Open Sleeper ticket

I am going from Seattle to St. Paul and back in November to visit my brother, and my sister has agreed to come along with me. I have read here that this can be done with an Open Sleeper ticket, and that this is an actual paper ticket.

My sister has expressed a desire to get the ticket from an agent in Portland in advance of her trip. Can she do this, or must she pick up the ticket at the origin of her sleeper trip? Will a ticket agent in Portland know how to do this, or should I call AGR in advance to set it up?

Maglev said:

I am going from Seattle to St. Paul and back in November to visit my brother, and my sister has agreed to come along with me. I have read here that this can be done with an Open Sleeper ticket, and that this is an actual paper ticket.

My sister has expressed a desire to get the ticket from an agent in Portland in advance of her trip. Can she do this, or must she pick up the ticket at the origin of her sleeper trip? Will a ticket agent in Portland know how to do this, or should I call AGR in advance to set it up?

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It can be done by any agent, but calling AGR is a good idea just to be sure it's a set for them!

I believe any ticket agent can print out the ticket.

Any Amtrak agent anywhere can print an Open Sleeper ticket

Would you be traveling from Seattle and your sister from Portland, and she would be joining you in Spokane? I think she might need a coach ticket from Portland to Spokane and then transfer to your sleeper there. Or she could travel to Seattle on her own (Coast Starlight, Cascades) and travel the rest of the trip on the Seattle segment of the EB with you. (Or you could take a train to Portland and use the Portland segment of the EB...) For the latter two routings, it might be fun to use one route to St Paul and the other for the return. That way you both get to see both EB segments and both get to ride the Cascades. I don't know how well the connections in Seattle and Portland work. It is virtually impossible to miss the connection in Spokane because the two EB segments are joined there to form a single train. Enjoy your trip!

Thanks for the answers!

John Santos said:

Would you be traveling from Seattle and your sister from Portland, and she would be joining you in Spokane?

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She will take a Cascade train to meet me in Seattle then also to go back to Portland at the end of the trip.

I am curious about open sleeper tickets. The way I read the posts above, the ticket *must* be picked up in person at a staffed station. What if the person using it will be boarding at an unstaffed station??

Asking because I just might be doing this next winter, and my neared staffed station is, oh, about 260 miles away in Portland. I have had to explain this to Amtrak before, and they have been willing to mail me the tickets.

oregon pioneer said:

I am curious about open sleeper tickets. The way I read the posts above, the ticket *must* be picked up in person at a staffed station. What if the person using it will be boarding at an unstaffed station??

Asking because I just might be doing this next winter, and my neared staffed station is, oh, about 260 miles away in Portland. I have had to explain this to Amtrak before, and they have been willing to mail me the tickets.

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Yes, you can have it mailed - if you trust the mail to arrive in time.

I'm not sure I understand Open Sleeper tickets completely. Do you need one for each of the additional passengers when there is more than one passenger booked for a room or roomette?

Or only when you already have a sleeper booked and want to add another passenger?

Or is it for someone who is only traveling part way? (Example in this case, the OP is traveling from Seattle to St Paul, and his sister would be traveling from Portland to St Paul, and would join him in the sleeper in Spokane...)

Since the sister is taking the Cascades to Seattle, can he just book the sleeper for 2 people, and the sister have a separate ticket from Portland to Seattle? (The issue then would be linking the tickets so if her Cascades train is delayed, she is accommodated somehow, either on the next day's EB or some other way?)

Can you modify an existing reservation (using the appropriate magical incantation) to add another passenger to it, or would you have to cancel and rebook (thus possibly losing any low-bucket fare or risking someone else sneaking in and pouncing on the room, etc.)?

You use an open sleeper ticket in the following circumstances.
1. Adding another person to a room after the initial reservation is made. I do not think you can add a person to an existing reservation without a cancel/rebook and thus a reprice
2. A person not traveling between the same points. On a SEA-LAX trip I added a companion TAC-PDX using an Open Sleeper ticket myself.

The following facts apply about Open Sleeper tickets:
1. They are called "open" because the passenger is on the sleeper manifest but the ticket is not attached to a room.
2. They are separate reservations with a separate PNR from the initial reservation. They are "linked" through notes
3. An open sleeper passenger is entitled to all sleeper amenities, including meals.
4. You have to have the original reservation information/PNR/record locator to make one.
5. Not all reservations agents know about open sleeper or how to do it.
6. The open sleeper ticket will be at the sleeper "rail fare" level of the second Value bucket. It won't vary by yield management.
7. It is not a coach ticket.
8. As mentioned, it is one of the very few remaining ticket types that cannot be eticketed and must be issued as a paper value ticket.
9 Requiring a paper value ticket and spotty knowledge at the call center make them an all around pain. Avoid if at all possible, get your traveling companion(s) straightened away before making a reservation if your companions are going the exact same routing. The only time an open sleeper ticket is unavoidable is if you are traveling with someone between different points.

When you book a trip, you can put whatever name(s) you wish on the ticket, as passengers. The person paying for the ticket does not even have to be one of the passengers.

My purpose in getting the open sleeper ticket is to allow my traveling companion to pay for her own ticket. I'm certainly not going to pay the fare for my friend to accompany me, though I am willing to share the roomette with her, and her meals are already covered as part of my sleeper.

If traveling between the same points, it would be quite a bit easier to just front the fare and have her pay you back . Open sleeper tickets are a general PITA.

zephyr17 said:

If traveling between the same points, it would be quite a bit easier to just front the fare and have her pay you back . Open sleeper tickets are a general PITA.

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Point taken. If she can commit when I make the reservation (that's a BIG "if," with this friend!), I may just buy it with my points, but also note the fare difference for the second person in dollars so she can pay me back.

Just an FYI, it is getting increasingly difficult to get the breakdown between rail fare and accommodation charge on the website. The normal booking process no longer shows it at all prior to purchase. If you use the multi City option, which you can still use even for just one segment, you can get it under fare details once you select the room. It still takes some hunting and isn't obvious but its there.

Look it up for your trip under multi City and note the rail fare. The rail portion of the fare will be stable since it isn't subject to yield management.

zephyr17 said:

Just an FYI, it is getting increasingly difficult to get the breakdown between rail fare and accommodation charge on the website. The normal booking process no longer shows it at all prior to purchase. If you use the multi City option, which you can still use even for just one segment, you can get it under fare details once you select the room. It still takes some hunting and isn't obvious but its there.

Look it up for your trip under multi City and note the rail fare. The rail portion of the fare will be stable since it isn't subject to yield management.

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Wouldn't just looking up "for 2", write down the total, then look up "for 1" and subtract that total from the "for 2" give you the difference, aka rail fare?

True, but requires two passes. You can still get the explicit fare breakdown on multi city.

The fact that you need to perform such dodges to get a fare breakdown now irritates the heck out of me.

I understand that I need to call Amtrak if I want to actually book an open sleeping car ticket. I prefer not take the time to call to just check the price online. Is it a correct assumption that an open sleeping car ticket is the same as a low bucket coach fare?

Steve4031 said:

I understand that I need to call Amtrak if I want to actually book an open sleeping car ticket. I prefer not take the time to call to just check the price online. Is it a correct assumption that an open sleeping car ticket is the same as a low bucket coach fare?

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Having no actual experience with that, I would tend to agree with your assumption.

You can book sleeper car tickets yourself online. I booked 3 separate legs, all in roomettes, all on one ticket, without ever calling Amtrak. I used Amtrak.com. The current price of the total ticket (fare and room) is shown as you search and then book.

Steve4031 said:

I understand that I need to call Amtrak if I want to actually book an open sleeping car ticket. I prefer not take the time to call to just check the price online. Is it a correct assumption that an open sleeping car ticket is the same as a low bucket coach fare?

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Not anymore - it's second bucket if I remember correctly. Easiest way would be to do the search for one person and price out the roomette/bedroom, then run a second search with two people in one roomette/bedroom. The difference should be the same as the open sleeper ticket cost.

PaunchyPirate said:

You can book sleeper car tickets yourself online. I booked 3 separate legs, all in roomettes, without ever calling Amtrak. I used Amtrak.com.

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The OP is not asking about Sleeper tickets, but a special instrument called Open Sleeper Ticket which can be used to add a person to an already existing Sleeper ticket. Normally the cost of an Open Sleeper Ticket should be the Coach fare between the origin and destination. The question is Coach Fare of which bucket. It usually requires a call to an agent to set it up.

jebr said:

Not anymore - it's second bucket if I remember correctly. Easiest way would be to do the search for one person and price out the roomette/bedroom, then run a second search with two people in one roomette/bedroom. The difference should be the same as the open sleeper ticket cost.

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That is my understanding too.

Thank you. I did a mock booking and was able to determine the fare. There are three levels of coach fares. A non-refundable fare, a mid-tier fare with some restrictions, and then the highest refundable fare. I am thinking the middle coach fare would work.

Hope this doesn't confuse the issue, but there are actually 6 possible different coach fares if the Saver fare is included, as shown below in the left hand column for the Empire Builder:

In this case, the coach fare that's included with the fares for the sleepers is $245>, but the words used in describing it can vary and Amtrak customarily only displays three of them to choose from.

And I don't know if this fare is the cost of the Open Sleeper Ticket the OP is asking about.

niemi24s said:

And I don't know if this fare is the cost of the Open Sleeper Ticket the OP is asking about.

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It should be. The sleeper fare is made up (on the back end) with both the accommodation charge (the cost of the room) and a flat "rail fare" (I forget the exact terminology) per person in the room. An open sleeper ticket is essentially paying that rail fare separately on an existing sleeper reservation. It's typically done in cases where either the system isn't otherwise allowing the addition of a second person without rebooking the entire trip to a higher fare bucker, or if the second person is traveling to a different station pair. I've used it once to join someone from St. Cloud to Winona on their full-length Empire Builder trip.

If you use Multi-City to do the phantom booking for research, which you can do using only one through segment (like NYP-SEA), the "detail" breakdown after you select the room will still give you a rail fare/accommodation charge breakout. That rail fare will be the cost of an open sleeper ticket.

I agree with @niemi24s and others that the rail fare for a sleeper ticket now appears set at the second "value" coach bucket, up from the lowest "value" coach bucket.

Finally, you have to call to buy an open sleeper ticket, you cannot do it on the website. It is also issued as a paper "value" ticket, not an eticket, one of the very last ticket types that require that. So the ticket must be picked up in person from an agent or QuikTrak machine. Do not know if they still offer a mail option.