How to modify sleeper ticket to give/re-reserve to friend?

My friend, Lyn, and I have a long planned trip from Charlottesville VA (Cardinal) through Chicago and on to Emeryville on the Zephyr. Leaving Charlottesville on October 30 I have Covid and want to give my ticket to her husband Steve. We have a bedroom on the sleeper on both trains. When I spoke with Guest rewards and the agent spoke of cancelling my ticket and then quickly reserving the same one/space in his name. Will that work and guarantee he will take my place in the bedroom? THis sounds tricky and don't want to blow it. Will I incur a cancellation fee for doing that?

Are there any tips you all have for this. Appreciate all help.

BeeLady said:

My friend, Lyn, and I have a long planned trip from Charlottesville VA (Cardinal) through Chicago and on to Emeryville on the Zephyr. Leaving Charlottesville on October 30 I have Covid and want to give my ticket to her husband Steve. We have a bedroom on the sleeper on both trains. When I spoke with Guest rewards and the agent spoke of cancelling my ticket and then quickly reserving the same one/space in his name. Will that work and guarantee he will take my place in the bedroom? This sounds tricky and don't want to blow it. Will I incur a cancellation fee for doing that?

Are there any tips you all have for this. Appreciate all help.

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You'd need a very good agent to hold the price through a cancellation. I am not sure it could be done. I am pretty sure agents can waive cancellation fees, I had an agent get so wrapped around the axle with a modification that he wound up having to cancel and start over, with no fee. Even if the agent can do both, you still risk losing the accommodation in the short time between cancellation and rebooking. Since you are originating at Charlottesville, I am assuming you are in the Cardinal, since that runs just one Viewliner sleeper there are only two bedrooms on the whole train.

You are correct, it would be tricky.

The main danger is holding the price firm in my view. Bedrooms on the Zephyr show about a 270% spread between low and high buckets.

I do not see another way offhand. If I were in your shoes, call back and discuss it with the agent and have then walk you through the steps they would take. Ask them if they can hold the pricing. Make sure the agent understands you don't want them to do anything until you have completely discussed the whole process. Then if you feel comfortable and the agent seems confident about their ability to do what they say, do it.

Good luck.

Thank you,Zephyr. I currently have a bedroom with both me and Lyn in it. All I want to do is cancel me and put in her husband. So we are not cancelling the room, just one of the people in it. Before you wrote I had a nice chat with Nell in Guest Rewards (on a "don't do anything yet basis") and things seems to be swimming along until she realized that part of the price had been paid by me with a voucher. But...since I, the voucher - holder, is the one who can not travel because I have Covid - things got tricky. She told me to call customer relations in the morning. Which I will do. Perhaps they can smooth things out, especially since I have Covid.

I'd like to keep the price the same but, since I feel so badly about not being able to go and have offered my ticket to her husband as a gift, I will see what we can get.

BeeLady said:

Thank you,Zephyr. I currently have a bedroom with both me and Lyn in it. All I want to do is cancel me and put in her husband. So we are not cancelling the room, just one of the people in it. Before you wrote I had a nice chat with Nell in Guest Rewards (on a "don't do anything yet basis") and things seems to be swimming along until she realized that part of the price had been paid by me with a voucher. But...since I, the voucher - holder, is the one who can not travel because I have Covid - things got tricky. She told me to call customer relations in the morning. Which I will do. Perhaps they can smooth things out, especially since I have Covid.

I'd like to keep the price the same but, since I feel so badly about not being able to go and have offered my ticket to her husband as a gift, I will see what we can get.

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I understand you do not want to cancel the room, but briefly cancelling it is probably the only way to change reservation names around, especially if you are the primary reservation holder. I think the primary reservation holder can get the other passenger(s) cancelled off the reservation while keeping the reservation. Then a different passenger could be added using an Open Sleeper ticket. But I am almost positive you cannot mess around with the primary reservation holder without cancelling.

Most of the time Amtrak agents, especially Customer Relations agents, want to do their best by their clients. However, they have to work within what is possible within the system's limits.

Good luck tomorrow.