Amtrak App discussion

[user 13416]

"Cool Story Bro" time...

No email from Amtrak or any other communication prompted me to check my reservation, I just looked up my res to see my arrival time because my ride asked me in conversation and I couldn't remember exactly. And that's when I went down the rabbit hole.

"⚠ Service Canceled"



Checked my email, checked the junk and deleted folders, nothing from Amtrak telling me anything was amiss. And my trip is 3 days away. So will I be standing on an empty platform?

Tapped the ⚠ and was taken to a list of every single track construction-related schedule disruption scheduled for the next six months. The NEC and Keystone lines were both mentioned frequently, but no mention of any canceled trains. Just schedule adjustments of between 5-15 minutes. So I may have to get to the station a few minutes earlier on my return trip. Big deal. Why all the ⚠⚠⚠⚠⚠ then?

Thinking this was just the app being weird, I went to the desktop website to check. It got even worse there. Went to My Trips and I see my reservation. Clicked on Details and see "Canceled" all over the place. All four segments. But no mention of a refund, no re-booking, no option to change anything. Just a whole lotta "Nope!"

Okay. You're gonna make me talk to Julie. I join the queue at 1-800-USA-RAIL. After a lot of "I didn't quite get that" and "I still didn't understand that" because my Virginia/Carolina hybrid accent isn't DC enough for Julie, I got to listen to the digitally-compressed Don Henley playlist. But only for 20 minutes, which was longer than the 15 Julie told me I would wait but far less than the hours I've heard about people waiting.

The reservation agent cleared it up in 15 seconds. But if I hadn't called, it's possible (even likely) the conductor would have gotten an error when scanning my ticket. Apparently, the Keystone was changed from non-reserved seating to reserved seating. Since I booked before the change and was still listed as a non-reserved seat, my reservation was in limbo. And the app was ⚠ all over itself, but completely unable to help or explain why.

Now that that's cleared up, it's still ⚠ me about service disruptions on the NEC and Keystone. None of those disruptions apply to my travel dates or even my train numbers, but it just sees the words "Keystone" or "Northeast Regional" on the list of future track work schedule adjustments and goes all ⚠⚠⚠⚠⚠⚠⚠⚠ over it.

 

[jis]

Jokingly it seems to me that airlines design their web presence to reduce call traffic to their agents. Amtrak being very innovative designs it to increase phone traffic to their agents. Go figure!

 

[pennyk]

I just encountered a similar experience with "service canceled" notation on app and on my account on website. I have AGR status, so I called AGR (and this was an AGR reservation to San Diego in October). The first time I called, I was told the wait was 30 minutes, which I did not have so I hung up and tried again an hour later. Again I was informed the wait would be 30 minutes, but I had the time and decided to do something else while waiting. The wait was less than 10 minutes and the agent was very nice and apologized for the "antiquated Amtrak reservation system." There were 2 schedule changes on my outgoing trip which caused the system to cancel a couple of segments and book me on the same segments with the new times. I have a new eticket now. Since there is a lot of time between now and October, I guess I should expect more cancellations/schedule changes.

When Amtrak is short of telephone staff, telephone agents should not have to deal with simple issues such as this.

 

[user 30354]

Jokingly it seems to me that airlines design their web presence to reduce call traffic to their agents. Amtrak being very innovative designs it to increase phone traffic to their agents. Go figure!

We flew with American over the holiday season and a simple change of flights after they changed the schedule and we wanted a different flight than the one they gave us required calling them. Their hold sequence actually includes a message telling us we should use their website.

 

[TheCrescent]

When my Amtrak train has been canceled, I got an email.

When my American Airlines flights have been canceled, I could re-book through the app.

 

[GAT]

After reading this thread, I checked my own circle trip reservation. The CVS-ATL portion on Crescent showed "Cancelled." I called AGR and, after researching, they told me that it was a computer glitch, that nothing had changed. I guess we all should check our future reservations regularly. We have to do that with airlines because they frequently cancel or change flights. But this problem with Amtrak seems to be due mainly to systems incompetence.

 

[user 13416]

When my Amtrak train has been canceled, I got an email.

When my American Airlines flights have been canceled, I could re-book through the app.

The difference is that those trips were actually canceled. Mine wasn't, it was just in limbo because of seat reclassification that the computer didn't know what to do with so it just shoved it to the side and forgot about it.

 

[Arctifox]

The difference is that those trips were actually canceled. Mine wasn't, it was just in limbo because of seat reclassification that the computer didn't know what to do with so it just shoved it to the side and forgot about it.

Last year I had a "broken" reservation as well. I booked an Acela round trip at the Amtrak 50 years sale which at some point I wasn't able to open anymore at all (it showed up in "My Trips", but I couldn't open it, and using the booking reference resulted in an error). Eventually there was a minor schedule change which made the booking "work" again, but I ended up cancelling it anyway. However, the travel credit I got from the cancellation was still somehow broken and I was not able to redeem it online (unlike others I had) so I had to call in for that. It was no problem to use the credit on a phone booking and it was done very quickly.

 

[denmarks]

I have cancelled a trip and have even received a refund. In my browser Amtrak shows the trip as cancelled but in the iPhone app it is still there. Why?

 

[Shanson]

Ahh, the app. We have just completed the first leg of a four-leg trip, and now the rest of the legs aren't showing. Have others experienced this as well? Sounds like a programming flaw...

Well, think I figured it out. When looking at my paper/eticket, I noticed that our AGR numbers weren't on the printout! Guess I will email them.

 

[Northwestern]

I have been having problems trying to use the Amtrak App on my cell phone, specifically in attempting to obtain train status information.

It doesn't let me enter train numbers; I have to type in departing and arriving stations from a long list. I have attempted to track CS Train #14 from LA to Martinez, CA. by entering departing and arrival stations After I hit the "train status" button, it gives me train status for the San Joaquins, Surfliners, and bus connections out of LA, not the CS. Also, to enter departure and arrival stations by station name (not train #), I have to scroll down a huge list which includes towns for thruway bus connections.

Is my old age showing, or is there a problem with the Amtrak app?

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

It sounds like there might be an issue with the app - there's another thread where there were/are issues with the app.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I have been having problems trying to use the Amtrak App on my cell phone, specifically in attempting to obtain train status information.

It doesn't let me enter train numbers; I have to type in departing and arriving stations from a long list. I have attempted to track CS Train #14 from LA to Martinez, CA. by entering departing and arrival stations After I hit the "train status" button, it gives me train status for the San Joaquins, Surfliners, and bus connections out of LA, not the CS. Also, to enter departure and arrival stations by station name (not train #), I have to scroll down a huge list which includes towns for thruway bus connections.

Is my old age showing, or is there a problem with the Amtrak app?

 

[azavalia]

Hello everyone.
Long time commuter between PJC <--> PHL here.
I have had this problem for a while. I am using a multipass ticket and am trying to reserve seats on trains.
I cannot reserve two way trips. It says there are no available seats. I have to do this via the web (annoying) or at a station window.
I know other people on my daily ride have this problem (while others don't ). Is there a solution? I tried uninstall/install and did not work.
Thanks in advance

 

[zephyr17]

This is a not so good news/bad news situation.

Amtrak apparently has stopped sending out email notifications on service changes/cancellations in many cases.

This happened to me in March. The app showed service cancelled, but I could not pull the reservation up on the website at all! The only place it actually appeared at all was on the app!

The bad news is it was cancelled, the not so good news was at least I could see the "stealth" cancellation was on the app. It had disappeared everywhere else.

 

[5280 Guy]

Those are problems, not issues.

 

[amtrakpass]

Noticed recently the Amtrak App has a new sort and filter process that changes the way trains are displayed by default.
Depending on where you are starting from or going too it might not make a difference but I notice in some cases from Boston it is showing all Acela departures before showing any regionals. You can change it back to sort by departure time which corrects the issue but if you don't know to do that each time you open the app, it might drive passengers to more expensive Acela service unknowingly since it shows up in the list first.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Noticed recently the Amtrak App has a new sort and filter process that changes the way trains are displayed by default.
Depending on where you are starting from or going too it might not make a difference but I notice in some cases from Boston it is showing all Acela departures before showing any regionals. You can change it back to sort by departure time which corrects the issue but if you don't know to do that each time you open the app, it might drive passengers to more expensive Acela service unknowingly since it shows up in the list first.

The sorting in the BOS - WAS, for me, is by length of trip. Obviously Acela's will show up first in that case, but you'll see the Acelas are not in order of departure times, nor are the regionals.
Edit: Just looked at the Sort & Filter options for BOS - WAS and Number of Segments is selected. Since most trips are a single segment, I guess it moves down to the next option which is Shortest Trip. Guessing it's a glitch in the system for Boston departures since the others I checked have Departure time selected for sorting.

 

[TimePeace]

It has been several years since I tried the AGR app. Last night I downloaded it and have been playing with it today and it seems an awful lot better than it used to be.

Does anyone know any tricks or tips that might not be evident to after just a few minutes of exploring?

Thanks,
D.

 

[Bonser]

I've noticed that the app has changed format last week and now requires more steps to either check fares or to book. And once you start the process it's not entirely intuitive. For example, as train options show there are no sleeper options given. You have to click on coach fare to have them appear - it's not obviously clear how to choose the accommodations. After this you the are given the boxed option of private rooms. No big deal but it used to be far more simple.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I've noticed that the app has changed format last week and now requires more steps to either check fares or to book. And once you start the process it's not entirely intuitive. For example, as train options show there are no sleeper options given. You have to click on coach fare to have them appear - it's not obviously clear how to choose the accommodations. After this you the are given the boxed option of private rooms. No big deal but it used to be far more simple.

Sleepers show for me once I hit “find trains”. No additional steps were need to see this screenshot.

 

[Bonser]

I have to add two more steps to get where your screen shot is

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I have to add two more steps to get where your screen shot is

What city pairs are you using? What does the screen show on those two steps?

 

[joelkfla]

What city pairs are you using? What does the screen show on those two steps?

It works as you said for single trains, but trips including a transfer initially show only the lowest available coach fare. There is no indication on the initial screen whether or not rooms are available. After selecting a route, it shows available rooms, but no fares for the rooms. The sleeper fare is not displayed until rooms or coach seats have been selected on all segments.

 

[Voxish]

The sorting in the BOS - WAS, for me, is by length of trip. Obviously Acela's will show up first in that case, but you'll see the Acelas are not in order of departure times, nor are the regionals.
Edit: Just looked at the Sort & Filter options for BOS - WAS and Number of Segments is selected. Since most trips are a single segment, I guess it moves down to the next option which is Shortest Trip. Guessing it's a glitch in the system for Boston departures since the others I checked have Departure time selected for sorting.

Yes there are several options, definitely useful in certain situations but sorting by 'number of sectors' is an odd one to default to! It's just such a finnicky website even making allowances for the fact that we do things differently in Europe. I speculate (without evidence) that they've stuck with their original design which has been added to over the years instead of committing to a fresh modern approach. It's the 'sunk cost' fallacy or to put it another way 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' (except obviously it is broke) - or maybe the cost of changing to a modern system is uneconomic or even that they're too proud to outsource to Europe?