Though the group is not traveling on 14 this service alert may impact us with slow order going south. Thank you to Mr. Hamilton for sharing this information on AU. It gave me a heads up about my return plans that really helped me out.
http://discuss.amtra...30-76/?p=669000
Of course after reading this at 3 a.m. this morning I obsessed about it all day. I traded texts with Mike and we talked after work. Then I called Amtrak guest rewards and got somebody who really did not understand what I was trying to do. After I explained that we were traveling through Portland on Thursday, a day the was not operational, he read through the service advisory and told me we would be bussed. I told him thank you, and that I needed to think about what to do. I asked him to not touch the reservation. I was going to HUCA.
As I was preparing to redial Amtrak guest rewards Amtrak called from the 18008727245 number. This was Ashley, a very knowledgeable agent who was calling me to advise me about the track work and misconnect in Portland. I asked if she could help me with Mike's reservation too. She had both of our names on the list so she fixed both reservations.
The initial reservations had us departing Los Angeles on 14 on 7/20 connection to 28 on 7/21. Mike and I were leaving two days after the OTOL railfest because I had screwed up the dates in my mind when we called to book 20K point redemptions. I really wanted to leave on 7/19 but by the time I discovered my error the new program rules were in effect.
My first request with the agent was to follow the exact phrasing of the service advisory and try to be rebooked on 28 departing 7/22. There were no sleepers at all. I then asked if there were two roomettes on 14 departing LAX on 7/19. I figured with more sleeping cars we would have a better chance finding two roomettes on 14. The agent found two rooms across the hall from each other in the transition sleeper. We will now arrive in Portland on 7/20, spend the night in Portland at our own expense (Hilton points) and continue to Chicago on 28 on 7/21.
I asked to speak to Ashley's supervisor and praised her for her efficiency and professionalism. I was not even going to dare to think about two rooms in the same car much less across from each other. That was a great effort on her part.
