That's Not Actually Reassuring

I've just got off the phone from having spent 30 minutes talking with an Amtrak Guest Rewards "travel specialist."

( The long version )

I will get to a station -- probably San Jose -- when I can next get to one, and try once again to exchange this ticket per their request. Maybe even today if my workload is light enough to afford the time to drive from Fremont to San Mateo via San Jose, the long way around, you might say. But I'm not especially reassured, and I fear that when I get there, the agent is going to say, "$1900, please" and we'll have to go through this all over again, and spend 30 minutes or more waiting for one part of Amtrak to say the magic code words to another part of the company so that they can actually issue the ticket.

I've been polite enough so far, but I'm going to get a lot less polite if they screw this up again. What I'm asking them to do should not be difficult, and it's something they asked me to do. There's something screwy with their computer system if it keeps telling them that passengers traveling on points still owe them money.

Amtrak Ticket Follies

In the end, it looks like we have a ticketing solution, although I won't know for certain until probably tomorrow -- and maybe not even until we actually make the trip and are not thrown off the train.

( Messy details )

The solution that Amtrak Guest Rewards came up with was to simply cancel the entire trip (MTR-SDY-CHI-LAX), all three legs/six tickets of it, and create a brand new reservation record, with all of the same details but a new reservation number. That new reservation number hasn't been printed, so I should be able to go to an Amtrak Quik-Track ticket vending machine -- like the one in Fremont/Centerville -- and print the new tickets, which replace the old ones.

At Lisa's suggestion, I will keep the old tickets and take them with me, stored away in case there's any further questions about this.

Lisa Passing Through

Late this afternoon, Lisa arrived. She slept for a few hours at one of the rest areas on I-5 north of Lake Shasta and came as far as San Mateo this afternoon. We'll be going to BASFA in a few minutes (we have some errands to run along the way), and she plans to continue on her way south after the meeting.

Lisa has given me a couple of photos of Kuma Bear in his car seat, but I can't upload them from here. Maybe later tonight.