Booked an Amtrak Guest Rewards ticket for the Pacific Surfliner for May 22, 2009. I had to change my plans to May 23, but I figured that since the tickets were for an unreserved train I could just pick them up on Saturday.

I guess you can't do that since the Quik-trak machine couldn't find my reservation and the agent said I would have to call Guest Rewards. Reading the terms and conditions has clarified the process. You must pick up tickets 4 hours prior to the train's departure. Since it's Saturday, I guess I will have postpone my trip until their call center reopens on Monday.

What is the process for getting your points refunded on an expired reservation? Is it quick and painless? The terms and conditions say:

Do you know if this transaction will incur a penalty? Is it "applicable?"

AGR will probably be closed on Monday for the holiday (since the call center is in Canada now, maybe they won't be closed, but in the past they've always been closed on Memorial Day). A full refund shouldn't be a problem, though: AGR will be able to see the ticket was never printed.

You have two options if you want to travel before Tuesday when AGR reopens:
a) book a new AGR ticket online and then get a refund of your existing reservation later. This, of course, requires that you have sufficient points in your account.
b) attempt to get an Amtrak agent to change your existing reservation. When AGR is closed, they are allowed to do so, though not all agents know that, nor do they know how to do so. It is, however, possible.

Thanks for your help. It's not a big deal. I'll just wait until Tuesday and rebook for another weekend.

As an aside, I have never been successful in persuading Amtrak TAs to do this when AGR CS is closed, though not for want of trying...

I have often printed award tickets less than 4 hrs prior to award travel (often a few mins before departure). YMMV I guess?

ivk5

if you persuade them to look it up in ARROW, they will see the rules permitting them to do so.

The 4 hour rule the OP referred to was a booking rule (which isn't even enforced with online AGR booking) , not ticket pick-up rule. All tickets, paid and award, automatically cancel out if they aren't picked up prior to scheduled departure.

Yeah, I had planned to travel Friday, but something came up and I did not think about the rules concerning picking up tickets. I just assumed it was no big deal for the ticket agent to move the reservation to today since the points were "spent," the tickets unprinted, and the reservation in their system.

As far as asking the guy to move the reservation, I didn't want to be a bother. It was my fault for not reading the terms and conditions more closely.

Once the ticket is printed, I think it is valid for six months or a year. The issue is that the reservation cancels out if it isn't picked up prior to scheduled departure. You could book for a future date, but then the first day of validity would be the scheduled date of departure. For an unreserved train, it is best to book for the last departure of the day desired; that way, if you miss the departure of the originally-planned train, the ticket will still be there in the QuickTrak machine.