Website/app IT issues
Oct 12, 2015 | 9:22 am
#16
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Los Feliz-Los Angeles (BUR/LAX) Arun Baheti
Programs: UA MM/Gold; HH something depending; Marriott Gold; other opportunistic statuses
Posts: 1,945
I'm trying to buy tickets LAX-SAN and it is showing the durations as around 1 hour (! didn't know our high speed rail was up and running :-)) by train, 90 minutes by bus. Also, I don't do this enough to know for sure, but it looks like some trains aren't showing up at all. Also, tried to select the outbound journey but the web site also added a random Irvine-San Diego leg to my cart even without my selecting it. Truly random this morning.
Oct 12, 2015 | 10:35 am
#17
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: PDX
Programs: DL DM, Hyatt Globalist, Amtrak peon, Colbert Lifetime Platinum, Walk Score 100
Posts: 4,553
I'm trying to buy tickets LAX-SAN and it is showing the durations as around 1 hour (! didn't know our high speed rail was up and running :-)) by train, 90 minutes by bus. Also, I don't do this enough to know for sure, but it looks like some trains aren't showing up at all. Also, tried to select the outbound journey but the web site also added a random Irvine-San Diego leg to my cart even without my selecting it. Truly random this morning.
Oct 12, 2015 | 11:28 am
#18
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Los Feliz-Los Angeles (BUR/LAX) Arun Baheti
Programs: UA MM/Gold; HH something depending; Marriott Gold; other opportunistic statuses
Posts: 1,945
Depending on what dates you're searching, this may relate to the upcoming trackwork service disruption and not an IT bug. You should see an exclamation icon linking to the above notice for those dates.
Oct 13, 2015 | 9:48 am
#20
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: PHL
Programs: AA(PPro), UA, AGR(S), BW(Plat), HH, WoH(D), MB
Posts: 796
Oct 13, 2015 | 12:16 pm
#21
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 26,113
I'm trying to buy tickets LAX-SAN and it is showing the durations as around 1 hour (! didn't know our high speed rail was up and running :-)) by train, 90 minutes by bus. Also, I don't do this enough to know for sure, but it looks like some trains aren't showing up at all. Also, tried to select the outbound journey but the web site also added a random Irvine-San Diego leg to my cart even without my selecting it. Truly random this morning.
Wouldn't every bus get a speeding ticket going that fast?
Oct 13, 2015 | 2:11 pm
#22
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Los Feliz-Los Angeles (BUR/LAX) Arun Baheti
Programs: UA MM/Gold; HH something depending; Marriott Gold; other opportunistic statuses
Posts: 1,945
I don't recall the details on the bus bit, but on the train bit, someone upthread explained and it was right -- the 1 hour was from Union Station to Irvine, then it was adding a bus link from Irvine to San Diego. But that didn't show in the "select a train" area, it only showed when I selected and then viewed in my itinerary/cart. More my confusion, I think, as an infrequent Amtrak'er. Still bummed, that San Diego run is one I use several times a year, just not this weekend!
Oct 13, 2015 | 5:00 pm
#23
Original Poster
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S+, Choice Platinum
Posts: 23,319
Oct 13, 2015 | 7:51 pm
#24
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Mid-Atlantic
Posts: 5,026
Amtrak lite - a painful experience!
Just spent 40 minutes booking two simple round trips because you can't log in and for some reason all your data has to be entered on 2 different screens - it didn't carry over. By the time I was finished booking the first one, I was about ready to make the second a car trip, but I've got a work deadline and taking the train gives me 4+ more hours to work.
Really, Congress, there's no excuse for a national rail system as screwed up as Amtrak. It's embarrassing to any American who has traveled by rail in Europe.
p.s. was only able to book using an iPad, could not get the site to work at all from a desktop or laptop
Really, Congress, there's no excuse for a national rail system as screwed up as Amtrak. It's embarrassing to any American who has traveled by rail in Europe.
p.s. was only able to book using an iPad, could not get the site to work at all from a desktop or laptop
Last edited by CDTraveler; Oct 13, 2015 at 8:04 pm
Oct 14, 2015 | 7:25 am
#26
Join Date: Apr 2015
Programs: United Global Services, Amtrak Select Executive
Posts: 4,924
Oct 14, 2015 | 7:56 am
#27
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: n.y.c.
Posts: 14,059
Sep 7, 2016 | 1:31 pm
#28
Original Poster
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S+, Choice Platinum
Posts: 23,319
Here's a mildly annoying issue:
Took #94 from NPN to BWI today. At WAS, the new crew announced that all tickets would need to be out and ready for scanning, regardless of origination point. Of course, I opened my app to discover that the e-ticket that was showing earlier had changed to "paper ticket required." She was able to look me up by name, but her annoyance was very clear (as it was throughout all of her PA announcements on the trip as well...).
If Amtrak employees are going to go through the process of re-scanning tickets downline, then the app should darn well support that use case and not time out so quickly.
Took #94 from NPN to BWI today. At WAS, the new crew announced that all tickets would need to be out and ready for scanning, regardless of origination point. Of course, I opened my app to discover that the e-ticket that was showing earlier had changed to "paper ticket required." She was able to look me up by name, but her annoyance was very clear (as it was throughout all of her PA announcements on the trip as well...).
If Amtrak employees are going to go through the process of re-scanning tickets downline, then the app should darn well support that use case and not time out so quickly.
Sep 13, 2016 | 9:58 pm
#29
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: New England
Programs: DL, UA, AA, B6, 2V, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt
Posts: 6,131
This is quite odd. If I wanted to go from Boston South Station to St Albans, VT, it will not show me any connecting itineraries. It will error out saying that there is no service for what I am looking for (BOS-SAB). However, if I try to search it as a multi-city, it will let me book the BOS-NHV or BOS-SPG and the NHV/SPG-SAB separately, and will price both legs separately. This behavior exists in both the site and the app (although the app doesn't give me the option for multi-city ticketing)
