# Was not allowed to book a loophole!



## saxman (Mar 19, 2010)

Well I was on the phone with AGR trying to book EMY to SDL, and she said I have to use a 3 zone award, since I'm crossing into the third zone. She verified with others and they said I would be charged 3 zones.

Ugh, I hate dealing with AGR! :angry2:


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## RRrich (Mar 19, 2010)

saxman said:


> Well I was on the phone with AGR trying to book EMY to SDL, and she said I have to use a 3 zone award, since I'm crossing into the third zone. She verified with others and they said I would be charged 3 zones.
> Ugh, I hate dealing with AGR! :angry2:


Hang up and try again. Left hand, right hand


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## saxman (Mar 19, 2010)

Well she verified with all her supervisors apparently and say I need to be charged 3 zones. No way around it. I told her last year I went from SDL-WAS-LAX-SEA. She said was WAS is different, and that would be two zones. But to go through Charlottesville, it will be 3. Huh??

I will be calling back. To spend another 30 minutes on the phone.


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## Ispolkom (Mar 19, 2010)

You get all sorts of odd answers when you're booking odd routes. I had a gentleman explain to me that I could only book Atlanta-Charlottesville-Washington-Minot, and not Atlanta-Washington-Chicago-Minot on my day of travel, even though he agreed that on the next day I could book my preferred routing, and even though we both agreed that the Washington routing was cheaper for Amtrak. Again he maintained that was what his supervisor said. I thanked him politely for his help and called back the next day. Not a problem then.


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## the_traveler (Mar 19, 2010)

saxman said:


> She said was WAS is different, and that would be two zones. But to go through Charlottesville, it will be 3. Huh??


That is *ABSOLUTELY WRONG*! I have gone thru CVS twice for a 2 zone award! 

As the saying goes, "... try, try, try again!" If I could get KWD-KCY-LAX-PDX-CBS *just yesterday* for 1 zone with no problem, why should EMY-CHI-CVS-SDL be 3 zones? :huh:


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## saxman (Mar 19, 2010)

Well spoke too soon. I called back and got someone else.

Me: I'd like to book a trip

Her: Sure, from where to where and when?

Me: SAC to SDL in May

Her: Sure, thats a two zone award, would you like train 30 or 50?

Me: 50, in a roomette

Her: Ok, thats 20,000 points. Hold on a sec.

Her: (20 secs later) Ok here's your reservation number. Have a great day!

That wasn't word for word but pretty much how the conversation went. I was on the phone less than 5 minutes vs. 35 minutes with the first lady.

Ugh, its still annoying calling AGR. I wish I could book sleeper awards online, even complicated ones, like you can at airlines. I just don't like talking on the phone to people.


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## the_traveler (Mar 19, 2010)

saxman said:


> I just don't like talking on the phone to people.


Me either - I'd prefer on a train! :lol:


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## Ispolkom (Mar 19, 2010)

saxman said:


> Ugh, its still annoying calling AGR. I wish I could book sleeper awards online, even complicated ones, like you can at airlines. I just don't like talking on the phone to people.


I'd agree with you, since NHI (no human interaction) is almost my middle name, but I'm willing to put with being Mr. Happy Face as long as the loopholes stay open. I'd fear that any online booking system would eliminate them. You have to take the good with the bad.


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## jis (Mar 19, 2010)

Ever since AGR's call center has moved to Canada, I am yet to get the first agent that I call set things up correctly the way I want it. Either it is an argument about some goofy understanding or lack thereof the agent has of Amtrak routing or something else, like booking the trip on the right day in the wrong month or something. And surprisingly the second time I call it has always been a breeze and perfect. How they can be so consistently completely screwed up the first time and perfect the second time beats me.


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## ALC Rail Writer (Mar 19, 2010)

Its unfortunate. I booked my loophole and I got caught in that awkward "I know more than you do" moment and ended the call by saying "let me look at my calendar again"

Second agent booked KWD-KCY-LAX-PDX-CBS without a problem... even made sure I had a BC ticket on the MORR.


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## RRrich (Mar 20, 2010)

I booked my KWD-CBS loophole trip without a hitch - oh I had to request BC on MRR. Oh Well

Glad the *If at first you don't succeed, call again *strategy worked


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## AlanB (Mar 20, 2010)

Actually I've had surprisingly good luck booking things with AGR agents since the move north of the border. Granted I don't usually book loophole trips which helps, and I did just have that incident where the EB was sort of sold out and the first agent couldn't figure out what was wrong. But heck, even I didn't know what was wrong initially and it wasn't like that was some complicated situation either.


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## jis (Mar 20, 2010)

AlanB said:


> Actually I've had surprisingly good luck booking things with AGR agents since the move north of the border. Granted I don't usually book loophole trips which helps, and I did just have that incident where the EB was sort of sold out and the first agent couldn't figure out what was wrong. But heck, even I didn't know what was wrong initially and it wasn't like that was some complicated situation either.


That must be because the Canadians are trying to appease you to compensate for the transgressions of the Canadian Border Inspection folks :lol:


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## printman2000 (Mar 23, 2010)

jis said:


> Ever since AGR's call center has moved to Canada, I am yet to get the first agent that I call set things up correctly the way I want it. Either it is an argument about some goofy understanding or lack thereof the agent has of Amtrak routing or something else, like booking the trip on the right day in the wrong month or something. And surprisingly the second time I call it has always been a breeze and perfect. How they can be so consistently completely screwed up the first time and perfect the second time beats me.


Sounds to me like when you call and the first agent answers, you should immediately hang up. Then call back and everything will work out fine. :lol:


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## RRrich (Mar 23, 2010)

When I called a couple of months back the first agent said something like "Do you really want to spend 5 days going from Kirkwood MO to Columbus WI?" I responded ""Someone has to do it, I guess its gonna be me, besides I like riding the train"

Got my reseration, no sweat - then it took the quicktrak machine 20 minutes to print all the tickets


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