E-Tickets

[Acela150]

Just bought my first ever e-ticket online and printed it out from my e-mail. On the print out it does say that for Unreserved service the ticket may be used on any unreserved train on the same route within one year of purchase, and that information is lacking on the print outs from QuikTrak. But anyway, I was reading earlier that people were trying to/could print out their tickets at QuikTrak despite having a print out from the computer? is that right?

I'm going to test it out and see what happens when I put my debit card/ASG card into the quiktrak machine in Lancaster, quite curious to see if there is any chance. Just messing around with the new system, but having the ISIC discount I already see it's gonna be so much more comfortable having to book the ticket 3 days in advance and be able to just do it and print it out at home. This is good stuff.

The point of eTickets is that your able to print them where and when ever. You print it at home.. If you happen to forget it then you can insert the credit card you paid with or your AGR card and print another eTicket.

 

[Barciur]

Thanks. Yeah I put in my AGR card into the quiktrak machine here in Lancaster and it displayed my itienary on the screen and gave me an option to print. Quite handy.

 

[Acela150]

At first I was not enthused about eTickets. But now I'm eN love with them! :wub: I had a print at home version. Decided for the heck of it to print a copy at the station, and got my eTicket scanned on my iPhone, from the Amtrak app. They are amazing!

 

[TraneMan]

Today an iphone app update was released. Quite interesting. It shows the eTicket in a separate page with all the information. Still no eTicket in passbook.

I am sure Amtrak will be making a program soon to work with the Passbook. I just loaded one up from Target.

 

[jackal]

If your worried about your ticket having not been scanned you can always stop at a QuikTrak Machine, insert your AGR or credit card and it will issue an updated itinerary with only your remaining segments on it, assuming your ticket has been scanned. If your ticket hasn't been scanned I assume it won't list your reservation or have an error message. (I done some complex multi-city trips on eTickets and have been found by the conductors fine each time, no problems).

Good to know. That said, it probably won't work with my most common use of multi-segment itineraries, which is on the unreserved Keystone corridor, where I'm often using my tickets long after their original reservation date. Those can't be accessed at a QT machine after the scheduled departure (I'm not sure if it's the first segment's scheduled departure or the last segment's scheduled departure). It would be nice if Amtrak would program their systems to handle unreserved segments a bit better, recognizing that they still need to be accessible after the scheduled departures.

As it is now, I think the ability to reconcile my outstanding, unused e-ticket coupons is to call or visit a station agent and check which coupons have been used. That can get tedious with the number of reservations and segments I often have outstanding at any given time.

Anyway, I did stop by to ask a real question. I traveled today on a Keystone train using an old, pre-e-ticketing paper ticket. The conductor scanned my ticket but didn't collect it. Is this now standard practice?

Since paper tickets have intrinsic value, I would assume that he would have to collect the paper ticket and submit it for accounting. Since I still have the ticket, does that mean I still have possession of the $18 value the ticket holds? Obviously, the system knows I took the trip, since the ticket was scanned, but I do wonder what would happen if I were to hand the ticket to a ticket agent as payment for a new reservation. (Not that I want to engage in unethical practices, but I am curious.)

I also have another, more complicated, question about old pre-e-ticketing unticketed unreserved untraveled reservations, but I'm still formulating exactly what my question is, so I'll wait to post it until I know what the heck I am trying to figure out.

 

[Eric S]

Anyway, I did stop by to ask a real question. I traveled today on a Keystone train using an old, pre-e-ticketing paper ticket. The conductor scanned my ticket but didn't collect it. Is this now standard practice?

Since paper tickets have intrinsic value, I would assume that he would have to collect the paper ticket and submit it for accounting. Since I still have the ticket, does that mean I still have possession of the $18 value the ticket holds? Obviously, the system knows I took the trip, since the ticket was scanned, but I do wonder what would happen if I were to hand the ticket to a ticket agent as payment for a new reservation. (Not that I want to engage in unethical practices, but I am curious.)

Don't ticket agents scan old tickets that are turned in as payment for new tickets? I've only done that a couple of times, but I seem to recall the agent scanning the ticket to check the value, rather than relying on what was printed on the ticket. If that's the case, I would assume the ticket would show a value of $0 when scanned.

 

[Trogdor]

The conductor is supposed to lift the paper ticket after it's scanned. In fact, their device tells them when they're supposed to physically collect whatever ticket they just scanned. Some, perhaps, ignore that prompt.

 

[Amtrak Cajun]

When I boarded all of my trains on my recent trip, all of my tickets were lifted. The conductor for the CONO *CHI to NOL* looks at me and says. "Oh, I see you still have the old paper ticket huh!" I was like "yeah, I booked this back in February". He says in response. "You should try Eticketing, its great."

In fact, when I was boarding the Crescent out of NOL, I asked the conductor who was scanning the people in front of me, how she liked the Etickets, she smiled and said "I love it, its so much quicker and easier! I cant wait until everyone starts using them!"

 

[jackal]

Don't ticket agents scan old tickets that are turned in as payment for new tickets? I've only done that a couple of times, but I seem to recall the agent scanning the ticket to check the value, rather than relying on what was printed on the ticket. If that's the case, I would assume the ticket would show a value of $0 when scanned.

True, but the word is that paper tickets are as good as cash, aren't they? Just because someone takes a picture of a $100 bill as payment doesn't mean your $100 bill in your possession is now worth less than $100. Maybe the assumption that they are like cash isn't quite the case. It seems, though, that if the value could be zeroed out that easily, then retrieving a lost paper ticket would be a much more easy process than it is (or was, before e-ticketing), since it could just be remotely zeroed out and reissued. (Instead, they made you wait several months to make sure the paper ticket wasn't used in the meantime.)

Maybe the assumption that they are as good as cash is no longer valid, now that virtually all points in Amtrak's system (at stations and on-board) where they can be used can now check the validity of each ticket in real-time...

The conductor is supposed to lift the paper ticket after it's scanned. In fact, their device tells them when they're supposed to physically collect whatever ticket they just scanned. Some, perhaps, ignore that prompt.

I did notice him do a double-take of his screen and tap "OK" on some pop-up alert that was too small for me to read. Guess that's what that was.

 

[BOS-T-Time]

Hello,

I booked my first LD train via the APP for iPhone and received the customary email along with the PDF file attached that shows my route, car number, and roomette number. Very cool in my opinion. What I was wondering was when you log onto the app, it conveniently shows your upcoming trip and the attached eticket but does not show your car or roomette number which would be nice. When the conductor scans your iPhone does his/her device tell them what car and room number you are in? I am sure it does show for the crew but it would be nice if the app showed your car and room number.

getting excited.

BOS-T-Time

 

[Amtrak Cajun]

Yes, I believe it does, because when I was boarding the Crescent to start my trip, the Conductor scanned the lady in front of me and told her, "Ok, its you and your kids, and you are in Bedroom *insert letter here*".

 

[Rupen]

The Amtrak e-ticketing system is horrible. I had cancelled several e tickets and wanted to find out Evoucher numbers associated with it. The problem is that Amtrak only relies on email. There is no way you can find out that information on website. I believed that I did not receive couple of EVouchers so I called Amtrak to find out about them. They told me that they can not find that information. I have to give them evoucher number and only then they can find out. After pressing them for some time, they told me that Refund research department can find that information. No one picks up the phone there. And when they do, they also have the same answer as the customer service and they can not do anything more. It is like we have to maintain our own information and can not rely on Amtrak to find that information out for customer which they would very easily believe that they should have. So, my advice to people using Amtrak. Make your own database of the trips and evouchers. Do not rely on Amtrak to have that information for you. You will not get it and neither do they care.

 

[Shortline]

E-vouchers suck. No doubt about that. Nothing "E" about them. Really hoping that's fixed, real flipping quick.

 

[Amtrak Cajun]

Well, I got my new Droid Razr M today. I got the Amtrak app as well. Cant wait to try it out.

 

[Ryan]

E-vouchers may suck, but they're better than paper vouchers. I can keep track of an email far easier than I can a single piece of paper.

 

[CJB]

You are correct. QT machines will spit out the same ticket stock with a barcode on it.

Not to nit pick, but it may be worth pointing out that we might want to change our habit of saying barcode when talking about e-tickets. The e-tickets do not use barcodes, they use QR codes which are the funny looking squares. I do not know how important it is to differentiate, but there could be confusion.

Looking at mine, the QR code simply contains the reservation number and the date the reservation was made.

QR Code stands for Quick Response Code. It's the next version after BAR Code. QR Coding is faster to read than BAR Coding for IR machines. The bottom line speed of checking passengers in without compromising accuracy. As long as an Amtrak rep (Gate agent or Conductor) have a BAR/QR Code reading IR Machine, all they need to see is the BAR/QR code and your Photo ID.

 

[chakk]

I doubt that Amtrak can go 100% e-ticketing so long as they offer thru ticketing with buses (like Greyhound in Colorado) whose drivers do not have equipment to read e-tickets.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[D.P. Roberts]

I'm sure there's a reason that this two-year-old thread is being revived, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I'm sure there's a reason that this two-year-old thread is being revived, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is.

Boredom? :unsure:

 

[SarahZ]

I'm sure there's a reason that this two-year-old thread is being revived, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is.

Since it's a guest, I'd venture they did a Google search for the topic and didn't notice the date of the last post. It happens. /shrug

 

[the_traveler]

Since no no or current information was added, I'm closing this thread.