Passenger Trains > Changing Amtrak reservations sure went well.

Today I had to change my Amtrak multi- city ticket. I had made a multi- city trip ticket for next month. Last night my son E mailed me that I had to change it . I was thinking boy this isn't going to be fun. But I call and the agent I talked to was very helpful as we cancelled my first ticket and then started making my new ticket, It took almost an hour. She had to look at which train I can take that had a roomette and some trains don't always run every day and are sold out on days I wanted. But she worked at it and got me set for my trips. I have to stay in a few places a day or two longer but that's OK. This agent and the first agent that made my ticket where so helpful. Now if only the weather will just be nice to me. Boy I'm going to get some miles on this trip.

jimbokat Wrote:
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> Today I had to change my Amtrak multi- city
> ticket. I had made a multi- city trip ticket for
> next month. Last night my son E mailed me that I
> had to change it . I was thinking boy this isn't
> going to be fun. But I call and the agent I
> talked to was very helpful as we cancelled my
> first ticket and then started making my new
> ticket, It took almost an hour. She had to look at
> which train I can take that had a roomette and
> some trains don't always run every day and are
> sold out on days I wanted. But she worked at it
> and got me set for my trips. I have to stay in a
> few places a day or two longer but that's OK. This
> agent and the first agent that made my ticket
> where so helpful. Now if only the weather will
> just be nice to me. Boy I'm going to get some
> miles on this trip.

That's excellent. On most airlines, it would have cost you $150 to make change of trip adjustments.

Excellent report. We often hear about problems with employees yet we hardly ever hear a good story. My guess would be that there are more good experiences than negative but we tend to complain about something that went wrong and keep out mouth shut if everything goes great. This is not just an Amtrak thing. People do it all the time. You go to a restaurant and have bad service once and that's what you remember and it's what you talk about. It doesn't matter if you've been there 50 time before and had great service.

I've had both good an bad experiences on Amtrak but mostly good. My last trip was about 30 minutes late to SEA and then about 1 hour late into Chicago but if I complain about those things I have to also say that the car attendants both ways were great. The agent at Emoryville was not the friendliest but the guys in Cincinnati were wonderful. I wish others could have the same experience but I know, some people working for Amtrak should just find a job they like better.

So "thank you" for the positive report.

John

"...I have to stay in a few places a day or two longer but that's OK..."

But of course, a day or two longer in a few places is pax LDT'S forte.

A note to Amtrak might be a good idea...

Amtrak is customer friendly on changes, in my experience.

Just think of that tremendous staff cost to handle this transaction.

We made a horrible mistake a few years ago and reserved wrong day first class accommodations for 8 people on the Coast Starlight! A week before the trip we found the error and we just about fainted. An Amtrak agent did her best and everything worked out with only a little inconvenience and cost for us. Not a miracle, just hard work and genuine concern for passengers. There are good people doing the best work possible, that's for sure.

korotaj Wrote:
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> We made a horrible mistake a few years ago and
> reserved wrong day first class accommodations for
> 8 people on the Coast Starlight! A week before
> the trip we found the error and we just about
> fainted. An Amtrak agent did her best and
> everything worked out with only a little
> inconvenience and cost for us. Not a miracle,
> just hard work and genuine concern for passengers.
> There are good people doing the best work
> possible, that's for sure.

This is a good example of the way Amtrak should run. High touch / lots of staffing, delivering a job the customer appreciates as well done. Impossible to get service like this from an airline.

If the company can corral and retrain the 5% of employees who regularly screw up, don't fuel engines, piss off customers, etc it could be viewed as a high quality operation. That would be great for attracting and keeping more customers.

cutboy2 Wrote:
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> Amtrak is customer friendly on changes, in my
> experience.

I would agree. My experience is that they also try to find a way to avoid "change fees." We once had a Surfliner to Sunset ticket and wanted to leave earlier in the day on the Surfliner leg since our grandson ended up being with us for the weekend and needed to get back to Los Angeles earlier than we were leaving. We easily changed the time and got a child ticket attached to the Surfliner leg with no change fees. We might not have had to do it since the Surfliner is unreserved, but I didn't want to run the risk of getting the rest of the reservation cancelled because we showed up for a different Surfliner than indicated on the ticket.

I told the agent that the earlier departure would give us time to go to Phillipe for a sandwich. When I asked if there would be a fee for the change, he said no, just put it toward your dinner at Phillipe.

cutboy2 Wrote:
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> Amtrak is customer friendly on changes, in my
> experience.

Same here. And I agree, every time a positive experience is encountered such as this, the name should be gotten and an email to the Amtrak CEO and to HR, etc. should be sent!!!

Likewise for surly car attendants, dining car staff, etc. What goes around should come around, positive as well as negative.