OK, I finally get to add my experience with the current Atlanta baggage situation. Over the past several days, I’ve twice started a post, but both times was waylaid before I completed the post. As I write this, I’m currently sitting in the Club Acela (that’s what the sign still says) in Washington, DC.
I was finally able to take a true rail fan trip, after being unable to do so in several years. On 21 June I went from Atlanta to New York on the Crescent to visit family, then a week later went from New York to Utica on the Empire Service, to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. I was there for a day, leaving the next evening for Chicago on the Lake Shore Limited. I spent the day yesterday in Chi-Town, and left in the evening for DC, where I arrived midday today. I’m leaving this evening on the Crescent to return home tomorrow morning. The reason for the circuitous route home was purely to enjoy Amtrak time. I had roomettes on all overnight trains, and business class on the Empire Servce.
I needed to deliver some important items to family in New York, so I used a larger-than-usual (for me) rolling duffel bag as my carry-on. This enabled me to carry what I needed for New York, and would allow me to pack several days worth of clothes for my circuitous rail fan trip home. I had one suitcase that I needed in New York, which I checked in Atlanta when I boarded, and picked up in Penn Station upon arrival the next day. My suitcase, and dozens of others, were routinely checked in Atlanta, without any incident. While waiting for our northbound Crescent, I did hear some passengers in the waiting room talking about the freight elevator there being out of order, but since everyone’s baggage was being accepted, I thought no further about it.
On Tuesday, 29 June, the night before I was to leave for Utica on the Empire Service, I received a voicemail and an email from Amtrak, telling me that the freight elevator in the Atlanta station was being replaced, and there would be no checked baggage service for my Washington-Atlanta trip on Saturday, 3 July. This completely threw off my plans. I had already packed the night before, and had planned to check the suitcase through to Atlanta, as I have done in the past, so that I wouldn’t need to drag it to Utica, Chicago, or DC. I was also going to check the rolling duffel bag to Atlanta, as it was larger than I normally use while on the train. My sister had given me a smaller bag to use on my other trips, and I was going to travel lightly with that from Wednesday, 30 June through Sunday morning, the 4th of July, when I reach Atlanta.
Having heard about the broken freight el while in the Amtrak waiting room in Atlanta, I immediately checked the Atlanta station info on the website, and found, as several people here did, that it did not list baggage service as an available service. I then checked this website, since such things are often discussed here, and was shocked to find the broken freight el and a possible loss of baggage service being discussed more than a month earlier! It seems that a water main had broken during the heavy rains that we had in mid-May, flooding the freight el in the Atlanta station. Again, I was perplexed, because the previous week I had no problem checking my bag in a Atlanta.
I called Amtrak for more info, and was told that the elevator was being repaired (I’m guessing replaced) from 1-14 July, and there would be no checked baggage service for the duration. Here I was, planning to check two bags at NYP the next morning to Atlanta, while I made my Amtrak circuit. I had to completely rethink my luggage plan, which involved unpacking and repacking at 10PM. The new plan was that I would continue to use the rolling duffel bag as my carry-on, which didn’t thrill me, and I would check only the suitcase, just as I had when heading north, to DC, as that was my next-to-last stop. I would get redcap assistance in DC, and bring both pieces into my roomette to Atlanta. My ticket was for NYP—Utica—Chicago—DC-Atlanta, and it was all on a single reservation. I have done this type of thing before, without any problem, since the luggage and I were both going to the same final destination.
Upon arrival at the new Moynihan Train Hall the next morning, a baggage clerk told me that checked bags had “to stay with me” on the trains I was taking, and I could not send the suitcase on ahead to DC. I sensed that the Utica stop overnight was the fly in the ointment. The baggage clerk wouldn’t budge, so I went to Amtrak customer service, where I spoke with a line employee, then a supervisor, both of whom told me what the baggage clerk had. When I told the supervisor that I had done this type of check before, she said that the policy had changed, she wasn’t sure when, but probably within the last two years.
What bothered me the most was the complete insensitivity to my situation, especially by the supervisor. I asked her to grant me, a longtime Guest Rewards Select member, an exception to the amended policy, and permit me to check the suitcase to DC. I didn’t need to be dragging it around from train to train, and surely the “emergency” in Atlanta was grounds to bend the rule a bit. She was rigid, inflexible, and more than a bit unpleasant, wanting only to quote Amtrak policy and CYA herself, so that no one could ever accuse her of not stringently adhering to policy. The fact that a GR member of many years was caught in a pickle by an Amtrak emergency meant nothing to her.
I was raised in New York City, and definitely know how to register a complaint (beef, gripe, whatever you want to call it…), and I know how to talk to union-protected workers who look out for themselves above all things. My southern friends and colleagues regularly tell me how much of a New Yorker I still am in these things, despite having lived in Georgia for many years. I was tempted to address this in a more aggressive New York manner, but decided instead to be like my genteel southern counterparts. So instead I was a polished gentleman, and I prevailed upon the supervisor with flattery and gratitude. I told her that Amtrak would be pleased that an empowered supervisor used her customer service training and experience to resolve a last-minute contingency that an Amtrak equipment problem had caused a longtime loyal Amtrak passenger. In short, I had to kiss her butt to get her to OK checking my bag to DC, which she finally did. But she made sure to angrily tell me that she was putting a note in the system under my name saying that this was a one-time concession, so that I could never “pull this again,” claiming that “the lady in New York had let me do it.” Again, she was concerned about her own self above all other considerations.
I was pleased to find the bag waiting for me here in DC, and the staff here didn’t bother to wonder why it had come in three days before me. When I get back to Atlanta, I plan to inquire about the freight el, since I was able to check my bag there last week. My guess would be that the el was temporarily fixed weeks ago, pending a full replacement now. I also plan to contact Amtrak and ascertain the policy about checking bags ahead, including when and why it changed, and ask if it was properly applied in my situation. Thanks for allowing me this lengthy post.
