Amtrak Friendly Travel Agent

[drdumont]

Does anyone know of an Amtrak Friendly travel agent? I opened my big mouth to my family about a trip I was planning. Now it looks like it will be my wife, daughter, granddaughter and son on a Great circle trip involving some nights on the ground.
Rather than trying to negotiate the Byazantine Amtrak website, I'd rather get a travel agent to do the scut work.
DAL- LAX-SFO (layover 2 nights) - CHI - DAL
Thanks,
-- Doc

 

[OBS]

Check out "Train Travel Consulting" in Klamath Falls Oregon...Long time train riders and travel agents...

 

[Acela150]

Check out "Train Travel Consulting" in Klamath Falls Oregon...Long time train riders and travel agents...

My Dad and I used them years ago. 2006 and 2007. I'm stunned their still around. But they were great with us!

 

[Ryan]

Or, just call Amtrak, talk to an agent, and get it all set up. Doesn't sound like that complicated a trip.

 

[WICT106]

Another option would be Amtrak Vacations, https://www.amtrakvacations.com

 

[dogbert617]

Or, just call Amtrak, talk to an agent, and get it all set up. Doesn't sound like that complicated a trip.

Another option would be Amtrak Vacations, https://www.amtrakvacations.com

Besides these 2 options, you could of course visit any station(well, the few that are left as of 2019 anyway) still with traditional ticket agents, and staffing. Sigh, that I fear more ticket agent and staffing cuts for stations still with staffing, will come in future years. If the cutting of Cincinnati's staffing(WAAAY too big of a place to cut staffing from, IMO), is any indication of what may occur to a greater extent in the future.

I looked at Amtrak Vacations btw, and decided that booking things my own way online was cheaper than the Amtrak Vacations packages. But that's just my own opinion. Their magazines they print once a year are fun to read through, that's for sure!

 

[WICT106]

Amtrak Vacations will sell you a ticket, as well as handle the hotel reservation, without any sort of package.

 

[RSG]

Amtrak Vacations will sell you a ticket, as well as handle the hotel reservation, without any sort of package.

This particular topic has been discussed around these parts before, but I'd be wary of booking through Amtrak Vacations. The third party service which handles the bookings are not, despite their operational name, train travel professionals.

A year or two ago I encountered a couple on the California Zephyr who got on when I did at Sacramento or shortly thereafter and they related their horror story about their Amtrak Vacations experience where, by the time I met them, they were on the last leg of. The details are a bit fuzzy now but it basically had to do with booking rail travel and hotel accommodations on a tight schedule that didn't take into account real-world experience traveling with Amtrak.

IIRC, they booked the California National Park tour (like Yosemite and perhaps another park) and while that part of the trip went okay, the connections to/from the tour went awry. Due to track construction and weather-related delays, they missed their booked hotel on one part of the trip and were put up in a fleabag motel and then endured a bustitution during a later part of the trip which could have been avoided if the person booking the rail portion was savvy enough to be aware of potential issues and do a rerouting. They eventually figured this out on their own and when they called to complain, the person answering the phone was clueless as to how anything was wrong and basically said "oh well"---even after they pointed out that their trip wasn't as promised, or booked (in the case of the hotel downgrade).

I felt sorry for them as it was their first Amtrak trip and unlike the glamourous routing promised in the catalog, it was like the rail version of being booked on a cruise and finding you are traveling by yacht instead of oceanliner. I tried to explain why they should have had a better experience, but I was embarrassed for Amtrak Vacations and the seemingly oblivious way in which the booking was handled.

A far better option would be to use the aforementioned Train Travel Consulting, which appears to literally be a mom-and-pop operation with years of actual experience booking and traveling on Amtrak (and VIA Rail).

But I will agree with dogbert617, the AV catalogs sure are fun to look through.

 

[Steve4031]

Your best bet is to self educate using Amtrak Unlimited. Not every Amtrak employee is as knowledgeable as one would like.

This is not a complicated itinerary imho. The Dallas to San Francisco portion involves a early morning arrival into LA at 5 am or so. Then the the train to San Francisco leaves at 10:15 am. This connection usually is made. The San Francisco Chicago Dallas requires overnight in Chicago.

I suggest reversing the itinerary. You still have an overnight in Chicago before goin on to San Francisco. After San Francisco you go to LA on the starlight. Spend one night in LA. This guarantees the connection. The train to Dallas leaves at 10 pm. This is better than the 5 am arrival going the other way.

Your biggest challenge will be sleeping car space between Los Angeles and Dallas. The problem is that there is one through car and space sells out quickly on this car.

 

[Steve4031]

A second issue is going to be getting all of these people on the same page regarding when to go. If you really want to include all of them this will involve negotiating with them to discover when you will all be free to travel at the same time.

If there is a lot going of confusion then what I would do is pick dates and book your trip. Then you can assist anyone else who wants to go. Those who wait the longest will pay higher buckets on sleepers.

You can book for someone and place it on a hold. The person then has a few days to call in for a credit card.

Imho it is important that these others take on some responsibility of planning. They need to listen and process what you are saying about the trip. Be realistic about delays and issues that may arise. Then they won’t have unrealistic expectations. If these are the type of people who listen but don’t precess, like some in my family, then you will have issues during the trip.

Good luck.

 

[zephyr17]

Reccomend Train Travel Consulting over Amtrak Vacations by miles. They are true experts. Amtrak Vacations, as mentioned, is a third party, is NOT Amtrak, and are not really that train savvy.

I self book pretty much everything these days, but I've dealt with Train Travel Consulting in the past. They know their stuff.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

A couple of websites that help when planning your trips.

https://www.irtsociety.com/

https://www.seat61.com/

The folks in Oregon are the one to reach out to, if your ready to toss in the towel and let someone do it for you.

 

[drdumont]

Does anyone know of an Amtrak Friendly travel agent? I opened my big mouth to my family about a trip I was planning. Now it looks like it will be my wife, daughter, granddaughter and son on a Great circle trip involving some nights on the ground.
Rather than trying to negotiate the Byazantine Amtrak website, I'd rather get a travel agent to do the scut work.
DAL- LAX-SFO (layover 2 nights) - CHI - DAL
Thanks,
-- Doc

Well, I am just about stymied. The AMTRAK web site is just impossible to try to book a multi city or round trip journey. Yes, I am quite painfully familiar with filling out the blocks and waiting for a reply, only to find that the train is booked, or there are no sleepers. Then you have to go back to the beginning, enter another date, and sit and wait to be told that this date is full. THe "add date range" doesn't seem to help, as it doesn't tell you if sleepers are available. It is just horrid.
So you say "Just call AMTRAK". OK. On one line, I have been waiting three hours for a call back
On the Guestrewards Select phone line, I've been on hold for 45 minutes.
AS I have a good sense of humor, I sauntered by the Dallas ticket office. Now THERE is 45 minutes of my life I will never get back. The cull
on the counter said she had no way of looking up dates when service might be available, other than going through what we go through on the website..
How I yearn for the website which used to show the fare buckets and availabilities.
There MUST be another way!

 

[zephyr17]

There isn't. The app is often snappier in response than the website, though.

On the "simple" one way and round trip options, availability of rooms show up on the first page after entering the origin, destination, and the date. On Multi city it shows up on the page displayed after entering the segments.

While I am no fan of the website design or the way it is implemented, it isn't like you have to enter that much to see if sleepers are available, just origin, destination, and date, which is really the minimum possible information. The response time isn't always great, but it is still usually well under 30 seconds even on bad days. 30 seconds is a lifetime for computers, I know.

As to seeing a date range, a lot of us would like to see that, but it is not there, not for you, not for an agent, not for anybody. Amsnag accomplished it by brute force, hammering in query after query and parsing the results. The website redesign made the parsing technique it used fail. But even Amsnag was doing repeated single queries.

 

[GAT]

You might try Amtrak Vacations on the phone. I'm not sure; they maybe offer only fixed itineraries. But it might be worth a call to see if they can have one of their agents build an itinerary of your choice. My understanding is they do this for trains around the world.

https://www.amtrakvacations.com/

 

[zephyr17]

You might try Amtrak Vacations on the phone. I'm not sure; they maybe offer only fixed itineraries. But it might be worth a call to see if they can have one of their agents build an itinerary of your choice. My understanding is they do this for trains around the world.

https://www.amtrakvacations.com/

Amtrak Vacations is a third party travel agency that licenses the name. They are not part of Amtrak and do not report to Amtrak. They are even less competent than Amtrak, though it is difficult to understand how they accomplished  that feat. And they have much less friendly cancellation policies.

Stay the heck away.

PS, they cannot pull up date ranges, either.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I am curious why you would chose to break your journey in San Francisco. I would consider one of the "smaller" stops such as Klamath Falls or somewhere in the Cascades where you can have a safe relaxed break with Mother Nature providing the scenery.