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What can you do if Amtrak loses your AGR ticket in the mail?

What can you do if Amtrak loses your AGR ticket in the mail?

Old Dec 30, 2011, 5:59 pm
  #1  
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Join Date: Dec 2011
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What can you do if Amtrak loses your AGR ticket in the mail?

Happy New Year to all,

On the 16th of December, I booked one-way travel on Amtrak using my AGR points to go from Chatsworth, CA to San Juan Capistrano, CA, traveling on January 12. For whatever reason, I was unable to pick the Quik-Trak option so as to pick up the tickets at a station myself (although this option was mysteriously available for the return trip, booked as a different reservation) and so I had to opt to have the tickets sent by mail. We are almost into January now and my tickets are nowhere to be found. I called AGR which claims that the tickets would have been mailed immediately on the 16th as soon as the order was placed. If that's the case, to not receive tickets by standard mail this late, even during the Holiday season with postal days off, seems very fishy.

My question to you all is whether there is anyone I can call or anything I can do to get more information about the whereabouts of the tickets. If they are lost in the mail, is there anything I can do to have them replaced, or be permitted to re-print them at a Quik Trak kiosk?

This is not the first time a Rewards ticket has mysteriously disappeared in the mail. A few years back I ordered an award ticket that I thought I must have lost, but it turns out they never mailed it. As is the case in the present situation, Amtrak claimed vehemently that they mailed the ticket immediately. Four months later, the missing ticket arrived in the mail, postmarked the same date as a new award ticket that I had earned and ordered a few days earlier.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jonathan H.
profh is offline  
Old Dec 30, 2011, 7:04 pm
  #2  
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I'm surprised that the AGR agent could not tell you the exact date that the tickets were mailed; they should be able to look that up in the computer. Any regular agent can look that up in RailRes, so I'm not sure why an AGR agent cannot. So you may want to try calling the regular number and see what that agent says about the tickets being mailed.

That said, it is not at all uncommon for tickets not to be mailed out immediately. Amtrak prints and mails things based largely on travel dates. A few years ago I had a good friend who had some tickets mailed. He was taking a two week trip and had booked multiple reservations. The final set of tickets that he needed for his return only arrived the day before he was leaving, causing considerable panic on his part of course.

So I would not be at all surprised to learn that your tickets were just printed this week and dropped in the mail.

Still, I would call back again to AGR and ask them to confirm the mailing date. If they cannot for some odd reason, then call the regular Amtrak number and give that agent your reservation number and ask them to tell you when they were mailed.
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Old Jan 3, 2012, 10:54 am
  #3  
 
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Originally Posted by profh

On the 16th of December, I booked one-way travel on Amtrak using my AGR points to go from Chatsworth, CA to San Juan Capistrano, CA, traveling on January 12. For whatever reason, I was unable to pick the Quik-Trak option so as to pick up the tickets at a station myself (although this option was mysteriously available for the return trip, booked as a different reservation) and so I had to opt to have the tickets sent by mail.
The reason you were unable to select Quik-Trak for the Chatsworth departure is that the Chatsworth station has no Quik-Trak machine or agent. The only other option as far as Amtrak is concerned is to mail you the tickets.
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Old Jan 3, 2012, 11:22 am
  #4  
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I see. If I recall, Chatsworth does have Metrolink machines that can issue Amtrak tickets--that's not good enough for them? I would much prefer they let you select Quiktrak even if the station hasn't got one and just warn you that it's your responsibility to find a station that does. For the future, do you know if they will do this for you (allow QT pickup even if departure station hasn't got one) if you call to make the reservation instead of booking on-line?
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Old Jan 3, 2012, 12:58 pm
  #5  
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Profh,

Yes, if you call you can have the agent set things up so that you can still collect the tickets from another staffed station or one with a Quik-Trak. For that matter, you could still book it online if you like and select the mail option. The immediately call up Amtrak and have the agent change things to pick-up. I believe that they do the printing runs during the overnight hours, so you can usually get things changed before anything gets printed.

Not sure why you couldn't select print at station if indeed the Metrolink machines can print Amtrak tickets at Chatsworth. Not all Metrolink machines can do that, but if indeed the Chatsworth machines can, then it sounds like someone forgot to tell ARROW that there is a Quik-Trak machine there.
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Old Jan 3, 2012, 1:31 pm
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Originally Posted by AlanB
Not sure why you couldn't select print at station if indeed the Metrolink machines can print Amtrak tickets at Chatsworth. Not all Metrolink machines can do that, but if indeed the Chatsworth machines can, then it sounds like someone forgot to tell ARROW that there is a Quik-Trak machine there.
As far as I can tell, none of the stations that have only a Metrolink/Amtrak machine are listed as being Quik-Trak locations, either in ARROW or in the timetable. I guess I can see the point, given that the Metrolink machines don't have the "Quik-Trak" branding, the same interface, or all of the functionality (e.g., they don't have a scanner for the barcode on reservation printouts).
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Old Jan 3, 2012, 4:01 pm
  #7  
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What's also strange about the situation is that you can book a regular, paid-for ticket and it gives you the "Pick it Up at a Metrolink Kiosk" option, just not for the Rewards ticket. I realize now that I should have booked the ticket from Oxnard, which has a Quik Trak machine, and thus have gotten around the problem that way (1000 points will get you from any point to any point on the Surfliner route, so the origin of the ticket makes no difference so long as it starts at or before the station where you board).

The AGR representative I spoke to this afternoon confirmed that if you book over the phone, you can tell them that you want to pick the ticket up at a Quik Trak even if the station you are departing from doesn't have one. Now they're claiming that the present ticket is somewhere in FedEx limbo, and are thus just going to mail me a re-print to the present address at which I'm staying.

Thanks to everyone for all your suggestions,

Jonathan

Originally Posted by trainman74
As far as I can tell, none of the stations that have only a Metrolink/Amtrak machine are listed as being Quik-Trak locations, either in ARROW or in the timetable. I guess I can see the point, given that the Metrolink machines don't have the "Quik-Trak" branding, the same interface, or all of the functionality (e.g., they don't have a scanner for the barcode on reservation printouts).

Last edited by profh; Jan 3, 2012 at 4:22 pm
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