Amtrak online ticketing

[Charles785]

I have always booked Amtrak tickets over the phone with an agent. Are the fares less expensive by booking online?

In any event, I don't really understand how the booking process works with the Amtrak website. At least it doesn't seem to be working for me.

Can someone post step-by-step instructions on how to book Amtrak tickets from their website? I see a 'book now' button but I don't want to book anything before I know the total price for each trip segment.

By the way, I just checked Amsnag for the best pricing, then not more than 15 minutes later called Amtrak and they were quoting me substantially higher fares for the dates that Amsnag said were cheaper. Is that normal?

Thanks in advance.

 

[me_little_me]

You don't get charged until the final page. However, once you select your dates and trains, you can't see whet you selected until you reach that last page so you have no choice if there is a problem except to totally cancel and start over.

You set your date(s), cities and number and type of passengers. You then select "Find trains". Note if you made a mistake (like the type of passengers or dates or anything else), you must not only correct it but must hit FIND TRAINS again or it will show you all the wrong information!

Must have been written by a government contractor.

 

[PerRock]

So after putting in your departure, arrival stations & dates; you hit "find trains". That will return a page with a bunch of different options for trains you can take (provided there are different trains between your cities) and different levels of service you'd like to book. Each train segment will have a couple different fares listed right there. That is the cost you will pay for that leg of the journey. For Business & Premium there are slide-show like options which allow you to change the type of upgraded accommodation you'd like (so picking a bedroom over a roomette, etc). Once you've picked your choice you "add to cart", if you have a return journey or multi-city you'll go thru the same screen but for the other legs. Then Amtrak tries to sell you additional options (like bike fares). After that it's on to the traveler(s) information, then you pay. Throughout this entire process the total amount of money you will be charged is displayed at the top of the screen.

I actually don't see a "book trains" button anywhere... mind you I'm not traveling anytime soon so didn't go all the way to the payment page.

 

[user 14106]

The website doesn't give any lower rates than a phone or station agent. There are SOMETIMES some online only discounts and programs, but usually most discounts are available through the agents too. I usually buy from my local station agent for most tickets as I simply prefer the human interaction (I am perfectly capable of doing it through the website but like stopping by the station on my way home from work.) Some occasions I have to go online or phone agent are for using AGR points and coupons as those can't be done at the station.

 

[Qapla]

The "Book Tickets" is the default option on the main page. Just start there and enter your information as explained above.

Once you have added your choice(s) to the cart you will get the page where you can add items (like bikes) - you should get a page that has something like this on the top


If you click on the "down marker" shown in the red circle (I added the circle - it won't appear on your page)

You will get a breakdown of the trip with a link for "Details"



If you click the Details (shown in the red circle) you will get a breakdown of the charges


At this point nothing has been booked or charged

There is a "Next" button on the bottom of this page that takes you to the actual booking details

If you stop here, you can close out, go back and check other options (like seeing if a different date will get you a different price) ... just be sure to click the "Find Trains" button each time you make a change to update the information and train selection

 

[drdumont]

Both Amtrak and now American Airlines have adopted a hideously complicated online booking process. To me it makes very little sense, and making a choice or price comparison is damn near impossible.
And, I have discovered that the use of an ad blocker or cookie/tracking defeater will prevent you from using the site t all. As I keep my system pretty well locked down, using Firefox, AdAware and Ghostery, Amtrak.com won't even display. So I keep an unmodified copy of Opera handy. But the overall website design is IMHO pretty bad nontheless.
I prefer talking to an agent - NOT Julie! -, as once you get past the wait, the agents have all been pretty good, personalble, and have been able to suggest alternative dates, etc.
I would like to have a personal conversation with whoever wrote the current online booking system. The conversation would preferably include a cattle prod and perhaps brass knuckles and a rope.
The old system worked fine, was faster, allowed comparison shopping, and took wayyy less time.

 

[Qapla]

I have not had any problem using the online booking ... but then I use Chrome with AdBlockPlus. I have never had any difficulty with it launching or displaying.

My only complaint is that, when I do want to price compare, I have to write the results down because the page that gives you the price relies on cookies and does not run multiple sessions at the same time.

I will agree that the interface could be cleaner and more intuitive.

 

[bratkinson]

I strongly suspect that the not-very-user-friendly Amtrak website is the result of its underlying 40+ year old computer technology...ARROW. Just this past Wednesday, while waiting to board #449, I asked the ticket agent to upgrade me to business class. He spent a couple minutes trying several options before getting a printout of my entire reservation (6 trains, all together). The printout was clearly from the 'early days' of computing. I should know. I'm a retired mainframe programmer/consultant. He circled this, then that, then tried futilely to make the changes for what seemed like 10 minutes before admitting he had to call central reservations to get it done. I decided to give him a break and told him to skip it.

How did I know it was a printout from the dark ages of computing? The lack of any kind of columnar-style information, field titles, and spaces between most data fields was the dead giveaway. What I saw was 80-column punch-card formatted data, complete with 'record type code' in column 1 and maybe column 2. Think: type 1 = passenger name info, type 2 = passenger address, type 3-1 = first train segment, type 3-2 = second train segment, etc. Pricing info, and the fact it was a conjunctive fare SPG-MKE each way threw a curve ball at him. Maybe this was one of his first days as a 'solo' agent at SPG.

 

[TravelingGal]

I've never had a problem. I pay for my ticket and Amtrak sends it to me in pdf format. I can pull it up on my smartphone and the conductor just scans the code. Eazy peazy.

 

[fillyjonk]

I was having massive problems with it last night but I don't know if that's because I was upset (am traveling for a bereavement) or if it was broken. I finally got an agent's help.

the website kept telling me the day I had chosen was not valid, even though I could see that there was even a bedroom still available. (I am traveling this afternoon). Fortunately an agent was able to help me over the phone and get my ticket. I even have a bedroom because right now I do not think I could cope with being in with everyone in coach.

(My father is very likely dying. I am hoping to get up in time but this is almost the fastest way given where I live. I could have flown I suppose but I am very claustrophobic and the idea of dealing with that whole experience on top of everything, I don't think I could)

 

[pennyk]

I was having massive problems with it last night but I don't know if that's because I was upset (am traveling for a bereavement) or if it was broken. I finally got an agent's help.

the website kept telling me the day I had chosen was not valid, even though I could see that there was even a bedroom still available. (I am traveling this afternoon). Fortunately an agent was able to help me over the phone and get my ticket. I even have a bedroom because right now I do not think I could cope with being in with everyone in coach.

(My father is very likely dying. I am hoping to get up in time but this is almost the fastest way given where I live. I could have flown I suppose but I am very claustrophobic and the idea of dealing with that whole experience on top of everything, I don't think I could)

My thoughts are with you. I hope you arrive in time, your trip is smooth and your visit goes as well as it can. <3

 

[Chey]

fillyjonk, my heart goes out to you. I echo what Penny said.

 

[drdumont]

Fillyjonk - I wish you a long life, and comfort in your bereavement. This is no time to be annoyed by a poorly designed website. Glad the humans on the other end of the Amtrak wire could help you.

 

[drdumont]

A few years back when I was commuting weekly from FTW-AUS, booking tickets on the website was a breeze. I always got a hard copy in pdf, but the Android Amtrak app displayed one of those square barcode looking thingies. Walked up to the train, the conductor pointed his IPhone at it, it beeped, and he sent me aboard. Works fine, lasts long time, easy to clean, drains to the bilge*.
Nowadays, I peruse the website for my trip, and call the human line. See * above...

 

[JP1822]

I've been noticing that if there is to be a change in the planned itinerary, especially mid-way through trip, or part of a multi-city trip, the Amtrak agent at the window, now often has to "call" some magic person at a far away work station to get an "approval" and then process some sort of "over-ride" code to complete the change. If the Capitol Limited arrived early or on-time into WAS and I wanted to change trains to depart early on a connecting train, it used to be about a three minute or less processing task and the agent did it themselves. Last time I had to do this at the Club Acela Lounge - took at least 20 minutes. Shouldn't be that complicated. I would do upgrades if something became available while on a trip and that too can be a disaster. Sometimes I too gave up and just said skip it. Amtrak's loss.........