Booking online on Amtrak website

[user 6862]

I have now had an email response which effectively suggests the problem that I experienced in not being able to book via Amtrak.com was an input error/omission by myself.

I know this was not the case as I know for sure that my successful booking on the Amtrak App used exactly the same entries as I had been trying on Amtrak.com (and v v's similar booking experience to mine would also seem to indicate that it was not input errors).

I have responded to Amtrak Customer Support updating them that I had succeeded using the same inputs but on the Amtrak App and also that I was aware that another European "booker" had experienced exactly the same problem (and hypothesised that perhaps the website is only failing non North America bookers).

I will update if I get any further response.

I was trying to book 3 separate journeys that were not directly connected, tried a number of times to make the bookings online over several days with several computers but the same problems persisted. Please feel free to use my examples if you wish. But as you when you used a different booking method to their online pages, it was easy once we phoned reservations.

Unless customers explain to them what is going wrong they wont know, good luck.

 

[me_little_me]

Amtrak's IT department continues to be a shambles. Are we going to have to escalate this to top management, again?

You mean to the ultimate source of the "Center of excellence"? Or is it that Amtrak IT and the executives have shown that " this is something else "That will transform rail travel in North America"?

 

[greatwestern]

I have now had an email response which effectively suggests the problem that I experienced in not being able to book via Amtrak.com was an input error/omission by myself.

I know this was not the case as I know for sure that my successful booking on the Amtrak App used exactly the same entries as I had been trying on Amtrak.com (and v v's similar booking experience to mine would also seem to indicate that it was not input errors).

I have responded to Amtrak Customer Support updating them that I had succeeded using the same inputs but on the Amtrak App and also that I was aware that another European "booker" had experienced exactly the same problem (and hypothesised that perhaps the website is only failing non North America bookers).

I will update if I get any further response.

Update,

Have had a response expressing that they are glad that I was successful booking on the App and indicating that they would forward the information about my problem for further investigation.

I am reasonably impressed - at least this proves that my comments have been properly read and understood, and that I am not being subjected simply to a "standard response".

Whether there is a resolution remains to be seen.

Again I will update if there is anything to report.

 

[me_little_me]

I just noticed that Amtrak has moved the reservations area to be before the junk stuff. It's nice to see that someone there has the sense to put the important things first.

 

[PaulM]

I just noticed that Amtrak has moved the reservations area to be before the junk stuff. It's nice to see that someone there has the sense to put the important things first.

Not entirely. This is what I get.

Now if I zoom out, the important stuff shows up; but barely readable.

 

[greatwestern]

Update,

Have had a response expressing that they are glad that I was successful booking on the App and indicating that they would forward the information about my problem for further investigation.

I am reasonably impressed - at least this proves that my comments have been properly read and understood, and that I am not being subjected simply to a "standard response".

Whether there is a resolution remains to be seen.

Again I will update if there is anything to report.

UPDATE: No follow up response from Amtrak, however I have just successfully booked another trip on Amtrak using Amtrak.com on my desktop computer with no problems at all - so whatever was causing the problem for me (and v v) last year seems to have been resolved.

When I say "no problems", I really mean in using Amtrak.com to make the booking - the initial pressing of the purchase button resulted in my credit card being declined !!

A 30 minute hold on the phone trying to contact my card company, being redirected to their fraud number, being summarily disconnected then finally speaking to the fraud department resulted in my payment (and the booking) going through.

Now to see if my booked services actually run in September.

 

[bobmcshea]

For some reason, the reservation website does not list the Lake Shore limited at all. Before today, it indicated tha the Lake Shore Limited was canceled on every date for which I searched. This is not a good way to get business. The telephone reservation person indicated tat the train was available. I don't know how to alert AMTRAK that this problem exists on their web site.

 

[BlackDiamond]

I just tried a test reservation bos to chi for March 24 and it shows up but only BC (sold out) and sleeper no coach seats

 

[Barb Stout]

Today I was attempting to book a trip to Chicago (ultimately Ohio, but had to do it in segments to use points) from ABQ, but I experienced 2 error messages, one of which I fixed (I had put a 1 in front of my fellow traveler's phone number which is apparently unacceptable), but the next error message stymied me. It said " Too few or too many characters", but it didn't specify the offending field. Has anyone come across such a message with knowledge of what it might mean?

I ended up booking my trip by calling the AGR number (because part of it was with points between Chicago and various points in Ohio). Then, as another insult, my Amtrak BOA credit card was declined. The AGR rep told me they hold the reservation for a week before I have to pay. Going to the BOA website, I see that purchasing Amtrak tickets using the Amtrak BOA credit card was deemed to be possible fraud, but I was able to mark the purchases as "safe", then called Amtrak back and was able to pay for the reservation.

Because I wanted to use points, but only had enough to go between Chicago and Ohio, I had to make 2 reservations: one with points and the other with the offending credit card. The first AGR agent who made the reservations didn't know about linking reservations in case the first train is late, but when I called back to pay for the longer trips between ABQ and Chi, I got a different AGR agent who did know and took care of it. I asked him if he knew what the error message might be referring to, and no, he didn't know. He did say that the Amtrak website has been defeating a lot of people.

I suppose it's possible that I had messed something else up in the phone field when I took away the "1" digit, but the format after I made the correction looked the same as the field for my phone number.

 

[GAT]

I have to agree that the Amtrak website is REALLY screwed up. In my online account, the “My Trips” page shows only four segments of the nine ticketed segments on my upcoming circle trip. And one of those segments shows the wrong date. I called AGR and confirmed that all nine of my ticketed segments are intact and correct in the actual reservation system.

If we cannot rely on the information displayed in our own accounts on the Amtrak website to be accurate and complete, what’s the point of displaying it at all? Amtrak IT needs to get its act together. Perhaps it needs a new boss.

 

[neroden]

I have it on good authority that Amtrak IT is understaffed. It may also need a new boss, but it definitely needs *more permanent employees*.

 

[jis]

The odd thing is there is never an apology after phenomenal cockups. As if such is the natural course of things and there is no need to acknowledge mistakes at all.

 

[neroden]

The odd thing is there is never an apology after phenomenal cockups. As if such is the natural course of things and there is no need to acknowledge mistakes at all.

For that, blame must go to Stephen Gardner. The CEO is the one who's supposed to apologize for public-facing disasters.

 

[zephyr17]

I have it on good authority that Amtrak IT is understaffed. It may also need a new boss, but it definitely needs *more permanent employees*.

They also probably do not pay enough to attract better people. Not to mention their corporate culture. If their IT culture is anything like a lot of the rest of their blame-driven culture, no amount of money would entice good people to subject themselves to that. Good IT folks have good options.

Plus, nobody good is going to want super legacy Arrow on their resume, and they need to get people trained up on that. It is the heart of their IT, the source of many if not most of their issues, and they've lost most of their institutional knowledge of it through retirements and attrition.

 

[Jonathon]

I'm having the darnedest time trying to find fares on Amtrak's website....wth am I doing wrong?

 

[Cal]

I'm having the darnedest time trying to find fares on Amtrak's website....wth am I doing wrong?

Other users were reporting that booking online was down earlier today... so maybe it's not you.

 

[Cliff]

First, I am new to this board and AMTRAK in general. But, I am so glad to have run across this page, as I've been trying to figure out how to book a ticket or just to find out how much a trip might cost. I just haven't been able to find where to look. I posted a comment elsewhere that the last time I was on a train was in 1968!

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

First, I am new to this board and AMTRAK in general. But, I am so glad to have run across this page, as I've been trying to figure out how to book a ticket or just to find out how much a trip might cost. I just haven't been able to find where to look. I posted a comment elsewhere that the last time I was on a train was in 1968!

Welcome!

If you are in the Alexandria area, you have a terrific train station right there! Many trains going in different directions.

Also, that is a staffed station, so you have the wonderful option of being able to ask advice from a real person at the agent window.

It’s also a great place to watch trains on a day when you aren’t taking one.

 

[Cliff]

Yes, I know the train station in Alexandria. I went to a military school in Virginia my last two years of high school and often took the train to Richmond, the school chartered buses to the school on Sundays or last day of school breaks. It was quite a site to see a bunch of teenage boys in uniform! People unfamiliar with us would wonder what the hell was going on.

Nonetheless, I appreciate the suggestion, I'll go directly to the station to get information, I drive by there regularly.

Thanks

 

[Brian Battuello]

I'm a very experienced Amtrak rider (and ticket purchaser) but the website is driving me crazy tonight. I'm trying to book a ticket from Boston to Chicago. The website insists that I change my password, but the change password option requires you to enter the previous password, and it isn't accepting the password I am sure is correct. There seems to be no "I forgot my password" any more. I tried asking "Julie" how to change my password, and it keeps taking me to the page that wants me to enter the existing password first.

Dang, I may just fly on American. How does anybody book a train these days?

 

[Cal]

I'm a very experienced Amtrak rider (and ticket purchaser) but the website is driving me crazy tonight. I'm trying to book a ticket from Boston to Chicago. The website insists that I change my password, but the change password option requires you to enter the previous password, and it isn't accepting the password I am sure is correct. There seems to be no "I forgot my password" any more. I tried asking "Julie" how to change my password, and it keeps taking me to the page that wants me to enter the existing password first.

Dang, I may just fly on American. How does anybody book a train these days?

Did you try the app?

 

[zephyr17]

I'm a very experienced Amtrak rider (and ticket purchaser) but the website is driving me crazy tonight. I'm trying to book a ticket from Boston to Chicago. The website insists that I change my password, but the change password option requires you to enter the previous password, and it isn't accepting the password I am sure is correct. There seems to be no "I forgot my password" any more. I tried asking "Julie" how to change my password, and it keeps taking me to the page that wants me to enter the existing password first.

Dang, I may just fly on American. How does anybody book a train these days?

Honestly, I would leave it the heck alone, clear cache, and wait for tomorrow. My own opinion now is when things such as logins are obviously screwed up, wait for them to unscrew it. Heroic measures might land you in a place where your credentials are permanently damaged. That happened to me on another site, not an Amtrak. I am loathe to leave a recalcitrant computer alone and I wouldn't let go. And it ended with my login being permanently inaccessible and having to cancel the messed up account and creating a new one using a secondary email account.

It was an organization whose IT is nearly messed up as Amtrak. They messed something up, tried to force things, and wound up worse than I had been.

If there is an obvious problem, as it looks like there it might be, best to leave it be and let them have room to fix it rather have the system paint you into a permanent corner.

 

[Brian Battuello]

Thanks, I did exactly that, cleared the cache, cookies and rebooted and the "forgot password" reappeared. Then I found out that 449 was bustituting, so never mind

And thanks for the detailed advice about not screwing things up further.

FWIW, I've been using my JetBlue card as my primary, as I can't seem to use my Amtrak points for anything sensible. Woke up this morning to find that I had a fraud alert on JetBlue, so back to Amtrak until they get it straightened out. Not easy being a traveller these days!

 

[Steve4031]

Creating an ideal reservation system from the ground up would be an ideal use of infrastructure funds. The justification would be thus would allow Amtrak to increase revenue and reduce incidents of lost revenue due to non-functioning technology.

 

[bratkinson]

I got so fed up with their system 3 weeks ago trying to change seats for myself & friend on the same reservation, I gave up. I tried Firefox, Edge, and from my Android phone. It would allow me to change one seat, but not both. Called their AGR select exec number and still had to wait 20 minutes.

Spin forward to this past Sunday. Time to use an upgrade on Acela for myself. Again, I tried and tried. Both afternoon and evening. No luck. Called and finally hung up after waiting 1hr 20 minutes! I called the regular 1-800-USA-RAIL number thinking maybe things were just jammed up. Hung up after 5 minutes. Called the Select Exec number again and it said I'm #1 in the queue! I've never heard that message before! 5 minutes later, I had a real person. She commented that the website is sometimes problematic.

So I fired off a 'flaming email' to Amtrak about their piss poor reservation system. I especially noted that the reservation system is the first 'face' of Amtrak passengers see! I got a pretty much 'form' letter reply ...blah blah blah..."we are unable to provide time frames..." The best part was the signature...Maureen in 'Amtrak Center of Excellence' It took me 10 minutes to stop LAUGHING!