Amtrak Lesson: Amtrak Total Time: 60 Content: 45 Question/answer: 15 Lesson Description: This lesson teaches the eight steps to booking an Amtrak PNR, including reading fares and availability displays, and claiming a PNR. Author: Pat Garstad SME: Diane Rinck Approved: Master PNRs: N/A Instructors’ notes: PNR is created as the Amtrak segment(s) sold. 11/05 1 á PowerPoint - 01 Welcome á PowerPoint - 02 Objectives At the end of this lesson, you will be able to • Locate and use Amtrak GRS • Display city codes for Amtrak cities and nearest Amtrak city • Use the 8 steps to booking and ticketing Amtrak • Change a booking • Claim a PNR á PowerPoint - 03 Agenda • Amtrak GRS • Seven steps to booking o Determine the city code o Determine the fare o Check availability o Sell from availability o Pricing options o Complete the PNR o Produce Ticket 2 11/05 Amtrak • Claim a PNR ; Instructors’ Notes Amtrak’s reservation system is called ‘Arrow’ and is available through AccessPLUS. With Amtrak, you have the capability to encode and decode city information, display availability, fares, and fare rules. You can also display GRS pages, sell seats, price itineraries and produce Amtrak tickets. The IATA approved cod e for Amtrak is ‘2V’. Buses may also appear in Amtrak availability and are booked the same as the train. Although availability and fare display formats are very similar to airline displays, the interpretation of the information in these displays may differ. Amtrak uses city, class, and service codes that have different meanings from the airline definition. (FYI – Instructors –There is no segment credit given for any Amtrak bookings (original booking or claimed PNR.) The following capabilities for Amtrak are available through Worldspan: á PowerPoint - 04 Worldspan Amtrak capabilities Auto pricing Availability Copy PNR Create PNR Encode/Decode Fares and Pricing GRS Itinerary/Invoice Multiple name fields Modify PNR Offline City Information Ticketing Automated MCOS Prepaids 11/05 3 PNR Q/86 search At end transaction, all booking information is sent to Amtrak via a direct communications Link. Upon receipt of the Worldspan PNR, Amtrak creates a PNR in their system and returns an acknowledgement to Worldspan. Confirmation of requested space will follow a queue notification. Let’s review some booking rules and restrictions. á PowerPoint – 05 Booking rules and restrictions • Amtrak PNRs may not contain active air segments, however if the air segments are cancelled, Amtrak may be booked. • For seat accommodations, the number in party must match the number of seats requested. For bedroom accommodations more than one person can be accommodated in the room. So, you could have 3Jones/A/B/C. • A maximum of 8 accommodations may be requested in one entry. á PowerPoint - xx Booking rules and restrictions • Waitlisting is not permitted on Amtrak. • Amtrak PNRs built in Worldspan cannot be divided. They can be reduced. • Amtrak segments can’t be MK’d into the PNR 4 11/05 Amtrak ; Instructors’ Notes We will use a script to complete the Amtrak booking and review each of the screens as we progress. Before you begin ticketing on Amtrak, you should assure that 2 things are complete. 1. Verify that Amtrak states ‘YES’ in your agency Information Record 2. Call Amtrak to register your IATA and Subscriber ID. These two are one-time functions and once they are complete, should not need to be done again. Application Sharing (Res) 111 1. To view the Agency Information Record, enter 4G. 4G 4G DISTANCE LEARNING ATLANTA GA 30339 IATA....99 06477 PSEUDO.......PQ2 NMC CITY CODE..USE SATO..N/A AUTO VAL.....YES COMP SEG SELL..NO INTERFACE LVL..017 VR BP TRAILER...YES DUAL USER......NO BP PRINTER...NO COMMERCIAL.....NO EZ OPTIONS.....TEMLI PD TELEX........NO APRVD E-TKT....YES LADDER.........HZ AMTRAK TKTG..YES TRAINING.......NO To register with Amtrak, call 1-800- TELL-TRAK (835-8725) Now let’s look at some Amtrak references before we begin the booking. Let’s look at some GRS information and see how easy the reference system is. 11/05 5 2. To view the complete index for Amtrak, enter HELP AMTRAK. HELP AMTRAK > ACCESSPLUS - AMTRAK INDEX HELP AMTRAK HELP 2V AUTOPRICE >HELP 2VPRICE( AUTOTRAIN >HELP 2VAUTO( AVAILABILITY/SELL ENTRIES >HELP 2VAVAIL( CBI LESSON ON AMTRAK >HELP 2VCBI( CITY DECODER/ENCODER >HELP 2VK( CITY OFFLINE DECODER/ENCODER >HELP 2VKO( CLAIM PNR - AMTRAK >HELP CLAIM 2V( CODES >HELP 2VCODES( DISPLAY PNR/ACKNOWLEDGEMENT >HELP 2V*PNR( EZ OPTIONS - AMTRAK >HELP 2VEZOPT( GRS >HELP 2VGRS( FARE QUOTE >HELP 2VFARE()> 3. Tab to availability/sell formats and briefly discuss. HELP 2AVAIL > AMTRAK AVAILABILITY/SELL ENTRIES HELP 2VAVAIL HELP 2VSELL AVAILABILITY ENTRIES-- BASIC @2V@A1SEPKCYLAX7A CONNECTION @2V@A1SEPBOSLAX9A/NYP CLASS CODE/8-DAY SEARCH @2V@A23SEPKCYLAX7A*YB CLASS CODE/PTY OF 2 @2V@A23SEPKCYLAX7A*2YA REQUEST SLEEPER CLASS OF SVC @2V@A10JULCHIWAS8A*SC REQUEST FIRST AND BUSINESS CLASSES @2V@A10JULNYPWAS8A*PC REQUEST COACH CLASS @2V@A10JULCHIWAS8A*CC RETURN AVAILABILITY/SAME DATE @2V@A/R RETURN/SPECIFIC DATE @2V@A/R18FEB) 6 11/05 Amtrak ; Instructors’ Notes Note formats are included for connections, requesting a party of 2 with a specific class code, and requests for specific detailed classes such as sleeper, first, and coach classes. Let’s look at Encode/Decode or how to obtain the Amtrak city code. 4. Display HELP 2VK. > AMTRAK CITY DECODE/ENCODE HELP 2VK HELP 2VKO EXPLANATION ENTRY ONLINE CITIES - DECODE @2V@KD/ABE ENCODE @2V@KC/TX/HOUSTON OFFLINE CITY INFO - SAMPLE ENTRY @2V@KO/TN/MEMPHIS ABBREVIATED ENTRY @2V@KO/VA/A * STATE CODE **ADDITIONAL REFERENCES** AMTRAK INDEX >HELP AMTRAK( ENCODE/DECODE AMTRAK >INFO 2VK( ; Instructors’ Notes ; Instructors’ Notes Let’s look at these formats more closely and check our own example. 5. To check the closest Amtrak station to Mill Valley California, enter, @2V@KC/CA/MILL VALLEY @2V@KC/CA/MILL VALLEY CITY IATA CITY NAME > 11/05 7 The system doesn’t’ find an Amtrak station in Mill Valley, so let’s look for an offline station, or the closest station to that point. 6. To find the offline point, we will use KO instead of KC. @2V@KO/CA/MILL VALLEY @2V@KO/CA/MILL VALLEY CALIFORNIA CITY NAME CODE DIST DIR AMTRAK METHOD MILL VALLEY 10 E TO RIC CR BS > The nearest station to Mill Valley is RIC, and is 10 miles east of RIC, with transportation of car and bus (CR BS). 7. To decode RIC, enter @2V@KD/RIC. 2V@KD/RIC CITY IATA CITY NAME CITY IATA CITY NAME RIC RICHMOND CA > The nearest point is Richmond California. Many of these pages will be displayed on the reservation screen as we use the script. We will note them as they apply. 8. To access the Amtrak script, click the Script box on the right toolbar, scroll to Z4Amtrak or type Z4Amtrak in the script name. 8 11/05 Amtrak 9. Once the script is highlighted, click OK. ; Instructors’ Notes The Main Menu appears with choices for City Codes, Availability/Sell, Fares, Pricing, Claim PNR, and Station Information. Whichever option is chosen, the script will begin at that point and give further options when that portion is complete. Let’s begin our 8 steps to booking Amtrak. 11/05 9 Step 1-Access Amtrak @2V@ response – AP*LOG-ON *** AMTRAK *** > ; Instructors’ Notes Since each step can be accessed separately in the script, the access (Direct Access format - @2V@) is included in each step in the script. When manually accessing in reservations, once logon is complete, subsequent entries are preceded with a @. Sep 2 – Determine the City Code 1. Click City Codes. 10 11/05 Amtrak ; Instructors’ Notes A dialog box appears to complete the Departure and Arrival information. A drop-down box appears by the state for each. Highlight the state, tab and type the city for each. 2. Complete the information using California as the State, Oxnard for the Departure City, and Los Angeles as the Arrival City. Then click OK. 11/05 11 ; Instructors’ Notes The system performs the Encode/Decode function for you (@2V@KC/CA/OXNARD) allowing you to proceed with the booking. The code column displays the Amtrak city codes. The codes for these two cities are OXN and LAX. Note: In this display there is also an Amtrak station near the museum (LMU). 12 11/05 Amtrak A dialog box with offline transportation codes appears to code the method of transportation used in the method column. 3. When the City codes have been determined, click ok 11/05 13 Step 3–Determine the Fare ; Instructors’ Notes Amtrak fares are computed on a basic charge of coach rail fare per person and an additional accommodation charge. Certain accommodations are designed for a minimum occupancy and an additional rail fare may apply when the minimum requirement is not met. Family plans, fares/excursions, or special promotional fares are also available. Every passenger must be charged a rail fare, that entitles them to an economy seat. If a first class seat or sleeper accommodation is booked then the accommodation charge is added to the rail fare. A dialog box appears with options to continue. Our next option will be to determine the fare. 1. Click Fares. 14 11/05 Amtrak 11/05 15 ; Instructors’ Notes A dialog box appears to complete the Departure Code and Arrival Code, Departure Date, Return Date and Passenger Type Codes. Let’s take a look at the Passenger Type Codes. We are looking for Passenger Type Codes for Adult and Child. 2. Click Display Passenger Type Codes. Pause the script (Ctrl + W). Move down (MD) to view the differences in the PTCs.