How interestingly appropriate that you posted this thread just now. I loaded up the Amtrak forum just now to post my frustration with a very closely related issue: the lack of a sensible Same-Day Change option.
Here's my situation.
I have a flight in a few weeks out of BWI at 10:06am. To save on stress and parking, I was going to take the train down to BWI. I finally had the chance to look at options to get me there, and here is what I see when looking at ELT-BWI:
Keystone #640: Departs ELT 5:17a, arrives PHL 6:45a
NE Regional #181: Departs PHL 7:43a, arrives BWI 9:14a
Now, I don't expect train delays at that hour of the morning, and with no checked bag and with PreCheck available at BWI, it should work, but that's a bit tight for comfort. Everything would have to go flawlessly for that to work.
Since I actually still have a small stash of unreserved ELT-PHL paper tickets to use, I actually checked just what's available from PHL to BWI. Lo and behold, there's a 6:55a train from PHL that gets to BWI in plenty of time.
Now, I understand why Amtrak isn't providing or guaranteeing a 10-minute connection at PHL, but as long as the Keystone is on time (it's pretty good, and especially the first trip of the day should be fine), it should be perfectly doable.
I'm hesitant to book that, however. (I'd need to book it as two separate tickets--well, actually use my unreserved paper ticket on ELT-PHL and then book this separately.) Why? Because if miss that train, then I'm stuck at PHL with my only option to pay the walk-up fare on the later train.
Conversely, I could book the later train, and then in the likely event I arrive into PHL on-time, switch to the earlier train. But again, if I did that, I'd still have to pay the walkup fare (not to mention that I'd probably also encounter issues from the phone agent about booking less than 10 minutes before departure).
Why, if there is plenty of space available, should I, a valued Select Plus member, have to pay that? It's not likely that train will be anywhere close to capacity (a check of this coming morning's trains reveals all being sold for the lowest non-14-day-APEX bucket).
As it stands now, I'm going to scrap the plans to take Amtrak and drive myself. Sorry, Amtrak, there goes $110 in revenue for you.
If Amtrak had a sensible Same-Day Change policy, I'd go. I'd book the 6:55a train, knowing I had the option of a 7:43a backup. Or, if I didn't already have an unreserved Keystone ticket, I'd book the combination first listed (the 7:43a train) and then call the S+ line to do a SDC to the 6:55a train upon arrival in PHL, board it, and off we'd go.
Amtrak, I hope you are listening. You are LOSING MY BUSINESS on this trip SPECIFICALLY because you do not offer this!
How can Amtrak do this without spending a ton to reprogram ARROW? Simple: give phone reps and station agents the authority to change existing tickets at the last minute without collecting a fare differential.
Alternatively or additionally, send out a memo to conductors giving them the authority to lift tickets for other trains. (They already have this ability, and some nicer conductors have reportedly allowed it on their trains; make it official.)
It's a simple policy change that can be done with existing infrastructure! So why not? Whatever reason Amtrak has, they need to understand it is actively costing them business.