Seat assignment questions

[Asher]

“WASHINGTON — Amtrak has updated its mobile app to include the ability to select seats when booking tickets on trains with assigned seating.

The feature is available when purchasing tickets for Acela trains, as well as for business class on the Northeast Regional, Palmetto,Vermonter, and Carolinian.”

 

[AmtrakBlue]

“WASHINGTON — Amtrak has updated its mobile app to include the ability to select seats when booking tickets on trains with assigned seating.

The feature is available when purchasing tickets for Acela trains, as well as for business class on the Northeast Regional, Palmetto,Vermonter, and Carolinian.”

Though it was just announced, last Friday I was able to select my seat during the booking process for an Acela I’m taking tomorrow.

 

[MARC Rider]

p.s. You'll know you are getting close to Denver when you see more cows than you've ever seen in one place before...

Fort Worth and San Antonio might want to disagree.

 

[Asher]

Fort Worth and San Antonio might want to disagree.

Also Coalinga in central California on Interstate 5.
Or smelled more.

 

[OmahaRoad]

Though it was just announced, last Friday I was able to select my seat during the booking process for an Acela I’m taking tomorrow.

Yes, I booked a trip earlier this week (or was it late last weekend? it's been a long week...) that included an Acela leg, and was very pleased to be able to choose my seat! Since I've never taken the Acela, and the NE Regional only once for a short leg, I thought it had always been that way for it. It's honestly super smart to offer this for the Carolinian, even if only for business class. The Carolinian is nearly always packed to the gills and tends to have people who'd like to sit together more so than other trains, I'd say. My girlfriend just took it back to NC from DC and reported it was very full! Smooth ride and about on time for her until there were locomotive mechanical issues and they had to switch engines in Raleigh, leading to a ~35 minute delay.

Anyway, I hope this may be the start of Amtrak abandoning its antiquated boarding and seating policies. Americans may be many things but I don't think we're children who need a very slow, conductor-facilitated boarding process where you're instructed to sit in specific cars and it takes forever! The Piedmont's boarding process is so slow as the conductor asks every single group/individual where they're going when boarding so they can direct passengers to the "correct" car. I just don't see how this is necessary...have assigned seats and come up with a way for the large groups that tend to ride the Piedmont to be assigned to the same car.

 

[Willbridge]

There were a number of reasons not to do seat reservations in the old days when most of the booking process was done by hand. With computers now, and a single organization, some of those reasons should be erased.

Here's my 1966 reserved seat on the Empire Builder to illustrate the amount of hand work and accounting required. It cost 50 cents. The transportation was separate, as I was traveling on a Union Pacific + Milwaukee Road ticket. So, in total, the accounting departments of four different companies were involved.

 

[zephyr17]

There were a number of reasons not to do seat reservations in the old days when most of the booking process was done by hand. With computers now, and a single organization, some of those reasons should be erased.

Um, so when they actually did it, it was too complex but they did it anyway. Now that it should be simpler and automatable they don't.

I am really not sure what the argument is here.

BTW, in the very early days when Amtrak was just writing checks, they were doing nothing operationally, and they were still using the railroad reservations bureaus and accounting, they were still doing seat reservations. It was only when Amtrak started doing their own reservations that it stopped. Even then (in the pre-ARROW days), you usually still got assigned to a car on a reservation.