Bedroom downgraded to Coach a week before departure

[cpl100]

Agree it is a straightforward cancelling/downgrading passengers unlucky enough booked in the dropped car. They don't appear to be doing any shuffling of passengers around based on date booked, price paid, or anything else.

I doubt it is a strategy. It's just a s show that they're bumbling through.

Making sure I am in the 30/00/11/whatever "base" sleeper car on any trains until this hurricane of incompetence is over.

How do you ensure that at time of booking please?

 

[Ryan]

Call and ask for a specific car.

 

[cpl100]

Call and ask for a specific car.

Thank you. If I ask for the base sleeper car, will that be enough information? This will be my first booking in sleeper car so unfamiliar with it all.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Call and ask for a specific car.

What specific car should we ask for?

Should it be the responsibility of the customer to know that some cars could be taken off “cause we felt like it” ?

 

[trimetbusfan]

What specific car should we ask for?

Should it be the responsibility of the customer to know that some cars could be taken off “cause we felt like it” ?

Depends on the route. Usually the ‘30’ car is the base sleeper on most superliner routes.

For viewliner routes, it’s ‘00’ or ‘10’

 

[zephyr17]

What specific car should we ask for?

Should it be the responsibility of the customer to know that some cars could be taken off “cause we felt like it” ?

No, but like many things with Amtrak, like the 5 yield management fare buckets to the size of room A, some knowledge goes a long way and sharing such useful info is one of the primary benefits of this board.

30 car on western Superliner trains, except the CZ, which is 31.

00 on the Capitol Limited

10 on most Viewliners, except the LSL where 10 is the Boston sleeper and 11 is the base New York one.

The call center won't know what a "base" sleeper is. I made up the term on the spot when I remembered what I almost wrote, the "30 car", while used on the many trains and the ones I ride the most, isn't universal and I reached for a term. "Minimum consist sleeper" seemed
awkward and I felt "base" would be intuitive to most here.

 

[jis]

10 on most Viewliners, except the LSL where 10 is the Boston sleeper and 11 is the base New York one.

The Boston Sleeper used to be 20. When did that change?

 

[zephyr17]

The Boston Sleeper used to be 20. When did that change?

It was that way in my November 2021 trip. The New York section had 11 & 12 and the Boston section 10, though I am not absolutely sure of the Boston section's sleeper car line number. I was in the 11 both directions and it was the sleeper closest to Viewliner diner, the 12 was trailing it (and was a V2). I never walked forward inside the train and only walked by the Boston sleeper at Albany when I walked back from watching them combine the sections (I watched the split from the footbridge heading east). I glanced at the car line number of the Boston sleeper, but I am not positive now it was 10, like I am 11 & 12 for the NY sleepers. I recall being a bit surprised when 11 was the first NY sleeper.

Perhaps someone in Massachusetts or upstate New York could verify? I don't get back there much, though I'll be riding the LSL again in November and will try to remember to check it then.

 

[cpl100]

Depends on the route. Usually the ‘30’ car is the base sleeper on most superliner routes.

For viewliner routes, it’s ‘00’ or ‘10’

It was that way in my November 2021 trip. The New York section had 11 & 12 and the Boston section 10, though I am not absolutely sure of the Boston section's sleeper car line number. I was in the 11 both directions and it was the sleeper closest to Viewliner diner, the 12 was trailing it (and was a V2). I never walked forward inside the train and only walked by the Boston sleeper at Albany when I walked back from watching them combine the sections (I watched the split from the footbridge heading east). I glanced at the car line number of the Boston sleeper, but I am not positive now it was 10, like I am 11 & 12 for the NY sleepers. I recall being a bit surprised when 11 was the first NY sleeper.

Perhaps someone in Massachusetts or upstate New York could verify? I don't get back there much, though I'll be riding the LSL again in November and will try to remember to check it then.

Does anyone know what it would be for the Auto Train please?

 

[zephyr17]

Does anyone know what it would be for the Auto Train please?

I wouldn't worry too much about them dropping already booked sleepers from the Auto Train very much. It's always been somebody's baby at Amtrak, and it has its own pool of Superliners that it doesn't share with the national pool of all other Superliner trains and also has somewhat independent maintenance (big jobs still have to go to Beech Grove). I doubt this massive cluster coitus is going to affect it.

 

[joelkfla]

I wouldn't worry too much about them dropping already booked sleepers from the Auto Train very much. It's always been somebody's baby at Amtrak, and it has its own pool of Superliners that it doesn't share with the national pool of all other Superliner trains and also has somewhat independent maintenance (big jobs still have to go to Beech Grove). I doubt this massive cluster coitus is going to affect it.

And it has a large number of sleepers, like 7 on today's southbound. The number of cars varies day to day.

 

[Ryan]

Should it be the responsibility of the customer to know that some cars could be taken off “cause we felt like it” ?

It shouldn't, since that isn't what's happening.

 

[lordsigma]

Auto Train is understaffed like everywhere though I'm not sure it had quite as many furloughed staff given the train continued daily thru early COVID. But despite that it's still understaffed I'm guessing from retirements and resignations.