Rafi,
Thanks for looking into this matter.
I spoke with NARP about this this morning and they confirmed that the policy has, indeed, changed and while the cross referencing can still be made and the coach passenger can sleep in the compartment, the Dining Car crew will not honor the complimentary meal. The reason Amtrak gave NARP was that the coach-in-sleeper policy was being abused by some sleeper folks (and was also observed by a number of NARP board members) meeting someone from coach in the lounge and offering them dinner for free (usually singles flirting—that sort of thing), telling the Dining Crew, "They're with me, so they don't have to pay," when in reality, they had only met just an hour ago on board. The Dining Crews were complaining that they either didn't readily have access to the train manifest to see the valid cross references or that they didn't have time to go and research every case that came in (especially on the LSL with its crowded Diner-Lounge), and so management decided to change the policy.
While such a practice may be a bit underhanded, I'm sorry to say that Amtrak should not be enforcing this rule and technically has no right to make such a rule. Amtrak is the one who set the policy that caused this "problem", if you want to call it a problem and I don’t.
But that doesn't change the fact that when one books a roomette that one's fare includes two meals in the dining car for each meal period that the dining car is open and serving. It shouldn't matter to Amtrak who gets those two meals, be it husband and wife, boy friend/girl friend, me & my mom, or me and a complete stranger. The meals have been paid for!
If Amtrak wants to start offering a discount on the roomette when a single person travels in a roomette, then fine I can understand such a policy. But they don't do that. Again, the meals have been paid for. It shouldn't matter to Amtrak who gets that meal as they've got their money for it.
And the silliest part of all of this is the fact that in all of my travels on Amtrak, I think that only once have I ever been asked for proof that I’m in a sleeping car. The crew can ask to see my ticket stub, but they never do. So making a rule about bringing coach pax into the diner while pretending that they are in a sleeper, when no one bothers to even check in the first place that I’m a sleeper pax is stupid. Sorry, but there is no other word for it.
Now, the workaround that Amtrak suggests is to do what daveyb99 mentions: before departure, call Amtrak and have them change the person count on the reservation's PNR in ARROW. There is apparently no reason that the reservation agent can't go in and simply change the passenger count and add the new passengers to the reservation without affecting the bucket price for the room. If the agent says that they have to re-ticket the entire reservation, and consequently charge a higher bucket, then they're probably not aware of how to change the passenger count and you're best to either call back or just ask for a supervisor.
Now if indeed Amtrak can just add a second person to the reservation without re-pricing it that certainly makes life easier for those who do want to bring along a friend or a relative who wasn't originally planning to travel, and it takes the sting out of the above stupid rule. However Amtrak's policy always seems to be that any changes results in the higher fare. For example I recently wanted to upgrade from Business Class on an Acela to First Class, but I was unable to do that without loosing my $102 seat for a $146 seat. And that was in addition to the 66 bucks for the FC seat.
Makes no sense, I'm paying more for a FC seat in the first place, Amtrak will now be able to sell my BC seat at the $146 rate, but no they want to may me pay more for my seat too. Amtrak policy seem to be let's milk the passenger who wants to get better service from us.
I've found two flies in the ointment with this new approach, however:1). I often travel for business in sleeper and my company pays with my corporate card. I often want to bring my wife along, but she can't be on the same itinerary and show up on the receipt my company gets (and they automatically pay the corporate card bill, so they'd end up paying for her too, which won't go over well). So my method historically has been to book her separately and pay for her rail fare (even though it's higher than mine) and cross-reference the two reservations so that she can sleep in the room and get meals. This scenario is now not a possibility.
2). Take the above example where I travel for business and want to bring my wife along, but in this case, I want to use an AGR coach redemption for her portion of the ticket. Because AGR redemptions have to be on their own reservation itineraries, this scenario is also now out of the question if my wife wants to eat as a sleeper passenger.
NARP (and apparently Amtrak) hadn't thought about either of these scenarios, and NARP's looking into it.
Just FYI.
Rafi
Does your company not have a way that you can reemburse them for your wife's travel? Many companies do that, as they understand that people do sometimes like to bring their spouse along. If not, I'd try taking that idea up the corporate ladder.
That said, I can understand and appreciate the problem. However perhaps what you can do is to make a seperate reservation for your wife, then get the agent to merge the two reservations. That way the extra charge won't go to the travel agent.
As for your second scenario, I'm not sure that's a scenario that should really be allowed in the first place. When using reward points you are supposed to have enough points to do whatever it is that you want to do. Or in other words, you aren't supposed to be combining points and cash together.
