Assigned seats in Coach and other questions...

[glomor]

I took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Fullerton this past weekend. I was the first non-handicapped/non-senior person to board the train. In the past I would simply present my ticket, be directed to the proper coach, and find a seat. I prefer a window seat near the stairwell. In this case I was told to proceed to seat #68. When I got there it was already occupied by a woman in the window seat. When the train began to move, the seat in front was empty so I moved up. The car attendant had a fit when he saw that I was not in my assigned seat, but finally agreed to let me stay there. I asked when Amtrak had gone to assigned seating and was told that everyone was supposed to do it that way, but some didn't. I wondered what the experience has been of others recently. Has there been a change? Admittedly it's been awhile since I rode coach.

I am also wondering if it is possible for a single person to purchase two tickets in order to avoid having a seat partner?

Another woman in coach inquired about upgrading to a sleeper and was told that she would either have to pay double fare or share a roomette with someone else. I had never heard of that and when I mentioned to some others on board they too could not believe it. Again, I'm wondering what others here have heard. Is this something new?

I was not able to eat in the dining room either night. The first night, by the time they got to my coach, no dinner reservations were available--only snack bar. The second night I was offered only a 5 o'clock seating--this was offered at 3:30 as I was returning from a very late lunch. Needless to say I had to pass on that. I have never had that happen before in all my years of riding Amtrak. Very poor service, IMO.

The entire trip was rather unsatisfying--and I had really been looking forward to this vacation. I am dreading the return voyage now because I don't know what to expect. Can anyone address these issues here? I am curious to know what your experiences have been riding coach.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PetalumaLoco]

I'm not traveled enough to answer any of your questions. I'm just hoping you don't get the same car attendant for the return trip.

 

[Ispolkom]

I took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Fullerton this past weekend. I was the first non-handicapped/non-senior person to board the train. In the past I would simply present my ticket, be directed to the proper coach, and find a seat. I prefer a window seat near the stairwell. In this case I was told to proceed to seat #68. When I got there it was already occupied by a woman in the window seat. When the train began to move, the seat in front was empty so I moved up. The car attendant had a fit when he saw that I was not in my assigned seat, but finally agreed to let me stay there. I asked when Amtrak had gone to assigned seating and was told that everyone was supposed to do it that way, but some didn't. I wondered what the experience has been of others recently. Has there been a change? Admittedly it's been awhile since I rode coach.

In my experience in coach (which I admit has mostly been on the Empire Builder in the last 8 years), I've been assigned a seat when the train is crowded. I've also often heard car attendents warn people not to spread out to empty seats at stations where many passengers get out, as they wanted to save the open sets of seats for groups traveling together. I also have noticed signs over seats reserving them for people traveling in groups of two or more.

Since I usually travel with my spouse, I like these policies (except that I *hate* being by the stairwell, and I usually end up assigned a seat there).

 

[glomor]

In my experience in coach (which I admit has mostly been on the Empire Builder in the last 8 years), I've been assigned a seat when the train is crowded. I've also often heard car attendents warn people not to spread out to empty seats at stations where many passengers get out, as they wanted to save the open sets of seats for groups traveling together. I also have noticed signs over seats reserving them for people traveling in groups of two or more.
Since I usually travel with my spouse, I like these policies (except that I *hate* being by the stairwell, and I usually end up assigned a seat there).

That makes sense to me. The train did seem to be quite crowded. There were three coach cars and I think 3 sleepers.

It's interesting how different people prefer different seats for different reasons. I'm not sure why I like the stairwell--proximity to the bathrooms I guess would be one reason. To me it seems quieter than the end seats where the doors are constantly opening and closing as people go from car to car.

I love the Empire Builder. What a beautiful route. I've taken it several times in the past when my daughter lived in Seattle. It never seemed as crowded to me as this Chicago to LA route.

I will be boarding the return train in Fullerton so I suppose I will have to take whatever is available. I will try to be nice! I'm still interested in hearing people's experiences upgrading to sleeper--what is the typical cost and is it necessary to share a roomette with a stranger?

Thank you for your response!

 

[wayman]

I will be boarding the return train in Fullerton so I suppose I will have to take whatever is available. I will try to be nice! I'm still interested in hearing people's experiences upgrading to sleeper--what is the typical cost and is it necessary to share a roomette with a stranger?

No, it is not necessary to share a roomette. And the attendant who said you'd have to pay double to have a roomette solo was not quite right, or at least not clear, about that. The roomette itself has a fixed cost. That cost is the same whether one or two people occupy it, so if you assume two people sharing a roomette split the cost while a solo traveler has to pay the whole thing by himself, then yes it costs him twice as much; but the cost of the roomette itself is a constant.

Well, except that it's anything but constant--it varies based on how much of the ride you're going to be using it. Only the conductor handles on-board upgrades, and he can explain the process and the cost to you. (The cost of the roomette can also vary tremendously if you're booking it in advance based on the number of roomettes still available, but once you're on board availability no longer affects price.)

I've frequently had seats assigned on long distance routes, and not just recently. It might be more common now, but I've definitely had seats assigned when I board mid-route on the Crescent because the car attendants know exactly which seats on the car are available and it creates minimal disturbance for the already on-board passengers if new passengers go straight to a particular seat. I've never seen assigned seats on a corridor train except for the Cascades.

 

[Tony]

Another woman in coach inquired about upgrading to a sleeper and was told that she would either have to pay double fare or share a roomette with someone else. I had never heard of that and when I mentioned to some others on board they too could not believe it. Again, I'm wondering what others here have heard. Is this something new?

I thought that has been the way it has always been.

A roomette is the same fixed cost regardless if it is occupied by one person or two. If you want a roomette to yourself, you have to pay the entire upgrade cost yourself. If you could share it with someone, then each of you could chip-in only 1/2 the upgrade fee.

I was not able to eat in the dining room either night. The first night, by the time they got to my coach, no dinner reservations were available--only snack bar. The second night I was offered only a 5 o'clock seating--this was offered at 3:30 as I was returning from a very late lunch. Needless to say I had to pass on that. I have never had that happen before in all my years of riding Amtrak. Very poor service, IMO.

Sleeper passengers have priority. They get fed first, and have first crack at reservations. And, of the remaining reservation slots (if there are any), they are first-come, first-served to coach. If other coach passengers got all the remaining reservation spots before you, then unfortuanately, you might need to settle for the snack bar. Amtrak can't add an extra table in the dining car for coach passengers.

The entire trip was rather unsatisfying--and I had really been looking forward to this vacation. I am dreading the return voyage now because I don't know what to expect. Can anyone address these issues here? I am curious to know what your experiences have been riding coach.

Yes, I can address it. In coach, you are not treated as a first class passenger (or in this case, a sleeper passenger). Sorry for being blunt, but that is simply the way it works.

 

[wayman]

WHOOPS--meant to edit my previous post, and wound up "replying" to myself! :blush: :wacko: The only addition was the paragraph about rough cost estimate of a roomette upgrade.

I will be boarding the return train in Fullerton so I suppose I will have to take whatever is available. I will try to be nice! I'm still interested in hearing people's experiences upgrading to sleeper--what is the typical cost and is it necessary to share a roomette with a stranger?

No, it is not necessary to share a roomette. And the attendant who said you'd have to pay double to have a roomette solo was not quite right, or at least not clear, about that. The roomette itself has a fixed cost. That cost is the same whether one or two people occupy it, so if you assume two people sharing a roomette split the cost while a solo traveler has to pay the whole thing by himself, then yes it costs him twice as much; but the cost of the roomette itself is a constant.

Well, except that it's anything but constant--it varies based on how much of the ride you're going to be using it. Only the conductor handles on-board upgrades, and he can explain the process and the cost to you. (The cost of the roomette can also vary tremendously if you're booking it in advance based on the number of roomettes still available, but once you're on board availability no longer affects price.)

As for "typical cost", don't be scared by whatever amtrak.com says a roomette will cost you, since you'll likely be seeing the highest possible cost this close to the date of travel; while once you're on board, if there is an available roomette you will be offered the lowest possible cost! At a guess, I would say about $200 per 24 hours, which includes your meals in the dining car. But that's just a rough estimate; the conductor can give you an exact figure (and probably others on this list can give you a better estimate).

I've frequently had seats assigned on long distance routes, and not just recently. It might be more common now, but I've definitely had seats assigned when I board mid-route on the Crescent because the car attendants know exactly which seats on the car are available and it creates minimal disturbance for the already on-board passengers if new passengers go straight to a particular seat. I've never seen assigned seats on a corridor train except for the Cascades.

 

[wayman]

Sleeper passengers have priority. They get fed first, and have first crack at reservations. And, of the remaining reservation slots (if there are any), they are first-come, first-served to coach. If other coach passengers got all the remaining reservation spots before you, then unfortuanately, you might need to settle for the snack bar. Amtrak can't add an extra table in the dining car for coach passengers.

They can't add extra tables for coach passengers, but they can use the tables they have a lot more efficiently than they often do. Some of this is the fault of the dining car staff cutbacks several years ago, but also different LSAs have different ways of timing seatings in the dining car, some of which make efficient use and re-use of most or every table in the car and others of which make extremely inefficient use of them.

The entire trip was rather unsatisfying--and I had really been looking forward to this vacation. I am dreading the return voyage now because I don't know what to expect. Can anyone address these issues here? I am curious to know what your experiences have been riding coach.

Yes, I can address it. In coach, you are not treated as a first class passenger (or in this case, a sleeper passenger). Sorry for being blunt, but that is simply the way it works.

It doesn't have to be that way, though, and it often isn't. I've had fantastic service from coach attendants many times. Coach Class isn't Sleeper Class, but it isn't Steerage either.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

if the train was running late then thats why. even if the train is 1 minute late the workers on the train get pissed and act like its your fault. sometimes there pissed even if the train is on time.

 

[Gingee]

We have taken coach twice. On the Cardinal, we could sit where we wanted to. On the Lake Shore limited a very bossy attendant told us where to sit.

 

[Dan O]

I took the Southwest Chief from LAX to CHI and back this summer. I was assigned seats both ways. I liked the seat by the stairwell that had the extra leg room. I am not tall but it was much easier to have our things right at our feet than reach up and get things down (I was travelling with teen aged kids).

On the way from CHI to LAX, my son and I were assigned a seat at the front of the car. Right after we sat down a couple came up and said we were in their seats. There was some discussion w/ the person who assigned the seats and it was all straightened out to everyone's satisfaction within a few minutes.

Dano

 

[Tony]

They can't add extra tables for coach passengers, but they can use the tables they have a lot more efficiently than they often do. Some of this is the fault of the dining car staff cutbacks several years ago, but also different LSAs have different ways of timing seatings in the dining car, some of which make efficient use and re-use of most or every table in the car and others of which make extremely inefficient use of them.

Even under the best circumstances, I don't think that any single dining car could seat all coach passengers at the same meal time. Remember, part of the original complaint was that reservation openings were taken by other coach passengers, leaving no openings at the OP's desired time.

 

[AlanB]

They can't add extra tables for coach passengers, but they can use the tables they have a lot more efficiently than they often do. Some of this is the fault of the dining car staff cutbacks several years ago, but also different LSAs have different ways of timing seatings in the dining car, some of which make efficient use and re-use of most or every table in the car and others of which make extremely inefficient use of them.

Even under the best circumstances, I don't think that any single dining car could seat all coach passengers at the same meal time. Remember, part of the original complaint was that reservation openings were taken by other coach passengers, leaving no openings at the OP's desired time.

No, the dining car could never seat all the coach passengers at the same time. Even on the Auto Train where meals are included for coach passengers, they during peak times run two dining cars exclusively for coach passengers (there's a third one for sleeping car pax), and the cafe car has overflow seating for the dining car. And they still have to do three seatings to feed all the coach passengers.

However, on the rest of the trains where coach passengers don't get free meal, that's not really an issue. The issue is what Wayman mentioned, the dining car cutbacks. That's why glomor couldn't get a dinner reservation. Under the old dining car plan, still in use on the Empire Builder, Amtrak could seat 192 people for dinner. Under the new SDS plan implimented two years ago, now they can only feed 96 people dinner in the dining car. That's almost half the number of passengers that they used to be able to feed. NOTE: These numbers apply only to the bi-level Superliner dining cars. The numbers are obviously very different for the single level trains.

 

[Patrick A]

Woah, so am I reading this thread correctly: sleeper service doesn't mean priority for dining times, it means priority for the chance to eat in the dining car at all? Really?

 

[caravanman]

Sleeper car passengers get their meals included in the ticket price, so they are offered first choice of seating times. Amtrak is not geared up to provide meals in the diner for a full train load of passengers.. sadly they don't trouble themselves to make that clear. I have been annoyed in the past to find myself in the rearmost coach en route from Chicago to Emeryville, and even though I am traveling the farthest distance, any remaining available meal slots in the diner are offered first to those in the nearest coach to the diner. The best advice is take plenty of food on board with you to eat, and just hope you can get a hot meal at some point!

Ed B)

 

[Walt]

Under the old dining car plan, still in use on the Empire Builder, Amtrak could seat 192 people for dinner. Under the new SDS plan implimented two years ago, now they can only feed 96 people dinner in the dining car. That's almost half the number of passengers that they used to be able to feed. NOTE: These numbers apply only to the bi-level Superliner dining cars. The numbers are obviously very different for the single level trains.

Wow, I didn't realize that!

Only Congress could come up with a plan to increase revenue by decreasing the number of dining customers from 192 to 96. Congress must have been counting on all 96 ordering appetizers.

 

[caravanman]

I don't think Congress thought at all about the chances of any profits.. more about cutting back on the losses!

Ed B)

 

[PRR 60]

Under the old dining car plan, still in use on the Empire Builder, Amtrak could seat 192 people for dinner. Under the new SDS plan implimented two years ago, now they can only feed 96 people dinner in the dining car. That's almost half the number of passengers that they used to be able to feed. NOTE: These numbers apply only to the bi-level Superliner dining cars. The numbers are obviously very different for the single level trains.

Wow, I didn't realize that!

Only Congress could come up with a plan to increase revenue by decreasing the number of dining customers from 192 to 96. Congress must have been counting on all 96 ordering appetizers.

Congress required cutting food service losses. The SDS plan was Amtrak's.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Congress required cutting food service losses. The SDS plan was Amtrak's.

no amtraks retarded president and management.

 

[VentureForth]

Hi Glomor. When you buy a ticket on Amtrak, it is a reserved, unassigned-seat ticket. That means there will be a seat for you, but because of the nature of get-on get-off train riding, your seat assignment won't be known until you board. The coach attendant's primary job is to most efficiently seat passengers, keeping parties together without having to relocate folks during the ride. So, when you moved from your aisle seat to the row in front, you did two things that would have created angst in the service attendants job - 1) your seat check (that little strip of paper that is above your seat showing your destination) didn't move with you, so first appearances would look like you were a stowaway. Even if you moved your check paper with you, they keep diagrams of the seats so they know where everyone is. 2) You made it more awkward for the attendant to be able to seat a party of two or four at the next stop. That all being said, a little communication with the coach attendant would make it a bit more pleasurable for both you and him/her.

As for buying two tickets, it may or may not work. Again, since seats aren't assigned, a non-checked, non-occupied seat is fair game so far as a coach attendant is concerned. And they're the last folks you want to argue with about seating arrangements. Many be sympathetic, but I'm afraid most could care less.

I guess SDS was done in the theory that a single Microwave Specialist could do twice as many meals than two chefs. I don't understand how capacity dropped from 192 to 96; seating times should be the same... Maybe it's just poorly run.

As for asking for an onboard upgrade, yes, it'll be a lot. But ask for the dollar amount, and if you don't like the price, don't do it (or wait and ask the next conductor 8 hours later). To say that you'd have to share a sleeper with another pax is ridiculous. They will NEVER put someone in a room with another person unless (and even this is rare) that person requests it.

 

[Tony]

So, when you moved from your aisle seat to the row in front, you did two things that would have created angst in the service attendants job - 1) your seat check (that little strip of paper that is above your seat showing your destination) didn't move with you, so first appearances would look like you were a stowaway. Even if you moved your check paper with you, they keep diagrams of the seats so they know where everyone is. 2) You made it more awkward for the attendant to be able to seat a party of two or four at the next stop. That all being said, a little communication with the coach attendant would make it a bit more pleasurable for both you and him/her.

I understand your point, but the OP was assigned the window seat (seat #68) by the service attendant. I still don't understand if this particular service assistant wanted to rigidly maintain seating assignments, why didn't service assistant ask that lady to move, and thus allow the OP to sit in his assigned window seat?

If the service assistant did that, I don't think the OP would have moved to another row.

 

[VentureForth]

OP just said #68, which like airlines, Amtrak has rows by number, seats by letter. The way I interpreted the OP was that there was someone in row 68, perhaps seat A and OP was to sit in seat B. Seeing row #62 was empty, took it upon his/herself to move up a row.

Again, not a real big deal, but without communication could explain why the service attendant (against better customer service ideals) reacted the way s/he did.

 

[AlanB]

I guess SDS was done in the theory that a single Microwave Specialist could do twice as many meals than two chefs.

To be fair, first they don't use microwaves. They use convection ovens and here is a big difference between a convection oven and a microwave. Second, some food is still cooked fresh on board the train, except in the Diner-Lite cars on the LSL and the Cardinal.

I don't understand how capacity dropped from 192 to 96; seating times should be the same... Maybe it's just poorly run.

Head over to this topic and read post #5 and a few of the subsequent posts to learn how the capacity dropped.

 

[Guest_TransAtlantic_*]

OP just said #68, which like airlines, Amtrak has rows by number, seats by letter. The way I interpreted the OP was that there was someone in row 68, perhaps seat A and OP was to sit in seat B. Seeing row #62 was empty, took it upon his/herself to move up a row.
Again, not a real big deal, but without communication could explain why the service attendant (against better customer service ideals) reacted the way s/he did.

Uh, no....seats are INDIVIDUALLY numbered on Amtrak LD trains, NOT just a numbered row/lettered seat. In fact, if you look at the seat number above each seat, you'll notice there is no letter of any kind. What does a mother with a child do if, boarding late at night, she enters a car and finds nothing but single occupants in window seats, leaving her to sit across the aisle from her child? That is why seat assignments MUST be done, and respected.

 

[sky12065]

What does a mother with a child do if, boarding late at night, she enters a car and finds nothing but single occupants in window seats, leaving her to sit across the aisle from her child? That is why seat assignments MUST be done, and respected.

You're absolutely correct and it goes even further than just mother and child. If the Conductor is a good Conductor, he/she will get the situation resolved satisfactorily. But in either case he/she is the BOSS and there are no ands, ifs or buts about that - period!