Sleeper Car "NON-BERTH" Service

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HARHBG

Service Attendant
Joined
Sep 13, 2015
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Anyone here know if Amtrak still offers Non-Berth Sleeper Car Accommodations?

AS per Amtrak "Blue Book" Section 8-71 (8)

Thanks for any info.

Calling Amtrak 800 # is useless. Being told Amtrak NEVER offered such service. This one also tried to tell me Pacific Parlor Car does not serve food but you can take your dining car meal into Pacific Parlor Car if you want.
 
You can pay for a sleeper accommodation and leave the seats in the day position. The price is the same whether you use the bunks or not and includes dining car meals.Some people call this a "day sleeper".
 
Calling Amtrak 800 # is useless. Being told Amtrak NEVER offered such service. This one also tried to tell me Pacific Parlor Car does not serve food but you can take your dining car meal into Pacific Parlor Car if you want.
Do not try to book non-berth service, that's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth. That there is no such thing as non-berth service. :ph34r:

 
What I was looking for actually was perhaps a price break. From reading the Blue Book, it seems it was (Non-Berth Service) more common in earlier years but has probably been slowly phased out.

Want the sleeper for the approx. 4 hours, PDX to SEA on CS. I'd like to do dinner in Pacific Parlor Car. Last time I tried this the PPC was closed due to a fire. Thought I'd give it another shot and if there was a separate tariff for Non-Berth service I might save a couple of $$'s.

Thanks to all who posted.
 
When we have done this in the past, the easiest way was to book 2 adults into a bedroom and then buy 2 open sleeper tickets for daytime configuration. There is no discount, but you can get 4 in a bedroom this way. The reservation agents do struggle with this as most of them have never heard of it, but customer service usually comes through.

The next issue is onboard as the LSA is also usually not properly trained and will only give your party 3 meals when you are entitled to 4. You can call customer service after the fact and get a refund for the 4th meal that you were forced to pay for.

It really isn't that comfortable with 4 in a bedroom, but it is nice to have private stock and be able to take a nap if everyone else is hanging out in the lounge. I would not recommend trying to overnight this way as you are not supposed to put the beds down.
 
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That and you can split the upgrade charge four ways. Not with amtrak as one person is credited with that. But have everyone pay their portion like my family does.
 
When we have done this in the past, the easiest way was to book 2 adults into a bedroom and then buy 2 open sleeper tickets for daytime configuration. There is no discount, but you can get 4 in a bedroom this way.
I believe you mean there is no discount on the accommodation charge when the room is sold for daytime use, and I agree with you.
The two passengers holding the open sleeper tickets should pay low bucket for the rail fare, which is a discount if no saver fare is available and low bucket for coach is sold out. In any event, getting the meals is a "discount" compared to coach.
 
Again, THANKS so much for the wealth of information. One thing....I read from time to time "Open Sleeper....".

What, exactly is "Open Sleeper..." ??
 
Again, THANKS so much for the wealth of information. One thing....I read from time to time "Open Sleeper....".

What, exactly is "Open Sleeper..." ??
A coach ticket giving the person access to a sleeper reservation. Obviously the coach pax needs to know the sleeper pax. This is sometimes done when someone has already booked a room and then wants to have someone join them. Rather than change the reservation which could result in an upcharge (think cancel/rebook), you can have your companion get on open sleeper ticket and link it to your reservation. (hope I got that all right)

I had a friend get an open sleeper a few years ago and as it turns out she decided not to go at the last minute. She was able to cancel her ticket without affecting my ticket. That's another reason someone might want to do an open sleeper - if one of the pax may want to cancel out on the trip.

Another reason is if your traveling companion is boarding downline from your station.
 
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Or, as was the case one time, if they're hopping off far earlier than you are. Once was traveling home from Baltimore on the Meteor. GF was heading home to suburban DC, so what we did was an open ticket BAL-ALX and my room BAL-RVR.

The one hangup was that I was told she wasn't entitled to meals being included even though when on the Cap with Malcolm Kenton he was readily served an included dinner.
 
Okay, so what do you ask for when you speak with Amtrak "Central" ?? Will they, (Amtrak Central, aka, Amtrak Customer Service) understand "Open Ticket" ? Or do you have to try and explain it?

My (limited) experience has been if the person you get at Amtrak Central doesn't understand what you're talking about it's pretty much impossible to explain anything to them, which I can understand...too many "hucksters" trying to pull fast ones....

Recently I just wasn't able to get the woman at Amtrak Central to believe me when I tried to explain the Pacific Parlor Car on the CS has it's own menu and serves lunch and dinner. She insisted that only a "Breakfast Buffet" was served in the PPC but you could take your dining car meal into the PPC.
 
Okay, so what do you ask for when you speak with Amtrak "Central" ?? Will they, (Amtrak Central, aka, Amtrak Customer Service) understand "Open Ticket" ? Or do you have to try and explain it?

My (limited) experience has been if the person you get at Amtrak Central doesn't understand what you're talking about it's pretty much impossible to explain anything to them, which I can understand...too many "hucksters" trying to pull fast ones....

Recently I just wasn't able to get the woman at Amtrak Central to believe me when I tried to explain the Pacific Parlor Car on the CS has it's own menu and serves lunch and dinner. She insisted that only a "Breakfast Buffet" was served in the PPC but you could take your dining car meal into the PPC.
When you aren't getting anywhere just HUCA.

"Hang Up Call Again"
 
Okay, so what do you ask for when you speak with Amtrak "Central" ?? Will they, (Amtrak Central, aka, Amtrak Customer Service) understand "Open Ticket" ? Or do you have to try and explain it?

My (limited) experience has been if the person you get at Amtrak Central doesn't understand what you're talking about it's pretty much impossible to explain anything to them, which I can understand...too many "hucksters" trying to pull fast ones....

Recently I just wasn't able to get the woman at Amtrak Central to believe me when I tried to explain the Pacific Parlor Car on the CS has it's own menu and serves lunch and dinner. She insisted that only a "Breakfast Buffet" was served in the PPC but you could take your dining car meal into the PPC.
When you aren't getting anywhere just HUCA.

"Hang Up Call Again"
Prior success with HUCA may help explain how we ended up with narrow options and limited tolerance "improvements" like AGR2. After many calls I've come to the conclusion that most Amtrak clerks probably have little if any actual firsthand experience with Amtrak's long distance trains.
 
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To: AmtrakLTL, et al.....

THANK YOU !!... kind person for reminding me that HUCA equates to "Choose Your Battles Wisely" and "Save Your Sanity".................as much as I know these two valuable ideas, I just sometimes lose track of them in the midst of it all, and need a gentle reminder. BLESS YOU and again, THANK YOU !!
 
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After many calls I've come to the conclusion that most Amtrak clerks probably have little if any actual firsthand experience with Amtrak's long distance trains.
This is undoubtedly true, especially if you further qualify it by saying "actual firsthand experience with Amtrak's sleeping accommodations."
 
Open sleeper tickets are particularly useful when the people sharing the sleeper room are not going between the same city pairs. Unfortunately it often seems to require getting a supervisor to get an open sleeper ticket issued.
 
Not only that, even some conductors are not sure what to do with it...
 
On the other hand, "NON-BERTHA" service is quite common and easy to book. Just make sure Bertha stays at home, and you're pretty much set.
 
Not only that, even some conductors are not sure what to do with it...
True during September '15.

On a recent Empire Builder trip...I had a lower roomette and overheard events going on. It is my understanding the Family Bedroom is for two adults and two children. A couple boarded who had reserved the Family Bedroom. Another adult couple traveling with them paid coach tickets and intended to occupy the space with the other couple. I heard the conductor talking outside with them stating it used to be allowed, but is not now. After more talk, he relented. I learned later from the car attendant they showed something they printed off the Web...there was another problem. The couple reserving the room stated the other couple are entitled to meals. The diner supervisor came down for a con fab with them and also gave in. So both couples spent the night in the FBR.
http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/65759-is-amtrak-ignoring-their-rules/
 
Bumping this thread just to say that I got a non-berth ticket today for a few friends to ride in my deluxe bedroom from Seattle to Portland (while I continue on to Emeryville). If it weren't for this discussion, I wouldn't have known such a thing was possible - and if it weren't for the veteran Amtrak ticket agent at King St. station who knew precisely what I was asking for, I probably wouldn't have actually gotten it, even though I knew it existed.

Sure saved us a bunch of hassle, too. We were all ticketed on 501 to Portland, but it was delayed 90 minutes+ pulling into Seattle due to a State of Good Repair issue (*snicker*). I was already ticketed in a deluxe on 11 from Portland to Emeryville, and arranged to change that to a Seattle->Emeryville reservation and add my friends so they could ride with me in the bedroom as far as Portland (and enjoy lunch in the diner). We ended up pulling into Portland only 29 minutes later than the (severely delayed) 501.

It's nice to know that the non-berth reservation does not need to match the sleeper reservation in terms of origin and destination cities. Their reservation was only as far as Portland but they were still able to attach to my Emeryville ticket.

Things like this are one of the many reasons I appreciate this forum :)
 
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