nerd

Can you explain what this means?

jackal

What what means?

Pretty simple. There are a number of apps available for smartphones and a number of websites you can upload a barcode image to that will translate the barcode into whatever text (yes, a barcode is just a way to encode text into a machine-readable format) was used to create the barcode.

Pretty simple...but I will be happy to expand on it if you need this interpreted, too.

The whole two-part system of "reservations and tickets" is really a relic of the ancient days of travel--before electronic ticketing became popular. You needed a reservation so the airline knew you were coming and didn't sell too many seats on a given aircraft. Your travel agent would contact the airline and place the reservation for your seat. However, the reservation didn't have any intrinsic value in and of itself. You would pay your travel agency for the flight, and they would then issue you a paper ticket which did have intrinsic value, and you were required to carry that ticket to the airport (where you would obtain a boarding pass, which referenced the fact that you had a reservation for that flight) and surrender it when boarding your flight. The airline's accounting department after the fact would then settle the tickets and deal with exchanging money between itself and the travel agencies.

With the advent of CRSes (computer reservation systems) and the installation of GDS terminals in travel agencies around the world, the process of finding flights and placing reservations was streamlined a great deal, but you still had to pay your travel agent and get a paper ticket issued to provide when boarding (remember the boarding passes that said "FLIGHT COUPON REQUIRED"?), which the airline's accounting department then settled against the electronic reservation record.

Then, a couple of decades ago, the concept of the e-ticket came about, and the ticket details then remained stored in an electronic record. Still, aside from not having to physically present the ticket during the boarding process, the process remains the same: the reservation is created, the ticket is issued, the boarding pass is created, and then after the flight, the ticket is settled against the reservation.

Really, though, there's no reason there needs to be so many steps. It is this way because the airlines are still using the same 1960s-era mainframe-based legacy CRSes they always have, and it was a lot simpler and cheaper to modify the existing systems to deal with electronic records than to overhaul the entire system. All of the steps of the process you see during a modern day airline transaction correspond directly to manual steps of the process in the olden days. For more on that, check this thread out and read the next four posts.

If someone were creating an airline from scratch in the modern era (and didn't have to worry about integrating it with other, existing carriers and the messes created by interlining and codesharing and plating a ticket on one carrier for a flight on a different carrier and all of that), it would actually be fairly simple to program a system that just lets you book a flight. You'd receive a receipt that shows you're booked on the flight, and a quick verification of the receipt's validity would let you get on the plane. You could entirely skip the whole process of issuing a ticket and generating a boarding pass and ensuring that the reservation data and ticket data are in sync and all of that. That would be a ticketless system. But it would represent a wholesale change in the way the reservation system works, and I'm pretty confident Amtrak didn't reinvent the wheel. (We would know about it if they did.)

This is likely what actually happens. There's no real need anymore for the customer to know about or care about the ticket number. The conductors' iPhones are programmed to pull up the customer's record by the reservation number, and behind the scenes, ARROW then checks to ensure a valid ticket is attached to the reservation and allows the conductor to virtually "lift" the ticket.

nerd

What all the things you just elaborated on in the rest of your post mean, silly. And, thank you!

EnhancedByCO

What he said (and thanks for writing that all out!).

As I like to joke, airlines are so innovative that they were one of the the first commercial users of computer technology way back in the 1950s (the contract establishing American Airline's partnership with IBM to develop SABRE was signed in 1957)--they just haven't been able to afford to upgrade since.

That may be an exaggeration, but the reality is that no matter how many upgrade iterations a CRS goes through, it generally needs to retain backwards-compatible functionality because there are so many other systems out there that interface with it (including the GDSes). Thus the need to keep the bifurcated reservation/ticket scheme even though we now live in a (theoretically) 100% e-ticket world. And although ARROW was developed specifically for Amtrak, it still was built for an (airline) paper ticket world--after all, I believe ARC-affiliated travel agents can still issue paper "flight coupons" (aka tickets) to this day for use on Amtrak.

boswash52

I took a special (1171) from BOS to NRO on Thanksgiving morning, and came back up on the Twilight Shoreliner (66) from NYP to BOS this morning, together on a multicity eTicket (my first eTicket).

66 got in to Boston around 7:50am. At 2:46pm, Amtrak emailed me an eVoucher, saying:

When I boarded 66, the conductor did seem to be having trouble with his iPhone after succesfully scanning the QR code (off a paper printout), and he fiddled around for 30 seconds or so before moving on. I suppose I should have asked him, but he looked sort of tired.

Is this a common failure? I wonder how many of these eVouchers they give out to passengers who actually took the travel as expected. I'm not sure if I should call them and let them know, or just take it as a windfall.

Thoughts?

jackal

Follow-up: my points for this trip posted, so I have no idea what this conductor's beef was. Not sure how on earth she could have lifted this ticket if there wasn't a ticket to lift, but somehow she did!

tolkiennut

Never did get a call back from the refund department, but my refund just appeared... not very good communication and took way too long, but the refund is complete.

They need to reengineer the refund process!

mohan12

Building on this point....could use some insights from the pros here re: Amtrak ticketing systems.

I also need to "top off" AGR points (500 mile pairs) and was thinking of booking NYP-WAS at 8am (scheduled arrival in WAS at 10:45am)

However-

Could I:
1. Buy and use the NYP-WAS ticket (8am - 10:45am)
2. Get off early in PHL in 9:10am
3. Buy and use a separate WAS-NYP ticket (8am departure) and board in PHL at 9:33am to arrive at NYP at 10:46am (the same time I was originally supposed to arrive in WAS on my outbound ticket?)

Will Amtrak's systems allow me to book and pay for overlapping tickets like this? If so, would there be any reason not to get the 1000 AGR points (and ~3 hours of time back)?

RogerD408

I don't think you will have any issues. It appears the AGR system does not really care about miss-matched tickets. I do the SAC RNO run quite a bit and they usually have my return posted as happening before my departure! It turns out they post LD trains as of it's departure from origin and not your boarding. So since the CZ leaves CHI three days before it leaves RNO, my ticket posts as of the CHI date.

As someone stated elsewhere: Amtrak doesn't care if you get off the train before your stop, but they do care if you get off before the train stops!

BeantownFlyer

I don't know the answer but I loved this post and the way you think!

AlanB

I rather suspect that AGR won't care about this trick. However, Amtrak computers might care if they run the housekeeping chore that looks for conflicting reservations. And if they do, then one reservation would end up being cancelled automatically by the computer.

calwatch

There was one publicly reported incidence of a "force lift", and that occurred on the San Joaquin bus network over Thanksgiving. Because they were running extra sections on the LA-Bakersfield, Sacramento-Stockton, and a few of the other runs, rather than give the extra bus operators scanners Amtrak force lifted all bus tickets for that weekend, on the Thurway buses affected. Drivers were just asked to look at ticket stubs and not collect anything. Unfortunately, this reinforces the need to cancel unused tickets before departure, to avoid force lifting.

jetsetter

Maybe the pax could book the 2nd reservation with a middle initial, and not add the AGR# until right at departure time, so to the system they look less alike.

Also do you know anything about when and how this Amtrak conflicting reservation sweep procedure works? For instance does it run every night, or several times a day?

Since Amtrak does not readily allow same day changes, like Southwest, I could see pax on occaision might book more than 1 train, and then just refund the unused tickets or use the unused ticket value for later travel (like on Southwest). For instance your traveling NYP to WAS but you don't know wht time you actually want to or would be ready to leave NYP.

Also I wonder if Amtrak will ever be able to do standby like the airlines especially at bigger stations. Wonder too how high the no show factor is since at least in past you could get a refund or re-use the funds without penalty fee.

AlanB

That middle initial would be enough to prevent you from earning points, even after adding your AGR number. They match the full name, plus the AGR number, before awarding points. There are people who've had trouble getting points simply because Jr. got left off the reservation.

Amtrak doesn't exactly publicize this, but I'm pretty sure that it's not several times per day. Seems more like a couple of times per month. But I sure wouldn't want to gamble either.

I have no actual info on the no-show factor, but I'm guessing that it's rather high since Amtrak seems to be working harder and harder to penalize those who don't show.

Don't see a standby list happening, at least not until Acela ticketing is handled in the way it was originally intended; if that ever happens. Originally Amtrak, when Acela was first introduced, was working on a system whereby anyone no-showing would be indicated in ARROW and that seat would go back on the market for stations further up the line.

Even if they ever implement that in the future, I don't see a standby list being maintained, most likely in today's electronic age you'd just keep checking to see if seats suddenly go on sale.

ctroadwarrior

I have an upcoming UA reservation with two Amtrak code share segments. Exactly how does one "claim" the e-tickets in advance? Call Amtrak, call UA? Can this be done online (self-service)? I'd prefer to have my tickets in hand before leaving for the station.