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It's been a long time since I purchased tickets from an Amtrak ticketing agent. I just buy online and I'm done.
Today,however, I had to visit the ticket agent in person as I was redeeming $400 in gift certificates that I purchased with my American Express Rewards points.
Let me tell you-the poor lady didn't have a clue.
I told her about the discount code H644 which would entitle me to 50% off companion rail fare for my husband as well as 25% off accommodations and 10% AAA discount. Amtrak's website said I could use all three. Ticket lady said she didn't know about any H644 code ( or any other discounts for that matter) but Amtrak doesn't allow multiple discounts. I told her the website said I could and she said she couldn't look it up because Amtrak doesn't allow her internet access. After about 30 minutes she finally found it somewhere in her computer.
Then we attempted to partially pay our fare with the certificates. First she said they weren't the right ones and she had never seen anything like them. Then she pulled up some information from her computer describing what they should look like (they didn't match) so she placed a phone call to someone who told her what to do.
All told, it took about 45 minutes to get two round trip tickets bought an paid for. I felt bad for the people waiting behind us.
notelvis Member # 3071
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Wow. What a nightmare.
When I lived in Fayetteville, NC (1994-98) there was an agent at the local Amtrak station (first name Malcolm) who was just wonderful. He had been with Amtrak since the early 70's and knew how to coax about anything out of his computer. I would go visit in the early afternoon when there was a lull between the northbound and southbound Palmettos. Malcom did not mind trying various things to save the customer a few dollars here and there and was just a super representative of the company.
One of my coworkers at the time was one of those "I will never set foot on an airplane" kind of people. She had a big family wedding on the horizon in San Antonio and was considering Amtrak but was frustrated with what information she could get calling the 1-800 number. (Remember, this was way before 'Julie' and shortly before the internet made possible for us to be our own travel agent!) I recommended that she just go downtown and talk to Malcolm around 2:00pm.....she did and within 20 minutes had an acceptable itinerary in her price range.
While I've gotten fairly decent at making my arrangements online, there are still times when I could have benefitted from Malcolm!
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