Ticketing window?

[dburden]

No, not a question about the ticket window, but about the window for ticketing. Do you need to be within a certain number of days before your trip to be able to exchange your bar-coded email for the actual tickets? We went to redeem our bar codes for the tickets last week for a trip in late April. I guess I wasn't paying that much attention since we only received the outbound tickets. I double checked the paperwork we handed the clerk and it had the return trip info on it as well. We're going to swing back to the station tomorrow and hopefully get our return tickets.

I know years ago we bought tickets in March for a July trip so I don't think there is a limit, but I just want to make sure.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[the_traveler]

If you have an email with a QR code (the square box), THAT is your actual ticket! You need not obtain a paper ticket from a ticket agent - unless you want one. If so, there is no time limit, except before departure.

 

[dburden]

No QR code on these since it involves a bus trip. We'll just make sure the agent scans all the bar codes this time I guess....

Dave

 

[the_traveler]

In that case, you need to see a ticket agent (even on the day of departure) to get paper tickets. If you're at a station that has a QT machine, you can obtain them from that also.

 

[BCL]

In that case, you need to see a ticket agent (even on the day of departure) to get paper tickets. If you're at a station that has a QT machine, you can obtain them from that also.

Around here there are quite a few stations with QT kiosks (often outdoors) but no ticket window. The Fremont, CA station has a waiting room, and I think a city employee typically locks/unlocks the door. I've also heard of ticket offices but no QT. I also read about there being at least one QT kiosk at OAC, but it was removed due to vandalism.

That being said, the thought of printing a "live" (generally nonreplaceable) ticket with QT worries me. I had an incident where I think one of the rollers didn't properly pinch against the ticket stock while a 10-ride was printing. The result was a ticket that looked good for the upper half, gradually faded starting from halfway, and had absolutely nothing printed in the lower third. My name, reservation number, and endpoints were fine. The numbers to punch rides were visible. The bar code and other info at the bottom were not there. Additionally, the machine stopped and went out of order. The ticket was partially ejected, but I had to yank it out because it was still being grabbed by the rollers. I wasn't even sure what to do and spent a while with Amtrak customer relations. In the end they said just use it since it still had the reservation number. I even got the ticket number and tried to make my own barcode, but that didn't work. Conductors looked at it like "what happened"? Even so, they were able to look up my reservation number every time, and I even got AGR points when I'd completed using it.

I figure that Amtrak employees probably have an option to force a reprint, and they might have training clearing out a jammed printer.

 

[the_traveler]

It doesn't necessarly need to be printed at your originating station either - unless that first segment is the Ambus segment.

An example is going from KIN-LAS. You could print the tickets in KIN, but also at your connecting stations at NYP or CHI. You would not need the paper ticket until you reach Kingman. I have printed my tickets in CHI many times on my cross country trips!

 

[BCL]

It doesn't necessarly need to be printed at your originating station either - unless that first segment is the Ambus segment.

An example is going from KIN-LAS. You could print the tickets in KIN, but also at your connecting stations at NYP or CHI. You would not need the paper ticket until you reach Kingman. I have printed my tickets in CHI many times on my cross country trips!

I've bought live tickets at the old SFC bus station building in San Francisco. That was kind of interesting, and the employees didn't seem to mind since there generally isn't much for them to do between buses arriving/departing.

 

[dburden]

We're back with all our paper tickets. When we first went to the station (not our departing station) I handed the agent all the emails I received with the bar codes. For some reason he only gave me the outbound tickets and I didn't catch that. This time we brought everything back and explained we wanted the return tickets as well. It was a different agent this time and at first she said the AGR tickets were 'hard to do' and it might take awhile. At one point she said they weren't printed the first time because they weren't paid for.....After I explained again they were from AGR, she managed to print them out. End result - we have all out tickets and are ready to go.

Dave

 

[Guest]

Just curious about your itinerary tag requires hard tickets.

 

[dburden]

ALB-CHI (LSL)

CHI-KNG (SWC)

KNG-LAS (Van)

And then back again. The KNG-LAS connection is what requires paper tickets and is why there are no QR codes on the emails from AGR. I know we could have waited until we actually departed at ALB to pick up the paper tickets, but if anything was wrong, it wouldn't leave much time to get it fixed.

Dave