e-Tickets

[Cho Cho Charlie]

"Between March 2003 and January 2010, we identified 903 theft, dishonesty, and policy/procedure violations by 306 LSAs, and issued 447 administrative referrals to Amtrak managers. The recurring schemes described in this report involve the falsification of documents to conceal missing food and beverage revenues and inventories."

Are the LSAs really dishonest, or are the LSAs simply attempting to deal with the realities of food service against rather unrealistic Amtrak rules?

In any restaurant business, there will always be unaccounted for food and beverage inventory. Food gets dropped. Beverages gets spilled. You serve some extra (replacement?) to an upset passenger. No one stops to record such.

When dealing with cash, in the rush, people give the wrong change. It happens.

Plus I guess, there might be the occasional coach passenger who leaves the dining car without paying, possibly unaware its different for coach passengers than the sleeper passengers they are seated with.

And no amount of government bureaucracy will change it.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

I love the idea of going cashless. It's the 21st century folks - not 1962. Cash is becoming obsolete. Amtrak should embrace things that will

Save mine and time in the long run.

I don't fly much anymore, so I am not all that familiar with how cash-less purchases are done on-board a flight.

However, cruise ships are a cash-less society. You have your ship issued ID card, and you use that for all on-board purchases. You need to back up that ID with either a credit card or cash (they preserve your rights and freedoms to use cash). When your credit card limit is reached, or you used up all the cash deposited, any attempt to continue to use the ID card is denied. BTW, on cruise ships, a 15% tip is automatically added to food/drink purchases.

Possibly, with Amtrak going to e-tickets, they can use the same e-ticket instead of the cruise ship ID card, but the methodology would remain the same. If you want to make use of the lounge bar, cafe car, or dining car, you better have your e-ticket linked to enough money. The Amtrak employee simply has to scan your e-ticket for each purchase, and hopefully, immediately gets the appropriate confirmation (allowed or denied).

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I love the idea of going cashless. It's the 21st century folks - not 1962. Cash is becoming obsolete. Amtrak should embrace things that will

Save mine and time in the long run.

I don't fly much anymore, so I am not all that familiar with how cash-less purchases are done on-board a flight.

However, cruise ships are a cash-less society. You have your ship issued ID card, and you use that for all on-board purchases. You need to back up that ID with either a credit card or cash (they preserve your rights and freedoms to use cash). When your credit card limit is reached, or you used up all the cash deposited, any attempt to continue to use the ID card is denied. BTW, on cruise ships, a 15% tip is automatically added to food/drink purchases.

Possibly, with Amtrak going to e-tickets, they can use the same e-ticket instead of the cruise ship ID card, but the methodology would remain the same. If you want to make use of the lounge bar, cafe car, or dining car, you better have your e-ticket linked to enough money. The Amtrak employee simply has to scan your e-ticket for each purchase, and hopefully, immediately gets the appropriate confirmation (allowed or denied).

Disney World does the same thing if you stay at one of their resorts. Just use your room key (or perhaps another card, can't recall) everywhere and the $$ is added to your bill...which is linked to your credit card. This was handy as my teenage daughter could buy food & souviners using her "card" (and, yes, I could trust her not to "run up the bill"). An itemized bill was given to us on day of check out, though I think we were still able to use our card that day, if we wanted to.

 

[rrdude]

Unless and until Amtrak totally changes the TYPE of passenger riding, going "cash-less" on LD or overnight trains is a long way off. On a plane, no problem, usually short duration, can get food at airport. On the Chief, Builder, Zephyr, etc., traveling end-point to end-point, Amtrak will HAVE to take cash.

Just this week on the CS, the LSA made several announcements that his CC machine was "down" and he could "only take cash", so when technology breaks, is damaged, or the conx is lost, what to do?

On selected corridor or NER trains, going cash-less may be doable, but again, imagine if you get on in Lynchburg, are going to Boston, and don't carry "plastic". Unless you packed your lunch, that's a long way to go without a meal of some kind.

I did a pilot program (one of several that Amtrak has wasted money on) several years ago with NCR POS on the Capitol and LSL. The technology worked fine, the resistance from the LSA's was incredible. (I knew it would be upfront, having been an LSA in a previous life)

Amtrak has tried this before with IBM (in Cali and the NEC) and with Cache-Box, among others, and failed, sometimes for different reasons each time. But that does't mean they shouldn't keep trying. Having simple "Bangers" (Cash Registers with pre-set buttons) is still better than nothing.

The dining car is another story. The use of paper checks in today's techno-world is way obsolete. The company I work for has been doing Order-And-Pay-At-The-Table for years, and now utilizes the iPiod Touch with mag card readers to do the same thing.

Think about it, you place your order with a server in the diner, they punch it in on the iPod Touch, and hit "Send". It transmits to the kitchen in a nano-second. Some day they'll "get it".

 

[printman2000]

Think about it, you place your order with a server in the diner, they punch it in on the iPod Touch, and hit "Send". It transmits to the kitchen in a nano-second. Some day they'll "get it".

I am pretty sure they already "get it." However, they also have to pay for it.

 

[amamba]

Alan, one can already add tips to credit card receipts, right? I definitely did that when I was on my LD trip last year. In particular, I kept buying drinks in the PPC but I had run out of cash by then, so I was adding $5 tips onto a glass of wine with dinner. And the attendant would pick up my check and say "thanks for the tip!".

 

[AlanB]

Alan, one can already add tips to credit card receipts, right? I definitely did that when I was on my LD trip last year. In particular, I kept buying drinks in the PPC but I had run out of cash by then, so I was adding $5 tips onto a glass of wine with dinner. And the attendant would pick up my check and say "thanks for the tip!".

Correct, you can indeed add a tip to the credit card receipt. And the LSA hands the SA the tip in cash.

 

[amamba]

Alan, one can already add tips to credit card receipts, right? I definitely did that when I was on my LD trip last year. In particular, I kept buying drinks in the PPC but I had run out of cash by then, so I was adding $5 tips onto a glass of wine with dinner. And the attendant would pick up my check and say "thanks for the tip!".

Correct, you can indeed add a tip to the credit card receipt. And the LSA hands the SA the tip in cash.

Ah, that I didn't know. I thought it would be like in a restaurant. Don't servers get their CC tips with their paychecks? But maybe I am wrong in that assumption, too.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

Interesting debate.

I'm old-fashioned and prefer paying cash for 'daily expenses.' I never buy food or drinks on planes partially because of this reason, and I'm not sure I like the idea of a cashless diner.

At the same time, on more than one occasion, I've gotten the sense that the LSA in the DC is 'up to something.' The most recent was the LSA on the SWC last September who had everyone signing two checks per meal, with some unfollowable rambling explanation about there being an issue with how the 'inventory' had been double-billed, or some such, in Chicago. Now a possible upside of whatever was going on was that when food ran short the last night before LAX, some duck l'orange dinners, which where not on the menu that run, suddenly were offered, when almost all other options were out. And it was delicious!

It seems clear though that Amtrak has an uphill battle on its hands, both from within, and from riders.

Why do images of Sisyphus keep popping into my head? :huh: :unsure: ^_^

 

[AlanB]

Alan, one can already add tips to credit card receipts, right? I definitely did that when I was on my LD trip last year. In particular, I kept buying drinks in the PPC but I had run out of cash by then, so I was adding $5 tips onto a glass of wine with dinner. And the attendant would pick up my check and say "thanks for the tip!".

Correct, you can indeed add a tip to the credit card receipt. And the LSA hands the SA the tip in cash.

Ah, that I didn't know. I thought it would be like in a restaurant. Don't servers get their CC tips with their paychecks? But maybe I am wrong in that assumption, too.

Not unless things have changed within the last 6 months or so. On my trip out to Seattle for the Gathering I charged my bottle of wine with dinner and added a tip. When the LSA saw that he said "Oh, let me take care of this right now before I forget" and he pulled out his money roll and dropped the appropriate amount on the table for the SA.

 

[OBS]

Alan, one can already add tips to credit card receipts, right? I definitely did that when I was on my LD trip last year. In particular, I kept buying drinks in the PPC but I had run out of cash by then, so I was adding $5 tips onto a glass of wine with dinner. And the attendant would pick up my check and say "thanks for the tip!".

Correct, you can indeed add a tip to the credit card receipt. And the LSA hands the SA the tip in cash.

Ah, that I didn't know. I thought it would be like in a restaurant. Don't servers get their CC tips with their paychecks? But maybe I am wrong in that assumption, too.

Not unless things have changed within the last 6 months or so. On my trip out to Seattle for the Gathering I charged my bottle of wine with dinner and added a tip. When the LSA saw that he said "Oh, let me take care of this right now before I forget" and he pulled out his money roll and dropped the appropriate amount on the table for the SA.

Alan, you are correct, nothing has changed...

 

[OBS]

Interesting debate.

I'm old-fashioned and prefer paying cash for 'daily expenses.' I never buy food or drinks on planes partially because of this reason, and I'm not sure I like the idea of a cashless diner.

At the same time, on more than one occasion, I've gotten the sense that the LSA in the DC is 'up to something.' The most recent was the LSA on the SWC last September who had everyone signing two checks per meal, with some unfollowable rambling explanation about there being an issue with how the 'inventory' had been double-billed, or some such, in Chicago. Now a possible upside of whatever was going on was that when food ran short the last night before LAX, some duck l'orange dinners, which where not on the menu that run, suddenly were offered, when almost all other options were out. And it was delicious!

It seems clear though that Amtrak has an uphill battle on its hands, both from within, and from riders.

Why do images of Sisyphus keep popping into my head? :huh: :unsure: ^_^

You are correct in that if you are signing two checks per meal, something inappropriate is going on...

 

[TCRT]

For those who were interested, it appears that it took six days from the date of travel for my AGR points to post from the e-ticket trip I took. That is faster than normal, at least for me.

 

[Acela150]

For those who were interested, it appears that it took six days from the date of travel for my AGR points to post from the e-ticket trip I took. That is faster than normal, at least for me.

That's the fastest I've heard.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

Kinda silly but ayone know if I can buy ticket online with prepaid credit card?

 

[Acela150]

Kinda silly but ayone know if I can buy ticket online with prepaid credit card?

As long as it's a card Amtrak accepts, which is all major credit cards one could guess they would accept it. But just a word of advice I had a Visa Card that had my pay from a job on it. It was only about $20 and I went to buy a ticket at the ticket counter at PHL to goto PAO round trip and it wouldn't take it. This card is similar to a prepaid card. I did have cash on me. That's normally how I pay for those fares as I sometimes just go to the Ticket Office and go. So be ready with a back up form of payment.