WASHINGTON — Amtrak is considering airline-style nonrefundable fares and ticket-change fees, according to a leaked memo.
The tech website BGR, quoting from a paywalled Business insider report, says the changes could come as soon as January. They would make the lowest-priced “saver” fares nonrefundable and non-changeable 24 hours after purchase, and impose a 25% cancellation fee or 15% change fee (within two weeks of departure) on “value” fares, the next tier up in Amtrak’s ticketing options.
Currently, passengers receive a voucher for 75% of a ticket’s value when they cancel a saver fare, and can get a full refund on value fares up to eight days before departure. Those rules were imposed in March 2018, ending full refunds for saver tickets and imposing the 25% cancellation fees on both
Amtrak had previously tightened refund and cancellation policies in March 2018, when it first imposed the 25% cancellation fee on saver tickets and the current eight-day window for value refunds. [See “Amtrak tightens refund policy,” Trains News Wire, March 30, 2018].
Amtrak used to have a saying that There’s Something About A Train That’s Magic. No More. Sorry Jim Norton.
I had to cancel this past summer as I had reservations on City of New Orleans and did not want to bother with the busing for part of the trip. I had used Amtrak Reward points and cancelled 2 weeks before. No problem, I kept all of my points. But this sounds like airlines today and we know where the ideas are coming from. “Propeller head”
I just think it stinks when you purchase a saver fare on an unreserved Keystone Train that is good for a year and they void the ticket if you miss the train. Great customer experience.
Everyone should ask their Congress representatives and senators why are they sitting on their hands while Amtrak becomes an over priced mode of travel with policies now more like an airline with a crappie menu to boot. Amtrak is cheering all of this on.
Works for me. I never change plans once they are set so this way I can save some money buy purchasing a lower priced ticket. I do that with hotels all the time. Prepay non-fundable lower rate.
Welcome to the real world! This isn’t 1965 any more, when people showed up at the depot and boarded the train. There’s a different demographic, a different fare structure, computerized reservations, different classes of travel, and so forth, you name it!
What was so good about the old days? My first LD trip on Amtrak – not Santa Fe but Amtrak – I had to drive to the Detroit depot and ask at the ticket window for the Penn Central agent to call Santa Fe reservations for space. Then drive home and return the next day for the ticket. Two trips to the Detroit depot before even the day of boarding the train! Then between trains at Chicago, I witnessed a tiff between a Nebraska resident and a Burlington ticket agent trying to find space on an Amtrak train. Who wants any of that in 2019?
Now when I want to get somewhere, I dial up the airline or Amtrak web site, scroll through the various schedule and fare options, and click. For example Southwest Airlines has three tiers of one-class service depending on boarding priorities and the refundability of tickets. For any other airline, it’s far more complicated. Big deal. Read what’s on the screen, make your choices, and click.
I understand that not everyone loves Delta Dick and his posse. Don’t use this totally benign change as a surrogate to attack Amtrak management for entirely different issues.
So sad what is happening. My daughter, 3 kids and husband are going to Florida round trip in February for $100 each. I looked at Amtrak and my wife and I would be $2300. Sad. I think next item is going to charge a fee for checking your baggage.
Does Amtrak do ANYTHING to make train travel BETTER?
I use SW Air out of BWI for my LD travel with lots of flights to everywhere SW goes. The “Wanna Get Away” senior fares are their lowest and I still don’t have to pay extra for baggage or anything else. You don’t have to pay the higher fares to get good seats if you go on line and get your boarding pass as soon as you are allowed the day before you fly. And if you are flying with someone you can add Early Bird check-in at $25 each if you are afraid you won’t be able to sit together. That’s a lot cheaper that going to a more expensive fare. The only downer is that if you cancel the flight, you won’t get a credit for the Early Bird cost–just a credit for the fare that’s good for any SW flight in the next 12 months.
I’ve gotten non-stop SW flights from & to Austin, Ft. Lauderdale, Vegas, and Denver where the total round trip cost is less than any bus service that is available as well as Amtrak coach.
Domestic Travel Insurance isn’t worth it. But don’t travel foreign without it unless its Canada.
If you already have a decent 24 Hour AD&D insurance policy you need to check it–some of them already include medical, evacuation, emergency family travel, etc. insurance for foreign travel. Some even apply to USA travel if you are over 100 miles from home. However, they don’t include costs of any cancelled reservations.
Non refundable tickets might be ok if they are cheaper. Amtrak could save a lot of money by enforcing train priority over freights, thus avoiding lodging costs for passengers who could not make the next train because of late previous train arrival time. (Been there) BTW was any thought given to AMTRAK when PSR was put into practice?
David – management at Amtrak understands perfectly the fact that other transportation choices exist. In fact, that’s exactly the point: drive (or scare) passengers away then validate route discontinuations due to lack of ridership. Southern Pacific and Penn-Central effectively did so prior to the inception of Amtrak.
I suspect that if this is implemented that we will see ridership drops, maybe not as much in the NEC as in other corridors and of course long distance trains. I think the typical customer for Amtrak would be people that would be more okay with the Southwest Airlines model, where customers have no change fees and your ticket price is 100% applicable to a change, with you only being responsible for the fare difference if the train you want to change to has a higher fare than you originally purchased. The reality that Amtrak management doesn’t seem to understand is that there are other choices for most people than the train, especially for those that are price sensitive.
Delta Dick and Stephen Gardiner have got to go
Mike Lustig is
Soon on a train near you — 6 across seating and basic economy with no carry ons!
Delta Dick strikes again.
Gerald I totally agree. You don’t need travel insurance for domestic travel. (For international travel, you need to cover yourself for possible illness, injury, death, being stranded in a hostile place, and the return of your body dead or alive.) No, Gerald you’re right. Travel insurance for domestic travel is a loser. If you can’t afford to potentially forfeit the fare, domestically, then you can’t afford the vacation. Giving your money to an insurance company doesn’t help.
So Gerald I agree with you on that one. You and AAA and many others. I do believe Robert McGuire sidetracked this discussion by bringing up travel insurance. The wider points, though, stand. Amtrak has as much right as an airline, as a resort, as a hotel, to put different classes of fares onto its website.
Obviously people need to be smart when they travel. Add up the options. Delta has baggage fees and seat selection fees. Southwest has higher fares (on the routes I usually travel) minus the fees. (Pay the highest fare Southwest for the first boarding group, you have 143 seats to select yourself.) Add it up, Southwest’s higher fares come out to be cheaper.
Mike Friedman and Robert McGuire,
I would never want to travel with the likes of you, when I book a trip, that’s it, I’m going and the only thing that would stop me is death or a natural disaster, otherwise it’s vacation time. Travel insurance is a scam and I see they’ve found plenty of suckers, including you two…and it’s not me saying it’s a scam, it’s reputable travel sites, even AAA says to not buy travel insurance.
As for all the other comments, yes, Amtrak management needs to be completely reformed, starting with the BoD, and taking it out from under POTUS appointment or eliminate it completely and just have the CEO, who’s first qualification must be some experience working on a railroad or at least must have experienced railroad personnel working under them.
I suppose next Amtrak will start adding 20 or 30 assorted taxes and fees to the ticket prices, such that you can’t tell how much the dern thing costs.
Not since delta Dick came on the scene
And, they have already started placing expiration dates on Guest Rewards mileage. Interesting, that Delta Airlines now has no expiration on its mileage plans.
I would easily embrace an airline structure for Amtrak if they can get the fares down and the service levels up.
Being on time is key. I will not spend a non-refundable fare on “super saver” just to pull into the station 3-4 hours late due to freight interference.
Start with being on time w/o fudging the schedules. Then I will spend “more” than super saver.
People need predictability. Airlines provide it. Commuter and transit can do it. Why not Amtrak?
It’s not like Amtrak is the first transportation company to do this. Airlines and bus companies have been doing it for years. This move serves to keep costs down and forces people to take responsibility for their own actions. I hope Amtrak does start charging for checked luggage. There is a cost to that and why should those of us who pack with just the stuff we need pay for those who want to bring everything “just in case”. If you really need more than you can carry then send it on ahead by Fedex or UPS. When you see the charge you might decide that you don’t need it so much after all.
Do you really think that most people choose Amtrak because of their refund policy? I rather doubt it. Most people don’t even think about it. People continually choose the nonrefundable hotel rates and then complain when they find they can’t take the trip and can’t get their money back. If there is any possibility you won’t make it then buy travel insurance. I’m offered it every time I buy a ticket and accept is the cost of the ticket is more than I want to lose.
If you buy $2300 worth of travel tickets, and have children, and don’t buy travel insurance you’re penny wise and pound foolish.
Children get sick. Plans change. This is nothing new in the world of travel.
I honestly think that the Southwest model for doing this is best: There’s no cost to change your ticket if the fare class is the same. And if you cancel, they give you a credit, which you may use later for up to a year.
There’s no hassle about doing it. But they are certainly the outlier among airlines.