I am going to Washington tomorrow for a doctor's appointment, and at first my wife thought she might want to come with me. So I fired up the app, found a suitable train, and booked two "Saver" tickets at a very good price. Then she had second thoughts and suggested that I go down by myself. So now I had to cancel at least one of the tickets. One thing about these fares was that the app specifically said they were "non-refundable -- cancellation fee may apply." Of course, if they were non-refundable then a 100% cancellation fee would always apply.
So with some trepidation, I went back to the app. The first thing was that I couldn't figure out how to cancel only one of the two tickets. So I decided to cancel them both and rebook my own trip. This went a lot easier than I thought. Furthermore I was able to cancel the reservation with no fees. I even got an email confirming the cancellation and the crediting of the fare to my credit card. Then I went and rebooked the trip for me alone.
What sort of surprised me was that they let me cancel the trip for a full cash refund (OK refund to my credit card) even though I had bought a Saver fare, which is supposed to be "non-refundable." Is this some new policy on the part of Amtrak? Or maybe it's because I cancelled the reservation within an hour or two of making it? Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I'm just curious.
Another thing is that being it's less than 24 hours until the trip, the app gave me a link to do the little Covid check-off. But even after I did that, I still got a text alert from Amtrak reminding me to do the Covid check-off that I had already one. I guess that's another job for the Amtrak IT "center of excellence" to fix whenever they manage to hire enough IT folks to do it.
So with some trepidation, I went back to the app. The first thing was that I couldn't figure out how to cancel only one of the two tickets. So I decided to cancel them both and rebook my own trip. This went a lot easier than I thought. Furthermore I was able to cancel the reservation with no fees. I even got an email confirming the cancellation and the crediting of the fare to my credit card. Then I went and rebooked the trip for me alone.
What sort of surprised me was that they let me cancel the trip for a full cash refund (OK refund to my credit card) even though I had bought a Saver fare, which is supposed to be "non-refundable." Is this some new policy on the part of Amtrak? Or maybe it's because I cancelled the reservation within an hour or two of making it? Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I'm just curious.
Another thing is that being it's less than 24 hours until the trip, the app gave me a link to do the little Covid check-off. But even after I did that, I still got a text alert from Amtrak reminding me to do the Covid check-off that I had already one. I guess that's another job for the Amtrak IT "center of excellence" to fix whenever they manage to hire enough IT folks to do it.
