Originally Posted by AndyPatterson

When, o when, is Amtrak going to allow seat selection at the time of booking an Acela ticket?!!! At a minimum, Amtrak should be able to store the "preferences" of travelers with an Amtrak account (mine is "window seat, middle of the quiet car"), and use that when randomly assigning seats.

Every time I book on Amtrak, I get assigned a non-quiet car seat, even though Amtrak should "know" by now that I am a quiet car veteran. So, after booking and paying, and getting a ticket with undesirable (to me) seats, I have to go back to the Amtrak website, and change the seats on both legs of a round trip. That results in two more emails, one for each seat change. Why can't we do two seat changes in one transaction? Better yet, why can't we pick the seats at the time of booking!

Mainline airlines have allowed seat selection at the time of booking for several decades, at least for all but the cheapest fares. Amtrak, it's time to get on board -- we are have been in the 21st Century for over two decades now...