Even after 20 years in the travel industry, I learn something new all the time. The internet is a wonderful thing and it has allot of information for us to use and it is all accessible 24/7. But I have just been reminded again that you must always read the fine print…or if you read something and you are not sure about what it means – ask someone.
My son loves to travel by train, he has an Amtrak frequent user account. I of course am my son’s very own personal travel agent. My son has taken a new job in Austin, Texas and is moving there permanently. So instead of taking an airline flight to Austin he wanted to travel by train. I have made all of his travel arrangements on Amtrak when he was commuting from college in Florida to home in Virginia. I would say am pretty well versed on booking travel on Amtrak, but even I did not question something I read online, which caused a little minor wrinkle in my son’s moving plans. But I was reminded of a very valuable lesson to always double check something if you are not sure.
So as a reminder, if you read something anywhere not necessarily online, check the details. The travel industry, as well as almost every other industry has fine print about what they offer.
The information I learned about Amtrak? Well is has to do with baggage. When you get a confirmation from Amtrak it tells you to go online to find out about their baggage policy. The baggage policy states that you can bring 2 carry on bags and up to 3 checked bags. The policy is displayed really nice with little baggage icons and seems simple and straight forward …. Ah, then their is their fine print … ‘checked baggage is not available on all trains or in all stations’. So if you are online, what you have to do is then is to check each of the stations you are leaving from and going to … again with a bit a reading the fine print you’ll learn if those stations have baggage service. Of course, you can always call Amtrak and ask them BUT their agents have to read the fine print as well, or you can call me or your own personal travel agent like my son did.
Hope this little tidbit helps you in the future.
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