Hmm, I'm trying to sort through what now appears to be some combined threads. One posts suggests that a ticket purchased last month and set up for pick up (but not yet picked up) suddently becomes an e-ticket. That is not my experience, and I do not believe it is accurate.

I had a somewhat bizzare experience when booking trips for the next few weeks - if I select train 2153 out of RTE, it is only eligible for paper tickets, but if I change the reservation to an earlier or later train it is happy to issue an e-ticket. And if I do that and change back to 2153, it deletes the e-ticket and is back to a paper ticket.

As for the question of why I think there is confusion on e-ticket refund policies, there is this information which seems to suggest an e-ticket is the same as an issued ticket (and thus subject to the only options being refund less 10% or e-voucher for future travel, and not full refund):

eTicket and Prepaid Tickets
eTickets and tickets purchased through other prepaid programs are considered "paid for" and subject to the refund policies of any component rail fare, passenger type discount, and/or promotional discount, even if paper value tickets have not yet been printed

If your travel plans change, you must contact Amtrak to modify your reservation before the train you originally booked has departed.

If you do not do this and do not board your train, your entire reservation will be canceled. If you have already started travel, failure to board any train in your reservation will cause that train and all remaining trains in your reservation to be canceled. Canceled reservations are subject to Amtrak Refund and Exchange policies. The money paid for the trip will be stored in an eVoucher that you may redeem at an Amtrak station ticket office for future travel.


Which takes me to my final rant, which is the absurdity of them issuing an e-voucher that cannot be electronically redeemed. What exactly is electronic about that?!