Email/Text Notification of Ticket scanning?

[lsfinn]

In a recent conversation with a Customer Relations agent (likely involving a failure to scan a ticket) I was told that I should always "check the text/email message I get when my ticket is scanned."

My question: what email/text message? I've never gotten such a thing when my ticket is scanned! I do sometimes get messages from Amtrak related to my tickets, or to schedule changes related to trains that I'm ticketed for, but I don't recall every getting an email or text message confirming that my ticket has been scanned.

Am I missing something here? I asked the Customer Relations agent about this: she said they were sent automatically to the email or phone on file. Does anyone get these things? Can anyone comment?

 

[jis]

It is another of the mysteries of Amtrak where fantasy and reality do not meet up I am yet to receive one of these alleged messages by any means.

 

[RebelRider]

If your ticket is NOT scanned and ends up canceled as a No Show, an e-mail it sent stating there is a problem with your reservation along with an invitation to call Amtrak. If you call and advise you did travel, Amtrak will reinstate the reservation.

 

[lsfinn]

If your ticket is NOT scanned and ends up canceled as a No Show, an e-mail it sent stating there is a problem with your reservation along with an invitation to call Amtrak. If you call and advise you did travel, Amtrak will reinstate the reservation.

Interesting. I've never received such an email; however, Amtrak claims (simultaneously) that I was a no-show on a ticket for travel on a particular line and that another ticket, for future travel on the same line, was punched. The travel having taken place in Mar I cannot recall whether or not the ticket was actually scanned; however, I can say that the only ticket in my possession at the time was a printed eTicket with that leg smack-dab in the middle of a multi-city trip. The future travel was . . . well . . . in the future, you see.

I must presume that "scanning" has developed a broader meaning that one would imagine by looking, say, in a dictionary. I most certainly know my ticket was not physically inspected - even shown - to any Amtrak personnel (outside the metro lounge in LAX after the travel and while waiting for a connection) during my last four trips on the Southwest Chief (Mar 2022, Aug 2022, Sep 2022, Mar 2023).

 

[TinCan782]

I must presume that "scanning" has developed a broader meaning that one would imagine by looking, say, in a dictionary. I most certainly know my ticket was not physically inspected - even shown - to any Amtrak personnel (outside the metro lounge in LAX after the travel and while waiting for a connection) during my last four trips on the Southwest Chief (Mar 2022, Aug 2022, Sep 2022, Mar 2023).

Your ticket does not need to be physically viewed or "scanned" to be lifted (as we say). A conductor can simply look at the manifest on his device and mark a ticket as lifted. A room attendant (SCA) can report your presence on the train to the conductor. I've had my ticket lifted a number of times without ever seeing or interacting with the conductor.

 

[jis]

If your ticket is NOT scanned and ends up canceled as a No Show, an e-mail it sent stating there is a problem with your reservation along with an invitation to call Amtrak. If you call and advise you did travel, Amtrak will reinstate the reservation.

Presumably they will reinstate the reservation only if space is still available? What do they do if space is not still available?

My general approach is not to take a chance and chase down the Conductor and have them scan the ticket if they don't do so themselves. As a result, so far I have never had a ticket inadvertently not lifted related fiasco. Of course, unless there is a guaranteed connection in the itinerary necessary I tend to buy each segment on a separate PNR, that way the worst that can happen is no AGR points.

 

[joelkfla]

Perhaps there's something in either the account profile or during the booking process that gives one the opportunity to request notifications? I recall seeing an option to request text notifications, but I don't know whether that or some other option applies here.

 

[TinCan782]

Perhaps there's something in either the account profile or during the booking process that gives one the opportunity to request notifications? I recall seeing an option to request text notifications, but I don't know whether that or some other option applies here.

I think the text notifications are for train status.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

If your ticket is NOT scanned and ends up canceled as a No Show, an e-mail it sent stating there is a problem with your reservation along with an invitation to call Amtrak. If you call and advise you did travel, Amtrak will reinstate the reservation.

When my airplane is about to depart I get real time alerts for when I should head to the gate, when I should board, and when my time is running out. Whereas on Amtrak the time-sensitive and potentially catastrophic threat of a cancelled trip is not handled by an immediate alert but by an unsolicited email.

 

[jis]

When my airplane is about to depart I get real time alerts for when I should head to the gate, when I should board, and when my time is running out. Whereas on Amtrak the time-sensitive and potentially catastrophic threat of a cancelled trip is not handled by an immediate alert but by an unsolicited email.

In my thinking email is in general a problematic mode of communication since it is not particularly reliable or trustworthy in many cases. Whenever I have a choice between email and SMS for notification I always disable email and enable SMS. Amtrak appears to follow such instruction about 70% of the time. I still continue to get email only for some stuff.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

In my thinking email is in general a problematic mode of communication since it is not particularly reliable or trustworthy in many cases. Whenever I have a choice between email and SMS for notification I always disable email and enable SMS. Amtrak appears to follow such instruction about 70% of the time. I still continue to get email only for some stuff.

Email is a product from the 1970's that was intended to speed up business letters and memos. It's fine for receipts and reports but was never intended to provide real-time alerts and notices for time-critical events. Even today I consider an email to be "when you have time" versus a "need it now" text.

 

[lsfinn]

Your ticket does not need to be physically viewed or "scanned" to be lifted (as we say). A conductor can simply look at the manifest on his device and mark a ticket as lifted. A room attendant (SCA) can report your presence on the train to the conductor. I've had my ticket lifted a number of times without ever seeing or interacting with the conductor.

Thanks.

I assumed something like this had to be possible: it's good to read it confirmed and to learn new terminology ("lifted").

Presumably they will reinstate the reservation only if space is still available? What do they do if space is not still available?

My general approach is not to take a chance and chase down the Conductor and have them scan the ticket if they don't do so themselves. As a result, so far I have never had a ticket inadvertently not lifted related fiasco. Of course, unless there is a guaranteed connection in the itinerary necessary I tend to buy each segment on a separate PNR, that way the worst that can happen is no AGR points.

I spent several hours with Customer Relations getting this resolved. While I did finally get the future travel leg reinstated, the CR agent was resistant to this: she kept circling back to the annotation that I was a no-show, even as Amtrak records show that a still-in-the-future travel reservation was dinged, which she could not explain. Part of the problem, I believe, was that reinstating the ticket was something the systems would not allow her to do. The solution she eventually hit upon was to issue me a travel voucher that she immediately redeemed for the future travel.

I think the text notifications are for train status.

That's certainly consistent with my experience. Even then, I've been unable to make-out the rhyme or reason that determines when I get train status notifications, and when I don't get them.

 

[jis]

That's certainly consistent with my experience. Even then, I've been unable to make-out the rhyme or reason that determines when I get train status notifications, and when I don't get them.

That is consistent with the lack of rhyme or reason as to when Alerts are raised and when they are not. It is all somewhat random. Fortunately it works better than 50% of the time, if that is the low bar standard that would be appropriate to judge by in this case

 

[tgstubbs1]

When my airplane is about to depart I get real time alerts for when I should head to the gate, when I should board, and when my time is running out. Whereas on Amtrak the time-sensitive and potentially catastrophic threat of a cancelled trip is not handled by an immediate alert but by an unsolicited email.

Airlines know the passenger is at the terminal if the passenger 'checks-in', via the help desk or app, don't they?
Maybe Amtrak should have something like that to confirm the trip at the station or when on-board?

 

[Amtrak25]

Once you board the train at your originating station, how long does that reservation survive without scanning ?

 

[Trucker72]

I still have a problem understanding the theory behind this. If I buy tickets to 18 Maine Mariners games and don't go to one, they don't cancel my tickets for the rest of that season. I bought those seats, If I buy tickets on 10 trains each September have I not bought and paid for those seats and roomettes? This seems like an under handed way to try to gain extra revenue? Why not have the conductor be tasked with coming to our roomette to determine if we are on the train or not? Why not come up with some foolproof way (a phone call maybe) to prevent this from happening? Until I discovered this forum, I had no idea that this could happen.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I still have a problem understanding the theory behind this. If I buy tickets to 18 Maine Mariners games and don't go to one, they don't cancel my tickets for the rest of that season. I bought those seats, If I buy tickets on 10 trains each September have I not bought and paid for those seats and roomettes? This seems like an under handed way to try to gain extra revenue? Why not have the conductor be tasked with coming to our roomette to determine if we are on the train or not? Why not come up with some foolproof way (a phone call maybe) to prevent this from happening? Until I discovered this forum, I had no idea that this could happen.

The no-show cancellations only affect reservations with multiple "legs", like WAS - CHI - EMY. If you "no show" on the WAS-CHI leg, then the CHI-EMY leg is cancelled.
If your 18 tickets to Mariners games are all solo tickets, then a no-show on one of those tickets will not affect your other tickets.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Airlines know the passenger is at the terminal if the passenger 'checks-in', via the help desk or app, don't they? Maybe Amtrak should have something like that to confirm the trip at the station or when on-board?

That would certainly help. They could also send a text or app alert to anyone who is not "lifted" by the conductor so they know to go find him. If they did this as soon as the train starts moving then there should be enough connectivity for most phones to get the message before losing connectivity.

This seems like an under handed way to try to gain extra revenue?

The fact that customers are not adequately warned about the potentially severe impact to their plans is what makes this so unacceptable.

Why not have the conductor be tasked with coming to our roomette to determine if we are on the train or not?

They are tasked with confirming who boarded, and most of the time they seem to get it right, but when they don't a customer is unlikely to know or notice.

Why not come up with some foolproof way (a phone call maybe) to prevent this from happening?

Phone calls would likely cost more, take more time, and be less reliable compared to texts and app alerts in rural locations.

 

[joelkfla]

That would certainly help. They could also send a text or app alert to anyone who is not "lifted" by the conductor so they know to go find him. If they did this as soon as the train starts moving then there should be enough connectivity for most phones to get the message before losing connectivity.

If they did that as soon as the train started moving, nobody's tickets would have been scanned! IMO, you need to give the conductors at least half an hour to make their way thru the train. If the no-show cutoff time is 2 hours, then waiting until an hour after boarding would seem reasonable.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

 

[Amtrak25]

Probably cuts down on call volume, lessens wait time.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

If they did that as soon as the train started moving, nobody's tickets would have been scanned! IMO, you need to give the conductors at least half an hour to make their way thru the train. If the no-show cutoff time is 2 hours, then waiting until an hour after boarding would seem reasonable.

Where I live they make people line up to be checked by the conductor before they board. The post I was responding to was talking about using an app or kiosk to check you in by leveraging a geofence. Lots of ways to fix the problem and hopefully the rumor above is true and this ceases to be an issue.

 

[jpakala]

I also received the "Amtrak Fans" message that Amtrak Blue posted (above) and appreciated its implications for this whole discussion! But in view of this discussion, I'm going to try to see that the conductor personally scans the ticket, at least so I am sure to get the points from Amtrak for my travel. And for multiple-segment trips I may book reservations separately. I had to do that anyway when (prior to the Covid downgrading) I went from Saint Louis to West Palm Beach via NYC because I wanted dining car service (lacking on the Cardinal) and prefer Viewliner rooms (the CL has Superliner). The reservation system would not allow travel ticketed via NYC. Owing to the schedules, we did have to stay overnight in a hotel and that may be why the system didn't allow our routing.

 

[joelkfla]

Where I live they make people line up to be checked by the conductor before they board. The post I was responding to was talking about using an app or kiosk to check you in by leveraging a geofence. Lots of ways to fix the problem and hopefully the rumor above is true and this ceases to be an issue.

Guess it depends on the route & station. On the Pennsylvanian, the conductor came thru after every stop checking the seat checks & scanning new passengers. On the southbound SM, the conductor made an announcement in WAS that she would be coming thru to scan all tickets.

 

[Trucker72]

The no-show cancellations only affect reservations with multiple "legs", like WAS - CHI - EMY. If you "no show" on the WAS-CHI leg, then the CHI-EMY leg is cancelled.
If your 18 tickets to Mariners games are all solo tickets, then a no-show on one of those tickets will not affect your other tickets.

The Mariners tickets are 4 half season tickets. If one, two or all four seats are not used for one game, that does not mean any seats for any other games are cancelled.
So if for some reason we have a late problem and have to be driven to South Station instead of taking the Downeaster and we do not contact Amtrak we would have the next four trains on that reservation cancelled. I don't believe that is fair, correct or that most "casual or first time riders" would have a clue this could happen to them.

Just read the AmtrakBlue post above. Hopefully problem solved. We pay for our tickets 8 or 9 months before scheduled travel. We bought the roomettes and business class seats and they should be ours whether or not we use them. I know it would make no sense not to get refunds if we were not to use them, just making the point that we paid for them and Amtrak has their money.