MrChu

This morning I go to cancel my trip for this evening's trip and the website asks me to to call since its not able to cancel my ticket. So I call to cancel and the agent says that I have already traveled and the ticket has been lifted. I pointed her to the fact that the train is not scheduled for another 8 hours but she still couldn't cancel my ticket and give me a refund. I was forwarded to their refund department who said that this will be researched and I will be given a refund later.

This is the second time this has happened to me although last time it was a few minutes before the train left so I figured since it was close to departure and I may have been cutting it close. Apparently there is a glitch in the system ?

Needless to say its very annoying because I have to call and waste time on the phone just for a simple cancellation. On top of that the last time I was given a special credit voucher it can only be used thru their special phone number. Now I have to waste another phone call to use the credit. My current issue is still being researched and they said they would call back with my refund. In the meantime I have to buy a new ticket to travel on a different train. What a PITA...and did I mention I'm AGR SE...still no dice.

Has this happened to anyone else?

MrChu

Update...I was told that today's ticket was lifted yesterday during my travel since I was on the same train as I would have been today and I may have inadvertently shown today's ticket instead of yesterday on my phone.

The conductor did not say anything and I got charged twice for the trip yesterday. So now the only way out was to accept the transportation voucher!!

fairviewroad

Interesting. So I guess Amtrak doesn't have reserved trains after all. From now on, I suppose one could simply buy the cheapest ticket you can find for the same train anytime in the next 11 months, since evidently Amtrak doesn't care. Then, you just "inadvertently" show the "wrong" ticket.*


*This is mostly a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, but the OP's experience does raise questions about the integrity of Amtrak's ticketing system

neutralist

Or may be this is actually one of the "unreserved" routes? OP did not mention anything. I am pretty sure you will get the boot if you pull this on a reserved train and the train is already full.

MrChu

NE Regional WIL- NYP : Reserved!

diburning

If you show the wrong ticket, the conductor's scanner WILL reject it. I've done this before (by accident). The conductor thought it was an error in the system, and went to look me up by last name to lift my ticket.

GrayAnderson

I believe the conductors can override a "wrong ticket" situation in some circumstances (for example, when there were major delays on the NEC one time, pax were told that Regional tickets to Philadelphia would be honored on an earlier Keystone while tickets for a later Regional were, I believe, being honored on the earlier ones). If the Conductor thought his scanner was being stupid he might have forced an override.

MrChu

This makes sense and probably what happened. The conductor may have realized that I was presenting the wrong ticket but may have actually let it go by overriding it. What he may not have realized is that not only I had a ticket on that train but I was also traveling the next day. This killed both tickets at once!