Modifying/canceling a reservation

[zephyr17]

I plan on asking Amtrak's Reservation Line this before I book, but I wanted to ask here as well. I plan on taking a train trip towards the end of the year. I would book a roomette for the trip. If I buy tickets months in advance and say a couple week before I find I have to change the date or possibly the location of the trip (assuming spots are available for my new date/destination) can you do that? I did it once before and paid a fee (which I don't mind). Is that still how it works? Are there any limitations to changing reservations? Thanks in advance for your response.

You can do that. The full value of your existing reservation will be applied towards your new one. The price will not be held though, and the price for the revised reservation will be at the then-current price. Since Amtrak prices are yield managed, that price may well be significantly more than your original one. I do not think Amtrak is charging "change fees" on sleepers these days, though.

 

[joelkfla]

I plan on asking Amtrak's Reservation Line this before I book, but I wanted to ask here as well. I plan on taking a train trip towards the end of the year. I would book a roomette for the trip. If I buy tickets months in advance and say a couple week before I find I have to change the date or possibly the location of the trip (assuming spots are available for my new date/destination) can you do that? I did it once before and paid a fee (which I don't mind). Is that still how it works? Are there any limitations to changing reservations? Thanks in advance for your response.

There's no fee to change a sleeper reservation, but it's likely that the fare will be higher close to departure and you will have to pay the difference (or you'll get a credit for future travel if you luck out and the fare is less.) I switched trains about a week ago for a trip coming up this weekend, and got a $50 refund voucher. You do have a limited time to use the voucher; IIRC it's one year after the date you made the original reservation.

 

[alex.m]

All very helpful info, thanks.

 

[Trucker72]

Maybe someone can answer this?
Is Amtrak's ability to update their data base very limited?
We are on the Sunset on 9/13.
Using a companion coupon we paid 985.00.
I checked today on the Amtrak website and a roomette for one is showing 800.00.
When I call the priority AGR line she tells me the current fare is 985.00, not 800.00?
Thanks

 

[zephyr17]

I just ran it, LAX-NOL 9/13, and have the likely answer.

There is only one roomette available at $800. There is a bucket jump when two are requested. If you were looking at Amtrak.com when you were talking to an agent, you were "holding" the single $800 roomette yourself and the roomette inventory the agent pulled was in the next bucket, since you had that single $800 roomette blocked. Another explanation if you weren't was I understand the system can get tricky for agents when doing modifications and they pulled the next bucket's inventory. That happens a lot when requesting a roomette change with inexperienced agents.

Anyway, there is still a single roomette at $800. Try calling back.

 

[Trucker72]

I just ran it, LAX-NOL 9/13, and have the likely answer.

There is only one roomette available at $800. There is a bucket jump when two are requested. If you were looking at Amtrak.com when you were talking to an agent, you were "holding" the single $800 roomette yourself and the roomette inventory the agent pulled was in the next bucket, since you had that single $800 roomette blocked. Another explanation if you weren't was I understand the system can get tricky for agents when doing modifications and they pulled the next bucket's inventory. That happens a lot when requesting a roomette change with inexperienced agents.

Anyway, there is still a single roomette at $800. Try calling back.

I called back and gor another agent. He verified that there was a roomette available for 800.00.
He was willing to book that for me, send the new email ticket and try to grab roomette 3 back for me. It's saving 185.00 but this is a once a year trip around the US for us and I don't want to get stuck on the lower level. He said 3 would only be open for maybe 2 minutes but I don't want to take the chance.
That's to evryone on here I have already done 2 modifications to train 7 CUS to SEA for 146.00 and 217.00 as credits on our card(down to 763.00 for the two of us with a companion coupon) and a bunch of points returned on the Crescent, down to 452.00 for the two of us in a roomette NOL to WAS.
I am happy to pay the yearly subscrition!

 

[SantaFe69]

I recently booked a reservation for two roomettes Houston to LA and back. The return trip fare dropped from $862 each roomette to $622. I called to ask if they would honor the new fare on my existing reservation. They would only do so on one of the two roomettes even though they said they had 3 rooms available at $622 and they charged a 25% cancellation fee for the one roomette they decreased to the new price, so I'll receive a $160 refund instead of $240.. I've never been charged a cancellation fee in the past when I've called to get a refund to lower fare that became available after booking a reservation. Can anyone tell me if this is a new policy or has always been the policy & I just got lucky in the past? I didn't realize they were going to charge a cancellation fee until I was off the phone and reviewed the new documents they sent. Before I email or call back, I want to make sure I know I have grounds to ask for the cancellation fee to be removed. The cancellation policy for private rooms doesn't mention how it applies to fare decreases, so any help understanding if it should or should not apply is greatly appreciated.

 

[Maglev]

I have no idea what the actual policy is on this. I have received a refund after a drop in a Roomette price (although I was moved to a different Roomette), and have several times upgraded from a Roomette to a Bedroom when the Bedroom price dropped, without a penalty.

The best solution seems to be to "hang up and call again" to try to get a different agent. I doubt there is much that can be done after-the-fact.

 

[trimetbusfan]

I recently booked a reservation for two roomettes Houston to LA and back. The return trip fare dropped from $862 each
roomette to $622. I called to ask if they would honor the new fare on my existing reservation. They would only do so on
one of the two roomettes even though they said they had 3 rooms available at $622 and they charged a 25% cancellation
fee for the one roomette they decreased to the new price, so I'll receive a $160 refund instead of $240.. I've never been charged
a cancellation fee in the past when I've called to get a refund to lower fare that became available after booking a reservation. Can
anyone tell me if this is a new policy or has always been the policy & I just got lucky in the past? I didn't realize they were going to
charge a cancellation fee until I was off the phone and reviewed the new documents they sent. Before I email or call back, I want to make sure I know I have grounds to ask for the cancellation fee to be removed. The cancellation policy for private rooms doesn't mention how it applies to fare decreases, so any help understanding if it should or should not apply is greatly appreciated.

When the fare drops you are ‘changing’ your reservation to the lower fare. Changes have no fee associated with them, and you only ‘pay’ the fare difference. Since the difference is a negative value, you’d get a refund for the difference. I did this just last week on a reservation for later this year did not get charged a cancelation fee for modifying to a lower price.

 

[niemi24s]

In the past I've received full refunds of the differences when sleeper fars drop by calling AMTRAK GUEST REWARDS and requesting the ticket be "MODIFIED".

NEVER USE THE WORDS CANCELLED or CHANGED!!!!!!

But, it's been a few years and things may have changed.

 

[zephyr17]

One of my concerns about the whole "book then ask for a refund if the price drops" thing is that I've never seen evidence of the actual policy. What we have is a usual practice but I, at least, do not have any idea of how firmly grounded it is. I do not have any idea whether they'll quietly change it and suddenly it cannot be done any more, and so be stuck with the original price. Further, the ability of agents to accomplish it properly is inconsistent. I think in this case that the agent may not have known how to do it while holding the room and reservation and just cancelled and rebooked, which would be the simplest and most straightforward way to do it, though at the cost of incurring a penalty.

One question I would like ask @SantaFe69 is if their reservation number changed.

In any case, I will keep to my current method of monitoring prices and booking only when a price I can live with appears. I know a lot of people advocate booking first to get the space, then monitoring price and asking for an adjustment if it changes. I am skeptical of that and will continue my monitor first, then buy approach. I feel like Amtrak could yank the rug out from under doing it the other way at any time, plus, as we see here, not all agents know how to do it right.

 

[SantaFe69]

One of my concerns about the whole "book then ask for a refund if the price drops" thing is that I've never seen evidence of the actual policy. What we have is a usual practice but I, at least, do not have any idea of how firmly grounded it is. I do not have any idea whether they'll quietly change it and suddenly it cannot be done any more, and so be stuck with the original price. Further, the ability of agents to accomplish it properly is inconsistent. I think in this case that the agent may not have known how to do it while holding the room and reservation and just cancelled and rebooked, which would be the simplest and most straightforward way to do it, though at the cost of incurring a penalty.

One question I would like ask @SantaFe69 is if their reservation number changed.

In any case, I will keep to my current method of monitoring prices and booking only when a price I can live with appears. I know a lot of people advocate booking first to get the space, then monitoring price and asking for an adjustment if it changes. I am skeptical of that and will continue my monitor first, then buy approach. I feel like Amtrak could yank the rug out from under doing it the other way at any time, plus, as we see here, not all agents know how to do it right.

I think you are correct...they don't all know how to do it. It took a long time & she had issues reapplying the companion pass. The reservation number did not change. I called back yesterday & the agent initially said, yes, you should not have had a cancellation fee (one document called it that, another document they sent called it a refund fee). He transferred me to refunds a d they said since it was inside of 121 days, the refund is subject to a 25% fee. I argued that is related to cancellation refunds not change refunds, but got nowhere. I booked at a fare I can live with, but do get pretty frustrated with never knowing how Amtrak might apply a policy on any given day. Hard to develop a game plan with a moving target. They were Changing fares almost daily on the SL route & the fare was usually only good for 1 roomette. To figure out price on the 2nd roomette required a math degree. I felt like I had just passed the bar when I called to book it and the final cost matched what I had calculated

 

[zephyr17]

He transferred me to refunds a d they said since it was inside of 121 days, the refund is subject to a 25% fee.

Yeah, that's the rule for sleeper cancellations, but this wasn't a "cancellation". I wonder if the practice for modifications has changed, the people you spoke with made a mistake, or they made a mistake but wouldn't back down or admit it. Or they just made up their own ad hoc "rules", a practice at Amtrak that is common onboard. I don't know about positions subject to actual supervision like the call center, though.

AGR agents are generally more experienced and know more. You can use AGR agents for normal, cash reservation as well as points ones if you are an AGR member. If you didn't use the AGR line, you should try it next time.

In any case, this just reinforces my "monitor price first" approach, rather than depending on getting a refund for the difference.

 

[Trucker72]

We leave next Sunday on a three week trip. I have called three times to have reservations modified, twice for credits on our card and once for points added back into our account. The first two times went smoothly. The third time when I called the AGR Select Plus number I got a young fellow. I told him what I wanted to do and he said that is not the current fare. I told him I was on the website and that the fare was indeed lower. After a couple of minutes of going back and forth he told me that the fare I was looking at was for one person in the roomette and not two and if I had nothing else he had to go and he hung up.
I sat there for a minute and at first was thinking that I was an ***** and that he was correct. Then it struck me that I used a companion coupon and that's why I was looking at the one person roomette price. I called back and got a different agent. I explained the previou call and she said "of course we can modify that reservation". About three or four minutes later I had the email with the modifications.

 

[niemi24s]

Thanx for the update: Nice to know tickets can still be modified if you get a knowledgeable AGR agent - as I think almost all are.

 

[Bob Dylan]

We leave next Sunday on a three week trip. I have called three times to have reservations modified, twice for credits on our card and once for points added back into our account. The first two times went smoothly. The third time when I called the AGR Select Plus number I got a young fellow. I told him what I wanted to do and he said that is not the current fare. I told him I was on the website and that the fare was indeed lower. After a couple of minutes of going back and forth he told me that the fare I was looking at was for one person in the roomette and not two and if I had nothing else he had to go and he hung up.
I sat there for a minute and at first was thinking that I was an ***** and that he was correct. Then it struck me that I used a companion coupon and that's why I was looking at the one person roomette price. I called back and got a different agent. I explained the previou call and she said "of course we can modify that reservation". About three or four minutes later I had the email with the modifications.

Glad to hear it worked out, but perhaps you should have asked for a Supervisor when the 1st Agent was rude,( sounds like he shouldn't be in a " Customer Service"position.)

 

[trimetbusfan]

One of my concerns about the whole "book then ask for a refund if the price drops" thing is that I've never seen evidence of the actual policy. What we have is a usual practice but I, at least, do not have any idea of how firmly grounded it is. I do not have any idea whether they'll quietly change it and suddenly it cannot be done any more, and so be stuck with the original price. Further, the ability of agents to accomplish it properly is inconsistent. I think in this case that the agent may not have known how to do it while holding the room and reservation and just cancelled and rebooked, which would be the simplest and most straightforward way to do it, though at the cost of incurring a penalty.

One question I would like ask @SantaFe69 is if their reservation number changed.

In any case, I will keep to my current method of monitoring prices and booking only when a price I can live with appears. I know a lot of people advocate booking first to get the space, then monitoring price and asking for an adjustment if it changes. I am skeptical of that and will continue my monitor first, then buy approach. I feel like Amtrak could yank the rug out from under doing it the other way at any time, plus, as we see here, not all agents know how to do it right.

Note that you do not need to call to claim a price adjustment. It can easily be done on the app by ‘modifying’ onto the same train you are currently booked for. Obviously, if you are booked in a Roomette you’ll be assigned a different room, so you won’t be able to select which one you want.

 

[zephyr17]

Note that you do not need to call to claim a price adjustment. It can easily be done on the app by ‘modifying’ onto the same train you are currently booked for. Obviously, if you are booked in a Roomette you’ll be assigned a different room, so you won’t be able to select which one you want.

Good to know, but since I am picky about roomette location and always call for sleeper reservations to optimize chances of getting one I prefer, that's a non-starter for me personally.

 

[SantaFe69]

Yeah, that's the rule for sleeper cancellations, but this wasn't a "cancellation". I wonder if the practice for modifications has changed, the people you spoke with made a mistake, or they made a mistake but wouldn't back down or admit it. Or they just made up their own ad hoc "rules", a practice at Amtrak that is common onboard. I don't know about positions subject to actual supervision like the call center, though.

AGR agents are generally more experienced and know more. You can use AGR agents for normal, cash reservation as well as points ones if you are an AGR member. If you didn't use the AGR line, you should try it next time.

In any case, this just reinforces my "monitor price first" approach, rather than depending on getting a refund for the difference.

I used the AGR Priority Line. Great strategy...that's what I do as well, but I do watch & try to get the lower fare if it becomes available.

 

[Hans627]

I have a trip booked for myself and my wife but my adult son will be traveling with me instead of my wife. How do I modify the ticket for my son? Can it be done at a train station (DLD) with an attendant or does it need to be done ahead of time?

Thanks for your anticipated help!

 

[zephyr17]

It should be done ahead of time. Amtrak conductors only sporadically check id's, when prompted by their device upon ticket scan, but it does happen. If that happens, it's too late. An attendant cannot change anything to do with a ticket.

I do not know what "DLD" means.

 

[jis]

It should be done ahead of time. Amtrak conductors only sporadically check id's, when prompted by their device upon ticket scan, but it does happen.

I do not know what "DLD" means.

DLD is Deland FL. I agree, get it done ASAP. The Station Agent might just ask you to call Amtrak to effect the change anyway.

 

[Hans627]

It should be done ahead of time. Amtrak conductors only sporadically check id's, when prompted by their device upon ticket scan, but it does happen. If that happens, it's too late. An attendant cannot change anything to do with a ticket.

I do not know what "DLD" means.

DLD (Deland, FL) stands for the station we are departing from. Sorry for not making that clear. Can the station agent change the ticket or do I have to call Amtrak?

 

[zephyr17]

DLD (Deland, FL) stands for the station we are departing from. Sorry for not making that clear. Can the station agent change the ticket or do I have to call Amtrak?

Station agent has the same access as a phone agent. As @jis points out, it is possible they might just ask you to call, though. Guess that depends on the agent. The station agents I've seen are usually pretty helpful, though I haven't really dealt with any much since the advent of eticketing.