Travelocity, Orbitz, etc.

[oltmannd]

Is there a good reason (or even a bad one) why Amtrak does not participate? 

[Anonymous]

oltmannd

Is there a good reason (or even a bad one) why Amtrak does not participate? 

Amtrak's main sell points are its station agents, supported by automated ticketing machines, telephone reservations, internet reservations, and travel agencies.  Its website is as good as any site that I have used.  And I make all of my travel arrangements on the web.  I have not used a travel agent since 1967.

If Amtrak engaged Travelocity, as an example, it would have to pay them a fee similar to the fee that it pays its travel agents.  Moreover, until the recent economic downturn, persons making their travel arrangements through Travelocity, as well as the other popular on-line travel agents, had to pay a small albeit annoying booking fee. 

Engaging the popular on-line travel agents would probably drain customers away from its travel agents and other sell points.  Thus, Amtrak management would have to determine if using on-line travel agents would produce a greater gain than the potential negative impact on the other sell points, i.e. alienate long established travel agent relationships, diminish the scale and efficiencies of its on-line reservation system, etc.

I lived and worked in Dallas for 31 years.  Travelocity has it headquarters in a Dallas suburb.  From time to time I would run into some of their accounting and auditing managers at area professional meetings.  If I remember correctly, about a decade or so ago, one of them, knowing of my interest in trains, told me that Travelocity had considered approaching Amtrak about using their services, but they decided that there was not enough money in it.  This is also the reason that they don't carry the intercity bus companies on their site. 

Outside of the NEC, as well as the California and Illinois corridors, Amtrak is not a factor in America's travel scheme irrespective of what NARP and other enthusiasts say.  Most people in the corridors probably know that Amtrak has an excellent website, and they use it.  They are not likely to whistle up Travelocity for a trip from Hartford to New York.

[oltmannd]

Thanks.  Good insight.  I'll bet you are right about knowledge of Amtrak service in the cities where trains are part of the culture - e.g. the NEC cities, Chicago, LA, SF. 

It is too bad that Amtrak and Greyhound aren't part of these web sites from a travel planning perspective.  It would be nice to do ticketing all in one place for a multi-modal trip.  Greyhound has schedules out of Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, but you have to cobble together your own trip.  Similarly, Southwest goes into BWI and it would be reasonable to cobble together a trip with Amtrak doing the last (100) mile.  Many folk out in Southwest-land would have no idea that this is possible.

Continental did (or still does?) some code sharing with Amtrak out of Newark NJ with Amtrak doing the "shuttle" for them to and from Phila.  Once upon a time, Midwest did code sharing with Amtrak out of Phila airport to Atlantic City, but that died a natural death.  (even though you can still make the trip via SEPTA and NJT, changing at 30th St. - something only a railfan would embrace!)

[DMUinCT]

To ADD:

Amtrak is the U.S.Government, not a "for-profit" company competing for the lowest price.

Amtrak requires you to physically pickup your Tickets within a time frame after making a reservation for a future trip or the reservation will be canceled.

Amtrak will not "Over Book" a reserved seat train (all Northeast Corridor Trains are Reserved Seat)

[Deggesty]

DMUinCT

Amtrak requires you to physically pickup your Tickets within a time frame after making a reservation for a future trip or the reservation will be canceled.

Amtrak will not "Over Book" a reserved seat train (all Northeast Corridor Trains are Reserved Seat)

When making the arrangements for our last five trips, we have asked Amtrak (and VIA) to mail us our tickets (we were using the North American Railpass, which is no longer available). Amtrak does not charge for mailing tickets; VIA does charge.

On our last trip (this spring), we had reserved Business class seats from Seattle to Vancouver. Before we began our trip, we were called and told that the Talgo equipment would not be available (no explanation was given), and only coach seats were available. I took advantage of the time between trains when we were in Sacramento to change our tickets--and the agent had to wait for the system to acknowledge the cancellation of the Business seats before it could give us coach tickets (we were given credit for the unused Business class seats). I did not notice that the train was sold out, though I did not walk the train after each stop. Two years ago, we were traveling in the opposite direction, and received no notice of the cancellation of the Business class until we were ready to board in Vancouver; when we arrived in Seattle, I handed the stubs to a ticket agent and we were given the credit for the unused Business class seats.

Johnny