CHI to LA the long way (EB & CS)

[ColdRain&Snow]

Glad you made it back to SoCal finally. That was one heck of an adventure. Last month, I did a 14|28|5 triangle that featured an 8+ hour bustitution from Havre to Minot and an 8 hour hold at the top of Donner Pass in a relentless snowstorm. It's funny how those memories faded quickly while the trip's many fond memories continue to burn bright in my mind. I hope the same will be true for you. Thanks for the interesting reporting along your trek, and welcome home.

 

[Cristian]

Thanks! It's good to be back, although I'd do it again tomorrow if I could (minus all the delays and issues, of course )

 

[AlanB]

Please remember to Call Amtrak Customer Relations, :help: sounds like you should receive a very Large Voucher or AGR point Rebate if you used points for this fiasco of a trip!

I spoke with Customer Relations - they did not seem inclined to refund part/all my points used for this trip, however, they gave me a $1,000 voucher (how is this amount on the scale of vouchers for similar situations? - she did say that she'd rather keep the voucher on file electronically rather than mailing it out to me as she was not sure if the stations could print high value residual vouchers on ticket exchanges.)

Of course I would've preferred the points refund instead, perhaps I'll try to talk to AGR directly and see if they can do anything. (Since if I were to pay for this trip with cash it would've been over $2300...)

Customer relations AFAIK cannot deal with points, only AGR could have given you back some points for the problems.

And now that CS has given you a voucher, unless the AGR agent fails to check things out, they won't give you points back. That would be like getting a double refund. I also don't think, although I will not swear to it since AGR is now in house, that the AGR agent can cancel the voucher and then give you back points.

 

[Cristian]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the insight; I did not know CR does not deal with points. It was actually AGR whom I called first and they were the ones that transferred me to CR. Since I value the miles more than the $1,000 voucher I will see if I can get them to switch. (now, if somehow I end up with both, well, that's another story )

It would be nice if Amtrak would take it upon themselves to send an apology to all the passengers on that train - similar to what an airline would do and has done.

Before I got on the bus, I spoke with the attendant whom yesterday told me this wasn't even on his top 10 list in 17 years of Amtrak, and he admitted that with the new developments this is now high on his top 10. Most other train staff I've talked to said that this was the worst incident so far for them, including the two conductors.