And today seemed to hold so much promise at the outset for a fun and painless trip to San Diego.
I'm currently sitting here in my room at the Holiday Inn in Downtown San Diego digesting a rather tasty Italian meal and a very stiff drink. A trip to a nearby market also nabbed some local brew, Red Trolly Ale from Karl Strauss, to further unwind from the stressful day. Things are MUCH better than they were just a few hours ago, but the whole adventure really soured Mrs. Blackwolf from ever taking anything less than Sleeper aboard the Coast Starlight to SoCal again.
We began early this morning, rising at 5AM to drive down the hill to Sacramento and catch the #702 San Joaquin south. The train was like cord wood, as full as any Pacific Surfliner I've ever been on, but this was due to there only being two coach cars available for general seating. Cars 4 and 5 were left for normal passengers while cars 1 and 2 were closed off and off-limits for a school group who was boarding in Fresno. We left on time and kept the schedule all the way to where we met the school group, and then the schedule went to hell. It took way too long to board 160 kids, which cost us our slot on the BNSF, which had us sit in sidings from there on out. To make things a touch more annoying, the massive group was only going one stop down the line, to Hanford (30 minutes) where they all detrained and again took far longer than is normally allotted for that stop. At one point, we were running a full 45 minutes behind schedule, enough so that the last stop before Bakersfield (Wasco) became an unofficial whistle-stop in that the train had no scheduled passengers, and thus just cruised though at 15 MPH. The engineer poured on some speed, and we made up the losses to only being about 14 minutes behind once we rolled to a stop at BFD.
Nothing too serious, right? We had connecting Thruway bus #5802 as our next leg, the non-stop connector to LAX and Pacific Surfliner #580. Unlike the last time I made this trip, there were zero Amtrak California buses at the terminal today. All of the buses were private charter coaches from Coach America and none has signage as to which bus was what route number. There were a few signs, but with five buses to LA, it boiled down to pushing through the lines of people and asking the driver specifically which route their bus was. We finally found ours, cued up, and boarded. It was 100% full, a butt in every seat, leaving BFD. The large crowd and late arriving train meant the bus left at 12:48 instead of the advertised 12:10. Still not too bad, but enough to be nervous about catching the connecting leg. Still nothing too bad...
Well, no sooner were we out of Bakersfield did our bus start having issues. The first sign was when, while trying to pass a heavy semi, the whole coach lurched as if the transmission had just slipped. Everything returned to normal and we continued on. But no sooner than we passed the CHP scales at the base of the Grapevine, we went from highway speeds to something much akin to a crawl. The engine strained, the transmission lurched, and then an ominous buzzer from somewhere up in the front of the bus announced a warning to the driver. We never made it to the grade before the on-board computer shut the engine off automatically and we coasted to the shoulder. Oh, you should have seen the reactions among us passengers! The driver repeatedly tried to restart the trip, getting the engine to fire back up again, only to drive about an 1/8th of mile and have the bus shut down once more. We were screwed!
I reached for my cell phone and called AGR (this was a redemption trip) to make mention of the issue. The agent, a young guy on the other end of the line, said ominously that Pacific Surfliner #582, leaving an hour later than our scheduled #580, was looking to be very full and offered to upgrade us as a complement for the troubles incurred to Business Class on the later route. I agreed at once, and he said we would simply have to exchange our tickets at LAX once we arrived. All settled, we waited to see what our fate would be with the broken bus. A rescue bus was dispatched, but in the meantime our futile attempt to limp up the hill continued. For an hour we stopped, started, lurched to a roll, began to accelerate, then coughed and ground to a halt again. Rinse, repeat. When the rescue bus did arrive, we were all shuffled off the dead coach and onto the new one... Right there on the shoulder of I-5! I will have to say, the driver of the replacement bus was very quick at getting all the people and bags aboard! We had not all found seats before the bus screamed back onto the freeway, causing many to topple into the laps of others!
The (second) bus finally arrived at LAX at 3:56 PM... Scant time to exchange tickets! Fearing we had little choice as our original coach tickets were now potentially void, we ran with our bag to the ticket counter and stood in line. When we arrived at an available window, we found the Amtrak agent everyone loathes to get: bored, uncaring, DMV-like, and slow as cold molasses. He did not understand the statement of "We have exchanged tickets from Guest Rewards waiting for us, under the same Reservation number." Finally, he chicken-pecked our Res # into the computer, frowned, scanned our existing tickets, frowned, then did the same again and again for no less than five tries. He then summoned the supervisor. Meanwhile, they were announcing the track number for train #582. The two agents vanished into the back area of the counter, leaving me and Mrs. Blackwolf to squirm anxiously, before coming back and accusing us of not understanding how Amtrak works (WHAT!?!) He said, and I quote, "You cannot upgrade once your ticket is printed. The AGR agent has screwed up your reservation, I cannot do a damn thing. Now, if you want an upgrade, it would be easy for me to cancel your reservation... If you had not already traveled on part of it. But you two? You're screwed! If I were you and I wanted to still go to San Diego, I'd run and catch your train; sort it out with the conductor on board." I nearly smacked the bullet-proof glass out of frustration, then demanded my existing tickets back. He shooed us away with a passive gesture, and an uninterested expression, even though I said very loudly I'd be calling Customer Relations with his name, his ticket window post, the time, and the story of what has happened.
We barely made #582; we ran the whole tunnel to track 11.
We found seats apart from each other, because the train was pretty full (as guessed) and waited for the conductor. With much relief, he did not even scan the ticket... Just glanced at the destination, tore the stub, and gave us seat checks. Whew!! The rest of the trip, though late, was uneventful. The hotel shuttle picked us up from the station and we're quite settled.
I did call both AGR and customer relations. And here is the final shocker to all of this: 15,000 points were deducted for the Business Class "Upgrade" that AGR agent made!!!!!! :excl: :angry: :wacko:
I about lost my top with that news! Because of the severity of the issue, the problem was sent directly to a supervisor and I was transferred to Customer Relations to lodge a case file. It has not happened yet, but with the travesty of it all, I'm asking for not only the ill-cashed 15,000 points be returned but also getting my original redemption returned as well: Free trip entirely. Based on what the CR agent said, I may just get that, though it needs to be reviewed.
This is, safe to say, the oddest and most frustrating trouble I've had with Amtrak to date. I've had an entire reservation canceled mid-way between traveling, leaving me stranded without options 1,500 miles away from home. But I was single then, and very flexible. My wife is new to this Amtrak thing, and she is soured. I fear that any trip with a bus involved is now a no-go entirely.
*sigh* Hopefully the return leg on Saturday is much more to our liking. Pacific Surfliner to Coast Starlight in sleeper is a very enjoyable thing indeed. (Hopefully with a PPC this time!!)
I'm currently sitting here in my room at the Holiday Inn in Downtown San Diego digesting a rather tasty Italian meal and a very stiff drink. A trip to a nearby market also nabbed some local brew, Red Trolly Ale from Karl Strauss, to further unwind from the stressful day. Things are MUCH better than they were just a few hours ago, but the whole adventure really soured Mrs. Blackwolf from ever taking anything less than Sleeper aboard the Coast Starlight to SoCal again.
We began early this morning, rising at 5AM to drive down the hill to Sacramento and catch the #702 San Joaquin south. The train was like cord wood, as full as any Pacific Surfliner I've ever been on, but this was due to there only being two coach cars available for general seating. Cars 4 and 5 were left for normal passengers while cars 1 and 2 were closed off and off-limits for a school group who was boarding in Fresno. We left on time and kept the schedule all the way to where we met the school group, and then the schedule went to hell. It took way too long to board 160 kids, which cost us our slot on the BNSF, which had us sit in sidings from there on out. To make things a touch more annoying, the massive group was only going one stop down the line, to Hanford (30 minutes) where they all detrained and again took far longer than is normally allotted for that stop. At one point, we were running a full 45 minutes behind schedule, enough so that the last stop before Bakersfield (Wasco) became an unofficial whistle-stop in that the train had no scheduled passengers, and thus just cruised though at 15 MPH. The engineer poured on some speed, and we made up the losses to only being about 14 minutes behind once we rolled to a stop at BFD.
Nothing too serious, right? We had connecting Thruway bus #5802 as our next leg, the non-stop connector to LAX and Pacific Surfliner #580. Unlike the last time I made this trip, there were zero Amtrak California buses at the terminal today. All of the buses were private charter coaches from Coach America and none has signage as to which bus was what route number. There were a few signs, but with five buses to LA, it boiled down to pushing through the lines of people and asking the driver specifically which route their bus was. We finally found ours, cued up, and boarded. It was 100% full, a butt in every seat, leaving BFD. The large crowd and late arriving train meant the bus left at 12:48 instead of the advertised 12:10. Still not too bad, but enough to be nervous about catching the connecting leg. Still nothing too bad...
Well, no sooner were we out of Bakersfield did our bus start having issues. The first sign was when, while trying to pass a heavy semi, the whole coach lurched as if the transmission had just slipped. Everything returned to normal and we continued on. But no sooner than we passed the CHP scales at the base of the Grapevine, we went from highway speeds to something much akin to a crawl. The engine strained, the transmission lurched, and then an ominous buzzer from somewhere up in the front of the bus announced a warning to the driver. We never made it to the grade before the on-board computer shut the engine off automatically and we coasted to the shoulder. Oh, you should have seen the reactions among us passengers! The driver repeatedly tried to restart the trip, getting the engine to fire back up again, only to drive about an 1/8th of mile and have the bus shut down once more. We were screwed!
I reached for my cell phone and called AGR (this was a redemption trip) to make mention of the issue. The agent, a young guy on the other end of the line, said ominously that Pacific Surfliner #582, leaving an hour later than our scheduled #580, was looking to be very full and offered to upgrade us as a complement for the troubles incurred to Business Class on the later route. I agreed at once, and he said we would simply have to exchange our tickets at LAX once we arrived. All settled, we waited to see what our fate would be with the broken bus. A rescue bus was dispatched, but in the meantime our futile attempt to limp up the hill continued. For an hour we stopped, started, lurched to a roll, began to accelerate, then coughed and ground to a halt again. Rinse, repeat. When the rescue bus did arrive, we were all shuffled off the dead coach and onto the new one... Right there on the shoulder of I-5! I will have to say, the driver of the replacement bus was very quick at getting all the people and bags aboard! We had not all found seats before the bus screamed back onto the freeway, causing many to topple into the laps of others!
The (second) bus finally arrived at LAX at 3:56 PM... Scant time to exchange tickets! Fearing we had little choice as our original coach tickets were now potentially void, we ran with our bag to the ticket counter and stood in line. When we arrived at an available window, we found the Amtrak agent everyone loathes to get: bored, uncaring, DMV-like, and slow as cold molasses. He did not understand the statement of "We have exchanged tickets from Guest Rewards waiting for us, under the same Reservation number." Finally, he chicken-pecked our Res # into the computer, frowned, scanned our existing tickets, frowned, then did the same again and again for no less than five tries. He then summoned the supervisor. Meanwhile, they were announcing the track number for train #582. The two agents vanished into the back area of the counter, leaving me and Mrs. Blackwolf to squirm anxiously, before coming back and accusing us of not understanding how Amtrak works (WHAT!?!) He said, and I quote, "You cannot upgrade once your ticket is printed. The AGR agent has screwed up your reservation, I cannot do a damn thing. Now, if you want an upgrade, it would be easy for me to cancel your reservation... If you had not already traveled on part of it. But you two? You're screwed! If I were you and I wanted to still go to San Diego, I'd run and catch your train; sort it out with the conductor on board." I nearly smacked the bullet-proof glass out of frustration, then demanded my existing tickets back. He shooed us away with a passive gesture, and an uninterested expression, even though I said very loudly I'd be calling Customer Relations with his name, his ticket window post, the time, and the story of what has happened.
We barely made #582; we ran the whole tunnel to track 11.
We found seats apart from each other, because the train was pretty full (as guessed) and waited for the conductor. With much relief, he did not even scan the ticket... Just glanced at the destination, tore the stub, and gave us seat checks. Whew!! The rest of the trip, though late, was uneventful. The hotel shuttle picked us up from the station and we're quite settled.
I did call both AGR and customer relations. And here is the final shocker to all of this: 15,000 points were deducted for the Business Class "Upgrade" that AGR agent made!!!!!! :excl: :angry: :wacko:
I about lost my top with that news! Because of the severity of the issue, the problem was sent directly to a supervisor and I was transferred to Customer Relations to lodge a case file. It has not happened yet, but with the travesty of it all, I'm asking for not only the ill-cashed 15,000 points be returned but also getting my original redemption returned as well: Free trip entirely. Based on what the CR agent said, I may just get that, though it needs to be reviewed.
This is, safe to say, the oddest and most frustrating trouble I've had with Amtrak to date. I've had an entire reservation canceled mid-way between traveling, leaving me stranded without options 1,500 miles away from home. But I was single then, and very flexible. My wife is new to this Amtrak thing, and she is soured. I fear that any trip with a bus involved is now a no-go entirely.
*sigh* Hopefully the return leg on Saturday is much more to our liking. Pacific Surfliner to Coast Starlight in sleeper is a very enjoyable thing indeed. (Hopefully with a PPC this time!!)
