New Cancellation and Refund Policy, effective 8/12/2012 Options

[BillMagee]

From Amtrak:

A new refund and exchange policy will be in effect starting August 12, 2012. The key changes include:

Passenger travel in a reservation is grouped into “logical trips.” Refunds will be applied to a logical trip - a grouping of continuous travel. Example: A booking Wilmington - Washington - Chicago - Seattle with same-day connections is one logical trip.

Refund fee is 10 percent of logical trip with a $5 minimum, $100 maximum.

Refund rules are governed by the following types of travel, in the following order:

Sleeping Car Reservations: Refundable if the reservation is canceled at least 15 days prior to travel; refund fee applies.

First Class & non-Acela Business Class: Refundable; no refund fee applies if the reservation is canceled prior to scheduled departure.

Reserved Coach & Acela Express Business Class: Refundable; no refund fee applies if the reservation is canceled at least 24 hours prior to scheduled departure.

Unreserved Rail Fare: Refundable; refund fee applies.

New Policy

[MistyOLR]

This tempts me to test things by booking (as an example, my usual STL-KWD-ALN-STL points run day) each segment as individual trips to see if/how quickly they pick up on things.

[jis]

A more straightforward translation of the policy is that only Acela First Class and regular BC tickets are fully refundable if cancelled before departure. Regular Coach and Acela BC are fully refundable if cancelled 24 hours before departure. nothing else is fully refundable (partially refundable).

All tickets remain changeable but the fee schedule for such is not exactly clear unless the same cancellation fee schedule and rules apply to changes too.

[BillMagee]

Amtrak always seems challenged to explain anything clearly. The notice is for a "new refund and exchange policy", but the text does not even mention the exchange side.

The sleeper refund fee seems particularly onerous. As soon as you click "purchase" you are on the hook for 10% of the fare. Even airlines offer a full refund for all fares, including non-refundables, for 24 hours after booking (although that was forced upon them).

[jis]

Amtrak always seems challenged to explain anything clearly. The notice is for a "new refund and exchange policy", but the text does not even mention the exchange side.

The sleeper refund fee seems particularly onerous. As soon as you click "purchase" you are on the hook for 10% of the fare. Even airlines offer a full refund for all fares, including non-refundables, for 24 hours after booking (although that was forced upon them).

Maybe it is time to force Amtrak to provide the minimal refundability required of airlines. There really is no reason for them to be so anal about it.

[KevinKorell]

Not only that, but tying up the funds on one's credit card from time of reservation rather than time of trip is a nuisance too. Why can't it be like a hotel, where I have the option of paying a little bit more to be able to pay only when I receive the service?

[jis]

Not only that, but tying up the funds on one's credit card from time of reservation rather than time of trip is a nuisance too. Why can't it be like a hotel, where I have the option of paying a little bit more to be able to pay only when I receive the service?

I doubt that that will happen, since that is unlike anything that any transport provider does today. One can of course choose to do so on a case by case basis by just making the reservation and buying the ticket just before the trip. May not work out to well however.