# Frustrated with Amtrak/AGR today



## darien-l (Jan 30, 2008)

I couple of weeks ago I booked 2 bedrooms on CZ EMY-DEN for myself and my brother using AGR points. It was a birthday present, so I sent him the ticket along with a nice card. A few days ago my wife expressed an interest in joining us, and I thought it would be no problem to add her to my compartment. Right? Wrong!

I just got off the phone with AGR, and was told that to add anyone to my compartment, ALL tickets for EVERYONE traveling on this reservation have to be returned and reissued, even if we're traveling in separate compartments. That makes no sense to me. Instead of issuing one more ticket, they want all the tickets back for some reason?! I'm now faced with an awkward prospect of asking my brother for his birthday present back...

Is what I was told correct or should I call and try my luck again?


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## AlanB (Jan 30, 2008)

Sadly, that is correct.  They cannot modify the reservation once it's been made. The only option that they have is to get the original tickets back, cancel that reservation and redeposit the points into your account, and then start a whole new reservation that includes your wife.


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## darien-l (Jan 30, 2008)

Thanks for the reply! Couple of follow-up questions:

1) Is it possible that when AGR cancels the reservation one or both of the bedrooms will be snapped up by someone? I got the last two adjoining bedrooms that can be combined into a bedroom suite -- would be a real shame to lose that. Do I need to include a letter requesting an immediate re-issue when I return the tickets?

2) Can I simply claim that I never received the tickets, and have the reservation changed without mailing anything back? I know it's cheating, but I feel that turnabout is fair play such an ass-backwards system... Had I known that this was going to be such huge pain, I would have gotten tickets for my wife and maybe a couple more friends just in case. At the very least, I would've booked my brother under a separate reservation.


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## AlanB (Jan 30, 2008)

darien-l said:


> 1) Is it possible that when they cancel the reservation one or both of the bedrooms will be snapped up by someone? I got the last two adjoining bedrooms that can be combined into a bedroom suite -- would be a real shame to lose that. Do I need to include a letter requesting an immediate re-issue when I return the tickets?


There is always a slight chance, but I think that they can prevent that from happening. I would definately include a letter explaining just what you want and need, and asking that they protect those two bedrooms from being resold. I would also advise that you return the tickets via some form of registered/return receipt mail. When I exchanged some AGR tickets last summer, I sent them via two day FedEx so that I could track things and Amtrak couldn't claim that they never got the tickets back. Those tickets are valuable and Amtrak is not responsible if they are lost. Which of course leads us to the second question.



darien-l said:


> 2) Can I simply claim that I never received the tickets, and have the reservation changed without mailing anything back? I know it's cheating, but I feel that turnabout is fair play such an ass-backwards system... Had I known that this was going to be such huge pain, I would have gotten tickets for my wife and maybe a couple more friends just in case.


AFAIK, officially Amtrak doesn't have to do anything for you if you report the tickets lost. In other words, you won't be taking any trip at all. Once the tickets are not used for the trip, only then can you file a claim for the points to be returned to your account. Even if I'm wrong on this, and they would reissue them believing that they were lost, they would only reissue what you already have. If you tried to change things, then they probably would figure that you lost them on purpose to try and circumvent the system.


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## PRR 60 (Jan 30, 2008)

This still leaves the question as to why the system works this way. Even within the limitations of the existing CRS and paper ticket system, could AGR not simply provisionally change the reservation in the Amtrak CRS dependant upon return of the original tickets. The original tickets would have to be returned within a given time frame. Once the old tickets were received, the new tickets would be issued and sent out. The present system seems punitive designed to inconvenience the customer while adding no benefit to AGR.


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## AlanB (Jan 30, 2008)

PRR 60 said:


> This still leaves the question as to why the system works this way. Even within the limitations of the existing CRS and paper ticket system, could AGR not simply provisionally change the reservation in the Amtrak CRS dependant upon return of the original tickets. The original tickets would have to be returned within a given time frame. Once the old tickets were received, the new tickets would be issued and sent out. The present system seems punitive designed to inconvenience the customer while adding no benefit to AGR.


I suppose that it is possible that they can just change the reservation and not have to cancel it. I'm basing things upon my experience last summer where I wanted to change from a Roomette for the OTOL trip to a Bedroom, so that not only involved changing rooms but it also involved a change in points used. In Darien's case there is no change of rooms, or points, so it may well be possible to just add his wife to the existing reservation without needing to cancel and redeposit the points.

If indeed that is true, then technically there is no reason that they can't go ahead and pre-add his wife to the reservation pending the return of the tickets. On the other hand they may be doing this to prevent someone from just calling up and adding people, never returning the tickets, and then showing up at the station and demanding to board or get the tickets at that point. And while I'm not suggesting that Darien would do that, it is clear that there are people out there who will do things like that and try to circumvent the system.

Hilton Honors just made their reward system harder to use because they had had too many abuses of their system. Up until last fall, it was possible to call up HH and make an award reservation for a hotel without having all of the points needed for that award. The idea being that at least you could make the reservation while still short on points, but knowing that you will have the points prior to arriving. Unfortunately people were showing up at the hotel without having enough points, and worse not having a valid credit card. Or they would never cancel, probably because they didn't earn enough points, and again the credit card was invalid.

So now, no booking HH award reservations until and unless you have enough points for the entire award.


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## darien-l (Jan 30, 2008)

AlanB said:


> AFAIK, officially Amtrak doesn't have to do anything for you if you report the tickets lost. In other words, you won't be taking any trip at all. Once the tickets are not used for the trip, only then can you file a claim for the points to be returned to your account. Even if I'm wrong on this, and they would reissue them believing that they were lost, they would only reissue what you already have. If you tried to change things, then they probably would figure that you lost them on purpose to try and circumvent the system.


Based on the reading I've done in the past, it hasn't been my impression that AGR tickets are valuable irreplaceable documents. For one thing, AGR probably wouldn't be mailing them out regular mail. I also remembered reading a thread in which someone's AGR tickets were lost in the mail. AGR then allowed that person to pick up replacement tickets at a train station before his trip. That's what gave me the idea of reporting the tickets lost and asking for replacements I can pick up. It's my understanding that once the tickets are "electronic," meaning that they can be picked up at the station or a QuikTrak machine, it's trivial to make changes like date/time, adding passengers, etc.


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