the first digit or two of the ticket number can get cut off after the ticket is lifted).

Are there any QuikTrak machines out there that are aligned correctly? I don't think I've ever encountered one that didn't print such that the first two letters of my last name, first two characters of the ticket/reservation number, etc, are ripped off when the ticket is lifted!

If there is, it has eluded me too!

I've got a handful of ticket stubs here on my desk that all seem to be properly aligned from WAS, NCR and BWI.

 

[AlanB]

I am doing just that later this year. I am boarding at an un-staffed station, but I said that I would pick the tickets up at a staffed station. So they do not have to mail them, and I do not have to hold them for months and months!

You do know that you don't actually have to hold them? You can put them down in a safe place and leave them there until it's close to your trip.

:lol:

 

[the_traveler]

I am doing just that later this year. I am boarding at an un-staffed station, but I said that I would pick the tickets up at a staffed station. So they do not have to mail them, and I do not have to hold them for months and months!

You do know that you don't actually have to hold them? You can put them down in a safe place and leave them there until it's close to your trip.

:lol:

Around me, there is no safe place - I don't trust myself. I trust computers more! ( Now that's scary!) So I just keep them in my hand! (If it were in my mind, it would probably get lost or broken bouncing around in all that empty space!)

:lol:

 

[printman2000]

Safety deposit box. When I HAVE to get my tickets early, that is where I put them. My box cost me something like $20 a year.

 

[sweet tea]

my trouble is keeping track of the return tickets while traveling. nothing dire has happened yet, but i do wish amtrak would change its policy. except for onboard upgrades, i don't see why this has to be so different from airplanes -- someone in the station could scan the ticket before letting you aboard, just as in an airport.

 

[JayPea]

For return trip tickets, I have a zippered compartment in my camera bag in which the tickets fit perfectly. Of course, should I lose the bag (it's hard to lose something like that on a trip but my organizational skills are next to zero ) or it gets stolen, I'm up a creek. As an alternative, I also make sure to wear shirts with a pocket so that I know the ticket is with me at all times.

 

[Bigval109]

This is a perfect example that when you are boarding the return portion from a staffed station, you should make 2 SEPARATE reservations (it doesn't cost extra) - and print the return ticket upon your return's departure! It is far less likely to "lose" your ticket in the 15-30 minutes (or even 1 hour) before departure than during your 2 week stay!

It's funny you should mention that. I put all my tickets going together and in another folder I put all my return tickets there. I also keep my return tickets in my backpack until I start home. I also wear cargo pants with the big pocket on the leg just for my train tickets. They are easy to get at that way and less likely to come out of my pocket by mistake. I once saw a person collecting tickets from two people traveling together take both going and the return ticket of one of the parties. They did catch it in time and corrected their mistake.

 

[AlanB]

my trouble is keeping track of the return tickets while traveling. nothing dire has happened yet, but i do wish amtrak would change its policy. except for onboard upgrades, i don't see why this has to be so different from airplanes -- someone in the station could scan the ticket before letting you aboard, just as in an airport.

In some stations there is no one to scan the tickets, and in a few cases where Amtrak stops, there isn't even a physical station, much less someone working at that stop.

And then there are places like NY's Penn Station where you reach the tracks from about 4 different places and only one of those entry points is actually controlled by staff. Or Boston's Back Bay where Amtrak shares tracks with the commuter trains and there is no way to control access to the tracks as someone could by a ticket for the T and then board Amtrak's Acela to DC.

 

[printman2000]

When I had to last travel with my return tickets, I put them in the hotel's safety deposit box while we were there.

 

[J-1 3235]

When I had to last travel with my return tickets, I put them in the hotel's safety deposit box while we were there.

I've used the hotel safety deposit box many times, also. There was one time when the clerk couldn't get the box to open, and I was close to missing my train. Learned my lesson with that trip; empty the box before it's time to checkout

 

[the_traveler]

When I had to last travel with my return tickets, I put them in the hotel's safety deposit box while we were there.

That would work if you were staying at the same hotel for the length of your stay. However, if I'm not staying with friends, I have stayed at 13 different hotels in numerous cities during a 14 day trip!

 

[Chris J.]

What is the advantage of printing your tickets out at home vs. picking them up at the station?

The main advantage is when you're boarding at an un-staffed station and the nearest staffed station is 300 miles away. But you can also request to pick the tickets up at some other station that you will be near.

I am doing just that later this year. I am boarding at an un-staffed station, but I said that I would pick the tickets up at a staffed station. So they do not have to mail them, and I do not have to hold them for months and months!

Can you do that online? I think I tried to do something like this and couldn't do it on the website (this was before the recent update).

 

[the_traveler]

What is the advantage of printing your tickets out at home vs. picking them up at the station?

The main advantage is when you're boarding at an un-staffed station and the nearest staffed station is 300 miles away. But you can also request to pick the tickets up at some other station that you will be near.

I am doing just that later this year. I am boarding at an un-staffed station, but I said that I would pick the tickets up at a staffed station. So they do not have to mail them, and I do not have to hold them for months and months!

Can you do that online? I think I tried to do something like this and couldn't do it on the website (this was before the recent update).

No, you can't do that online, but you can do that when you make reservations by phone.

 

[lthanlon]

Last year on the California Zephyr, the guy in the roomette next to mine got his travel times mixed up and had arrived the day before the date printed on his ticket. Since the roomette apparently was available all the way through his destination, they let him travel anyway. I was surprised they allowed this -- but at least he hadn't lost the ticket.