Disputing an issue when error made by AGR agent

[Thechad0677]

Bit of a odd situation here, I booked travel back in January for departure on July 14th in a sleeper using AGW points. Early last month I engaged in a text message conversation using the 800 USA-RAIL number asking them to change my room number so I could be across the hall from another family member on a separate reservation. They changed it, sent me an eticket and that was that. When I got the eticket I checked the room and car number to make sure they were correct and they were. A week or two later I noticed that the trip was no longer showing up in my Amtrak app so I decided to do some follow up and ended up calling guest rewards. Come to find out they changed the date from Jul 14th to Jun 14th which I never noticed because I never asked to have the date changed in the first place. The agent said this counted as a no show and best she could do was open a case to try and get my points back and rebook me on the July 14th train as a new reservation using more points. Thankfully she was nice enough to credit me the difference in fare because obviously now the fare is substantially higher than it was when I initially booked in January. Of course they haven't refunded me and I just keep getting the run around with guest rewards.

My question is this, does Customer Relations oversee Guest Rewards? Should my next step be to talk to them or how should I proceed? This is obviously a mix up on their end and I have a screen shot of the text thread. I should have read the eticket more carefully but I wasn't expecting that to be changed and the difference between "Jul and Jun" just wasn't enough to catch my eye apparently. I'm just extremely fortunate there was room to correctly re-book my trip only a few weeks out in the middle of summer.

Chad

 

[Brian Battuello]

Welcome to Amtrak Unlimited, even though under unfortunate circumstances. Sounds like you did everything you could. Perhaps someone here can suggest additional steps.

In any case, hope you enjoy your trip. We all love taking rooms on trains, but you need to be aware that things don't always work perfectly on board, either. A certain sense of humor and adventure is helpful. You didn't say above if your trip was east coast or western, if you give us some details we can give you some hints to make things go smoother. First off, it is completely legal to bring any sort of alcoholic drink for consumption in your room only. Also, even if your state allows cannabis products, they are still strictly illegal on Amtrak.

Travelling in a room on Amtrak has been described as an odd and unpredictable mix of cruise ship and camping.

 

[Thechad0677]

Yeah it will be a blast even if issues arise. I've traveled all over the US by train just never had this issue before. Thanks for the reply.

 

[zephyr17]

Bit of a odd situation here, I booked travel back in January for departure on July 14th in a sleeper using AGW points. Early last month I engaged in a text message conversation using the 800 USA-RAIL number asking them to change my room number so I could be across the hall from another family member on a separate reservation. They changed it, sent me an eticket and that was that. When I got the eticket I checked the room and car number to make sure they were correct and they were. A week or two later I noticed that the trip was no longer showing up in my Amtrak app so I decided to do some follow up and ended up calling guest rewards. Come to find out they changed the date from Jul 14th to Jun 14th which I never noticed because I never asked to have the date changed in the first place. The agent said this counted as a no show and best she could do was open a case to try and get my points back and rebook me on the July 14th train as a new reservation using more points. Thankfully she was nice enough to credit me the difference in fare because obviously now the fare is substantially higher than it was when I initially booked in January. Of course they haven't refunded me and I just keep getting the run around with guest rewards.

My question is this, does Customer Relations oversee Guest Rewards? Should my next step be to talk to them or how should I proceed? This is obviously a mix up on their end and I have a screen shot of the text thread. I should have read the eticket more carefully but I wasn't expecting that to be changed and the difference between "Jul and Jun" just wasn't enough to catch my eye apparently. I'm just extremely fortunate there was room to correctly re-book my trip only a few weeks out in the middle of summer.

Chad

Sorry to hear about that, Chad.

Customer Relations does have the authority to provide compensation when things go wrong with Guest Rewards bookings, though they do not "oversee" them, or in fact, oversee anyone. Guest Rewards agents are just regular Amtrak agents that have some special knowledge of Guest Rewards and are usually more experienced and knowledgeable. It isn't a separate division or anything.

I am unclear about what happened and what you want. You said you were credited with the difference in fares. I assume that was because you originally booked earlier January at a lower bucket. But you also said it was on points that you want restored. It couldn't have been a mixed points/cash reservation, that capability wasn't there in January. Did you rebook on a cash fare/more points after discovering the error, that you got the January price on? Your original points forfeited as a no-show?

Changing rooms can be a fraught exercise. Not all agents know how to do it without changing fare, though that wasn't the issue here, it is a reason to be cautious. It is something I would call about, not chat or text. I'd also be using the AGR line, not 800-USA-RAIL, on any reservation because those agents are generally more knowledgeable and skilled, but especially one that was an AGR trip to begin with. In all cases when doing some kind of change on an expensive sleeper trip, I always tell the agent right up front that I am going to describe what I want to do, but that I do not want them to actually make any changes until we have discussed it. I have them read it back what they are going to do, and agree with it before I tell them execute it. Often agents will be making changes as they go along otherwise or jump the gun with a not fully understood request. It is a lot easier to not do something than to undo something. I also do not end the call until I have received the email confirmation and at least reviewed it cursorily before letting the agent go. Also, bear in mind that agents on chat are also often handling multiple conversations at once (when they aren't AI), that is one of the reasons companies like it. It's a productivity tool. In a phone conversation, you have their full attention.

In any case, by all means take it up with Customer Relations. They may or may not be able to get a full restoration of points, but it's worth a try. If they can't, it won't be because it's AGR, it'll be due to the nature of the underlying problem, a mistaken no show forfeiture that was caught "late". They'd likely have the same issues on a cash fare in the same circumstances.

 

[Thechad0677]

Thanks for the reply. I'm just trying to get the points I initially paid put back into my account because when I rebooked I still had to pay for the new reservation (using points as well). Hopefully that makes sense.

I think when I have a chance later in the week I will call the USA RAIL number and ask to speak to customer relations because going through guest rewards hasn't gotten me anywhere.

I do agree with calling rather than texting however, I am glad I have some record now because they initially said I made the date change which obviously isn't true.

 

[joelkfla]

AGR can transfer you to Customer Relations as well. I don't think the wait time for CR will be any less, but the initial call to AGR might get thru quicker than it would to USA-RAIL.

 

[Thechad0677]

Ah good to know. Thx

 

[zephyr17]

Agree it is good to have the record since the mistake was made, but with a phone call it probably would have not happened in the first place or been caught immediately. JUN versus JUL can be easy to overlook, hearing "June" instead of "July" would be a lot more obvious.

As others have said, AGR agents can connect you to Customer Relations, too. It usually has less wait time as well.

 

[Eric in East County]

We have a question as to whether or not we were short-changed some Spend-Earned Guest Rewards points by an AGR agent.

-On June 11, we used our Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card to purchase a SWC bedroom from LA to Chicago. On that date, our AGR account was credited with 2,332 Spend-Earn Guest Rewards Points which we assumed was because we’d used our Amtrak credit card to pay for this travel.

-On June 20th, we used our Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card to purchase a SWC bedroom from Chicago to LA. The AGR agent we talked with on the phone came off as somewhat confused by our paying for this ticket using a credit card rather than points. Although I had given him both our AGR member numbers, when our e-ticket was received, neither of our member numbers were listed. Nor was our AGR account credited with any Spend-Earn Guest Reward points. We called back right away and had our AGR numbers put onto the ticket. (We received 1,000 “courtesy” points for this omission.) When our new e-ticket was received, both of our AGR member numbers were listed. If, in fact, we were supposed to receive Spend-Earn points for using our Amtrak credit card for the travel that we purchased on June 20, it has yet to show up in our AGR account.

Our credit card balance has now been paid in full. This afternoon we called and spoke to an AGR agent about the missing Spend-Earn points, but all he could tell us was that we’d get the points after our travel had been completed.

Were we short-changed some points or were those points we received on June 11th all we’re entitled to? If necessary, we’ll call back, and this time ask to speak to someone in Amtrak Customer Relations.

 

[zephyr17]

I am bit unclear on what happened and what the 2332 "Spend-earn" points were.

You said you got them the same day as you booked. I have never seen any AGR points from a purchase on the FNBO (or BoA or Chase) card post immediately. That includes Amtrak purchases. FNBO points for credit card spend are posted a day or so after the monthly statement with purchase on it is generated. Has your billing cycle closed and the statement produced since June 20th? If so, what does the Points Earned on Amtrak Purchase line say and does it look right? As far as FNBO derived AGR points go, it does not matter when you pay it, it matters when the statement with the purchase on it is generated.

An AGR agent would know nothing about whether FNBO credit card earned points are missing. They have nothing to do with that. That is an FNBO question since they are the ones crediting those points.

Your AGR account will have the FNBO credit card points as one lump transaction for the entire month labeled "Amtrak Credit Card Spend-earn". There is no breakout on AGR as to what those points were from, whether from Amtrak spending versus other spending.That breakout will only be on your FNBO statement for the month.

The AGR agent was correct in that your travel AGR points, as opposed to your card spend points, will be credited a few days after your travel. As I said before, AGR agents will know pretty much nothing about card spend points, except the same monthly lump sum transactions you can see.

The missing AGR numbers will have had nothing at all to do with proper crediting of card spend AGR points on your Amtrak purchase. It would have affected travel AGR points some months in the future had it not been caught, but has no bearing at all on the current situation.

It sounds like you need sit down and reconcile your FNBO statement points award with your statement Amtrak purchases, then reconcile the statement total points to the AGR transaction posting that lump sum to your AGR account. If you find a discrepancy in either, FNBO are the ones to talk to, as they are responsible for card spend points. Neither AGR nor Amtrak Customer Relations can help you since they are not travel related points. They have no visibility whatsoever into FNBO generation and handling of the points.

Finally, if your original ticket was cancelled and refunded, any points associated with that ticket purchase will have been debited from your FNBO points awarded in the month the refund was processed. All the more reason to examine your FNBO statements.

 

[Eric in East County]

Our CHI to LAX ticket purchased on June 20th for a trip in May 2025 has both of our Amtrak Guest Rewards member numbers (which were added after we had to call back because, due to an agent error, they weren’t included on the first e-ticket that was sent to us.)

When we enter the reservation number into FIND TRIP, it shows up. It does not show up on our Amtrak Guest Rewards UPCOMING TRIPS list. Should we call Customer Relations to have this corrected?

 

[zephyr17]

Our CHI to LAX ticket purchased on June 20th for a trip in May 2025 has both of our Amtrak Guest Rewards member numbers (which were added after we had to call back because, due to an agent error, they weren’t included on the first e-ticket that was sent to us.)

When we enter the reservation number into FIND TRIP, it shows up. It does not show up on our Amtrak Guest Rewards UPCOMING TRIPS list. Should we call Customer Relations to have this corrected?

Does your reservation have the AGR number on it now? If it does, not showing on your list of trips is likely just a pretty harmless IT glitch encountered as a result of them not having entered the AGR information when the reservation was initially made. Since the AGR information is there now the only effect is the inconvenience of not having it show up on the list.

There may not be anything any front line customer facing employee can do about getting it to show on the list. BTW, it was not very long ago that only reservations made online showed on that list, reservations made with an agent didn't appear on it.

In any case, it is nowhere near serious enough to involve Customer Relations, IMHO. Go ahead and call AGR and see if an agent can fix it. If they cannot, chances are Customer Relations would not be able to either. They aren't technical staff and have neither skills nor access to fix a system problem. Either an AGR agent or Customer Relations might be able to submit a trouble ticket with IT reporting the issue. It would be assigned a very low priority since it is very low impact and wouldn't be worked in time to affect your reservation. If it ever got to the point of getting worked at all

 

[TinCan782]

Our CHI to LAX ticket purchased on June 20th for a trip in May 2025 has both of our Amtrak Guest Rewards member numbers (which were added after we had to call back because, due to an agent error, they weren’t included on the first e-ticket that was sent to us.)

When we enter the reservation number into FIND TRIP, it shows up. It does not show up on our Amtrak Guest Rewards UPCOMING TRIPS list. Should we call Customer Relations to have this corrected?

A few years ago, I had a reservation drop off my Amtrak app. I could do a search and locate it just fine. Kind of unnerving when that happens. Turns out, it was a reservation made online and later had something changed by phone call which caused that to happen. Similiar to what Zephyr17 mentioned regarding only online reservations showing in the app

For my SWC trip this fall, the app shows two entries for each way - one with the original times and another with the new times! Same dates and res number. It appears now four times in my app instead of two!

 

[Eric in East County]

In any case, it is nowhere near serious enough to involve Customer Relations

We assumed as much but, just to be sure, wanted confirmation from someone whose opinion we trust.