Picking Up Tickets

Question : How do I pick up tickets.

After talking to a nice woman on the phone to replan my return trip from Albany this summer, I booked passage to NYC and then to BOS. Now, how do I pick up my tickets? I have not paid for the new reservations either, I am assuming I pay for them when I pick them up. Is this correct?

...means your triup will commence June 21 or thereafter.

With this much lead time, give Amtrak a credit card, and ask them to have the tickets mailed to you.

Read the related "Idiot" topic thread, and you will" think twice" now and evermore about paying for tickets from any transportation company with a check.

I know, read that already. Frankly, in this day and age, it is stupid to pay anything by check except for mabey bills, and even then, most companies allow you to pay bills online. Purchasing anything by check is a pain, especially for retailers, and it is a pain for the consumer when they want to get thier money back. Most people with checking accounts have check cards (debit cards with visa or mastercard logos). Use those if you want the money to come right out of checking. Some people don't realize that if you use it as "credit", the money comes right out of your checking account (no fees too, the retailer pays any fees on the transaction). You really should only use check cards as debit if you want cash back.

(I educate my customers at work about this feature)

Personally, I only use my checks for my tithe payments at church. Its easy to put a check in the offering plate.

ggardei wrote:Question : How do I pick up tickets.

After talking to a nice woman on the phone to replan my return trip from Albany this summer, I booked passage to NYC and then to BOS. Now, how do I pick up my tickets? I have not paid for the new reservations either, I am assuming I pay for them when I pick them up. Is this correct?

You can pay for your tickets any time before you pick them up. However, note that an unpaid reservation may be cancelled within a certain amount of time (I'm not sure what that amount of time is).

You can call Amtrak and have them mailed to you, or you can pick them up at your nearest staffed Amtrak station, or at a QuikTrak machine (with a credit card).

Although I haven't used it in a couple of years, Tickets By Mail is a simple way to get your tickets, especially if your lead-time is 2 weeks or longer.

My preference is to go to the station and pick them up, typically within a day or so of making the reservation. I don't recall what the 'hold limit' is for sleeper reservations, but I think it's in the range of 3 days or so after making a reservation. If tickets aren't paid for in that time, the reservation is released.

Historically, I've also run into minor problems when having to change tickets that were 'by mail'. For whatever reason, Amtrak ticket agents at the station cannot alter/change/cash in tickets that were mailed to you. They can cancel the reservation and make a new one, that seems to be their limits. You also have to pay for the new reservations, and send your cancelled tickets to Amtrak to get your refund on those.

My guess is they must have some screwy accounting system that Tickets By Mail aren't treated as station-issued-tickets and never the twain shall meet. One more way Amtrak makes being a passenger more difficult than the airlines.

I'm "batting 500" with Quik Trak.

First "trip to the plate" was a one way Chicago to Memphis this past August "no problem".

However, last February, I attempted to use for my four segment Chicago Orlando trip. "Please see agent" was all it could say. The ticket clerk at CUS was "less than talkative" but it appeared he had to "force feed" my confirmation (I had the e-mail with me) into the system.

It may not have been just me, but rather the system that day, as a young girl was attempting to use for a ticket to MaComb - and 347 was leaving in five minutes. Fortunately three of us in line were happy to let her go first; I think she made it.

I've used the Quik trak machines, probably 30 times or so, all either in Newark NJ or Washington DC. Always worked fine.

NJT's commuter ticket machines always have been OK, too, but very slow printing. Until this month when my High Bridge - Hoboken monthlt pass printed totally blank. But the NJT customer service had a replacement by the next morning plus 2 complimentary one-way no expiration tickets good to anywhere on the NJT system as an apology.

Amtrak's ticket machines are the best. Take it from someone who has used LIRR, NYCTA and NJ Transit machines. Make your reservation (and pay with a credit card) over the Internet. Then go to a ticket machine at your local station, enter your reservation # and it prints out all your tickets. It's that simple.

The ticket machines that I've used (30th Street and Princeton Junction) didn't require entering a number; just inserting the credit card that was used for the reservation yielded the ticket.

You're right Bob. Even better! :D

Amtrak machines are good but can be awfully painfully slow sometimes. Its an old PC underneath and they sometimes seem to need rebooting. Last week it took about 5 minutes to scroll thru the screens/enter my guest rewards number and print the ticket - this was for MetroPark to PHL OW with no reservation. Usually I can do this in about a minute.