20% point deduction for canceling?

[Oreius]

I called the dedicated AGR number to cancel my Silver Star reservation in May. The agent told me I would be assessed a 20% point penalty (3500 points) if I cancelled. Is this correct? I thought Amtrak was waiving feed for modifying/canceling through 4/30. I modified my trip to 2/24 so I wouldn’t lose the points. Seems fishy..

 

[pennyk]

It is my understanding that the penalty is waived for modifying, but not canceling.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

As Penny said, the waiver does not apply to cancellations.
I canceled a trip in Sept 2021 and paid the penalty points.

 

[Oreius]

What if I modify to take a train for my cruise in September? We’re taking a train to Newark Airport and coming back into NYP. I wouldn’t lose points since I’m modifying. Is this right?

 

[daybeers]

That's a ridiculously high fee IMO.

 

[pennyk]

What if I modify to take a train for my cruise in September? We’re taking a train to Newark Airport and coming back into NYP. I wouldn’t lose points since I’m modifying. Is this right?

Assuming your modified trip uses as many points as your original trip, you would not lose points. However, if your modified trip uses fewer points than your original trip, the penalty will apply to the difference.
I modified my December 2021 cross country trip to a trip in 2022 using fewer points and was penalized on the difference, which was not very much.

 

[JoshP]

Blame the former CEO Anderson created that new penalty went in effect.

 

[flitcraft]

Anderson seemed to want Amtrak to emulate all the worst aspects of air travel. So, I suppose we should be glad it's only a 20% forfeiture--the airlines have often enforced a 100% forfeiture for cancelled flights! Several years ago I missed a flight due to an accident that snarled traffic horribly on the highway to the airport, and at the ironically named 'help desk,' the staffer told me I'd lost the entire value of the ticket. I appealed to a supervisor, pointing out that the jackknifed semi actually made the local TV news, and got the "Well, just this one time, we'll see what we can do" response.

Buying refundable tickets as a matter of course runs into a lot of unnecessary expense, since most of the time I don't need to change or cancel the flight. But forfeiture for cancellation or missing a flight means losing the entire value of the ticket. So the airline gets you, coming and going. (Or coming and not going, as the case may be.)

 

[HenryK]

My wife and I (we are octogenarians) cancelled our round trip in sleeper from Chicago to D.C. a week ahead of Dec. 22 departure and I got ALL the points back. We cited the covid tsunami as the reason and that was good enough for the agent.

 

[Exvalley]

I recently cancelled a trip booked with points and was told that there would be a penalty. The cancellation went through but no points were refunded to my AGR account, so I called AGR customer service and they made an adjustment to my account and put all of the points back in it without deducting the penalty.

Normally I complain about Amtrak IT, but in this situation it worked in my favor.

 

[JimVB]

Anderson seemed to want Amtrak to emulate all the worst aspects of air travel. So, I suppose we should be glad it's only a 20% forfeiture--the airlines have often enforced a 100% forfeiture for cancelled flights!

Since the pandemic, American, Delta, and United all allow redeposit of miles from cancelled flights without a fee or penalty. Southwest has never had a fee or penalty. So Amtrak is now tougher than all of the major airlines.

 

[neroden]

Since the pandemic, American, Delta, and United all allow redeposit of miles from cancelled flights without a fee or penalty. Southwest has never had a fee or penalty. So Amtrak is now tougher than all of the major airlines.

Since the former CEO Anderson who instituted this bad policy is gone, it may be time to lobby the Amtrak execs to get rid of this bad policy and reinstate the previous policy...

 

[me_little_me]

Since the former CEO Anderson who instituted this bad policy is gone, it may be time to lobby the Amtrak execs to get rid of this bad policy and reinstate the previous policy...

He's not gone. He just changed his name to Flynn, Gardner and the Board of Directors.

 

[neroden]

Oh, Gardner was around for decades before that particular policy was put in place; I am sure he has no particular attachment to it

 

[coventry801]

You can modify the trip from New York Penn to Newark NJ. you get back all the price diff. later on you can cancel the NYP to Newark trip which is what $10?