Brightline Rail Fail
Jan 27, 2020 | 1:30 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Palm Beach/ New England
Programs: AA EXP 3MM, DL GM, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 4,459
Brightline Rail Fail
I've had difficulties with the Brightline kiosks before, but the issue that my party of two encountered this past Saturday takes the cake.
We arrived at the West Palm Beach station at 1:15pm for our confirmed, ticketed travel on the 1:40 train (the cutoff is 10 minutes, so no problem there). I went to the kiosk to print boarding cards for our two confirmed seats on the train, and the kiosk prompted me to upgrade our tickets for an additional cost of $30.
After accepting the upgrade, the kiosk prompted me to insert my chipped credit card, which processed normally. After I removed the Amex, the main kiosk screen displayed an error message and asked me to start the entire check-in process again. I did so. Now, I received a message that I needed to see an agent.
The first agent worked for several minutes to retrieve our reservation, and while she could see our paid, original coach-class seats, she could not get them to print. They have been assigned to other passengers she stated. She also said our upgrades did not process correctly, and that the kiosk upgrade function did not work correctly. She stated the $30 upgrade charge which we observed processing through the card reader, would in fact show as pending on my Amex statement and then disappear. She further indicated that the train was now sold out in all classes. She consulted another agent, who also could not resolve the situation.
Finally, around 1:30, a third agent (a manager) took us to a different podium where she attempted to print our tickets/ or to issue our boarding cards/ or even to provide a receipt. She also could not get the systems to comply, and she indicated we would have to take the next train in one hour. We declined this, and I asked for a refund instead. She said she would process the refund after the sold-out train departed. We got into an uber and zipped to Miami via my least favorite highway (I-95).
Lo and behold, I look today and see no refunds. Charges are also not pending but have processed on my statement. Further, never did the agents apologize nor take any ownership of basically an Involuntary Denied Boarding situation. They just shrugged their shoulders and said the kiosks are "buggy" and the train has now sold out.
We arrived at the West Palm Beach station at 1:15pm for our confirmed, ticketed travel on the 1:40 train (the cutoff is 10 minutes, so no problem there). I went to the kiosk to print boarding cards for our two confirmed seats on the train, and the kiosk prompted me to upgrade our tickets for an additional cost of $30.
After accepting the upgrade, the kiosk prompted me to insert my chipped credit card, which processed normally. After I removed the Amex, the main kiosk screen displayed an error message and asked me to start the entire check-in process again. I did so. Now, I received a message that I needed to see an agent.
The first agent worked for several minutes to retrieve our reservation, and while she could see our paid, original coach-class seats, she could not get them to print. They have been assigned to other passengers she stated. She also said our upgrades did not process correctly, and that the kiosk upgrade function did not work correctly. She stated the $30 upgrade charge which we observed processing through the card reader, would in fact show as pending on my Amex statement and then disappear. She further indicated that the train was now sold out in all classes. She consulted another agent, who also could not resolve the situation.
Finally, around 1:30, a third agent (a manager) took us to a different podium where she attempted to print our tickets/ or to issue our boarding cards/ or even to provide a receipt. She also could not get the systems to comply, and she indicated we would have to take the next train in one hour. We declined this, and I asked for a refund instead. She said she would process the refund after the sold-out train departed. We got into an uber and zipped to Miami via my least favorite highway (I-95).
Lo and behold, I look today and see no refunds. Charges are also not pending but have processed on my statement. Further, never did the agents apologize nor take any ownership of basically an Involuntary Denied Boarding situation. They just shrugged their shoulders and said the kiosks are "buggy" and the train has now sold out.
