As I started to describe in my previous post, the proper way to deal with Amtrak is to call the phone center. If you reach someone who seems clueless, hang up, and try again. Words to the wise, my friends, words from experience.

So, from last time, I had our rail pass numbers, and I needed to reserve the individual segments. On the Amtrak web site, I couldn’t find a way to reserve against a rail pass, so it was back to the telephone.

I called the Amtrak phone center, and got an agent who happened to be a trainee (no pun intended). Had I hung up, I would have saved a lot of time. But I didn’t. After discussing the first leg of the journey, the trainee agent determined that the two rail passes were not associated with one another, so each reservation would need to be done twice. When I asked if he could associate the two, he put me on hold while he talked with the support desk. This process was repeated several times during the call. But, to make an hour call shorter, he was able to merge the rail passes and reserve the first segment, but I would need to go down to the station within a week to pick up the passes.

So, the following Saturday, I once again found myself at the ticket office. There was a much shorter line this time. I explained the situation to the ticket agent, who wrote up my pass and had me show ID and sign for it. Then she processed the ticket for the first segment, and I signed that as well. “Where’s your wife?” she asked me. At home, of course. “I can’t issue her pass or ticket without her being present, or at least presenting a valid government ID” was the reply. I tried arguing, but she switched into a full-on flat-affect blankly-hostile bureaucrat face. “I’m sorry, I can’t help that.”

It was only when I threatened to start crying on the spot that she fetched her manager. The manager at least smiled at me, and started typing into the computer terminal. Well, evidently the phone agent who had merged the passes incorrectly, and undoing the damage was difficult. At one point, four separate agents were gathered around the terminal, pointing, typing, looking confused, typing more, and arguing with one another. I had to return the rail pass I had just received, and then the ticket reservation. Several different passes got printed then torn up, but after fifteen minutes, I finally had passes and tickets to San Antonio. The manager smiled pleasantly, and wished me a good journey.

So I returned home, and decided to put off the rest of the reservations for another day.

(To Be Continued Again…)

Every time I mention Amtrak, people seem to reflexively wince or shrug and make some comment about government inefficiency. The initial reaction has been universally negative. Not a single person starts with an “I love trains!” or “rail trips are great,” although some have gotten to that point after the requisite Amtrak bashing.

If you read the Wikipedia page (or numerous other online sources) The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (a.k.a., Amtrak) was formed in 1971 because of declining private rail routes and availability. Ever since, Amtrak has been an institution everyone loves to hate, whether because it’s socialistic and therefore a priori evil, or because it covers insufficient routes, or for myriad other reasons.

Despite myself, I find myself with additional ammunition for the haters.

While planning our journey, I wanted to purchase rail passes for Elizabeth and me, and to make reservations for the various segments. The way the rail pass works is that you have (in this case) thirty days and/or twelve separate rail segments paid for by the pass, but you need to reserve your specific seats separately and/or upgrade to sleepers or roomettes. I had planned out a route that used up eleven of those twelve segments.

So, first step, I tried to buy the passes through the web site, but couldn’t find a way to buy two of them. I called the support phone number, and talked to someone who didn’t seem to know much about rail passes. Had I just hung up and tried again, everything would have been fine, but instead I asked if I could make arrangements in person down at Union Station. “Of course,” I was told.

So I drove down to Union Station over that weekend, and waited in line at the ticketing office. There was some chaos because the LA to San Diego line was undergoing repairs, and thus part of the journey needed to be taken by bus, which was confusing large numbers of people. After finally reaching the head of the line,  the agent told me I was out of luck. “This is for ticketing, not reservations. There are four of us here to manage all the ticketing, while at the phone center, they have four hundred people to help you. We can’t make all those people ” — he indicated the line behind me — “wait while we do all your reservations. Call the phone center.” When I asked where I could fill out a complaint, since I had been given bad information, he told me that complaints were handled — you guessed it — via the phone center.

So, when I got home, I bit the bullet, and (foolishly, once again) ordered my rail passes through the web site. This involved going through the order process twice. But, in the end, I had my Rail Pass numbers. I decided to put off actually reserving the eleven legs of the journey until another day.

(to Be Continued)