Guests allowed in bedrooms

[timjimbob]

Is a passenger, not listed as a bedroom ticket holder, allowed to be escorted back to the bedroom.

We will be travelling on the same train with a couple of coach passengers and I would like to have them visit our room for an hour.

 

[the_traveler]

If the passenger registered in the room escorts those from coach, no problem. However, a passenger from coac can not enter a sleeping car generally.

 

[Lonestar648]

Just make sure the room isn't over crowded attracting attention (Roomette with 5 or 6). Generally, the SCA sill not care as long as the Sleeping car passengers are escorting, thus insuring that coach guests stay out of other people rooms.

 

[jebr]

Technically (and per the rule book) only sleeper passengers are allowed in a sleeper car. If the SCA sees coach passengers in the sleeper car, even if they're escorted by a sleeper car passenger, they may be asked to leave the sleeper car.

That being said, I've never done it personally, but I'd imagine that more than likely if it's just for an hour or two and they're not noticeably using the extra amenities provided (for example, they're not grabbing cups of coffee to take back) an SCA would be okay with it. They may not even notice if the bedroom door is shut.

 

[Ryan]

Unsurprisingly, I'll provide the contrary opinion.

On the door to the sleeping car should be a sign:



Are your coach guests "Sleeping Car Passengers"? No? Have your reunion elsewhere, like the cafe/lounge car.

Can you get away with it? Perhaps, especially if you are quiet and well behaved. But common courtesy toward your fellow passengers that paid for private accommodations involves not allowing unauthorized passengers into somewhere they don't belong.

 

[OBS]

Oh Ryan....You are such a party pooper...LOL

 

[Bob Dylan]

Ryan is right on the Policy, but if you talk with your SCA ( Always ask!)he MAY OK a visit to your Room. Good ones will, and if so, remember to tip appropriately @ the end of the trip.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

I agree--a short and polite visit, with the knowledge and approval of your SCA, is great advertising for the sleeper car and may encourage more people to travel in it.

 

[Palmetto]

I had a friend of mine in coach join me in my room for happy hour between Chicago and San Antonio. I asked the attendant if he would mind getting setups for the two of us at the appointed time, prior to our going to the dining car. It would've been better I think to ask first, but OTOH, asking him to bring setups was--in an indirect way--asking for the go ahead. He could've denied the request at that point.

In any case, my friend spent all of about 90 minutes in the sleeping car. And oh yes: we were quite well behaved! :lol:

 

[fairviewroad]

Are your coach guests "Sleeping Car Passengers"? No? Have your reunion elsewhere, like the cafe/lounge car.

This.

There is such an obvious alternative location for a mixed-class gathering on board an Amtrak train. With a few narrow exceptions, all trains with sleeping accommodations also have a lounge car.

 

[PVD]

Very often the lounge cars are pretty full, or on single level trains, non existant, they are the cafe car. A short visit by quiet polite folks who don't try to take advantage of the car services (coffee, shower, pillows,blankets) or invade others privacy by being in the halls I generally travel solo, any time someone has walked back to chat (typically a foreign tourist who wants to know more about the US that I met at a meal) the SCA is cool with it, it is way better than a family with kids that run in the hall. No one has ever said anything about it, other than the comment made on the board.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

I recall reading that some oil field workers boarding the Empire Builder in North Dakota often invited friendly unaccompanied ladies back to their rooms, no? Or did the ladies have the rooms and invited the new (and just paid) friends to visit their rooms? Anyway, Amtrak put a stop to it.

I can certainly see that a Rule should be posted prohibiting such excessive camaraderie. An Amtrak sleeping car is not to be used as a hot sheet hotel. I can also see that if you politely ask your attendant first, that the rule can usually be bent. Do expect your guest to get the once-over, like all the others, for good reason.

(For myself, I don't care what goes on in the next room. One of my meds is a date rape drug, and I sleep thru everything. LOL)

 

[PVD]

Polite, quiet and respectful are key. Skip one of those, and you really don't desrve consideration. But that pretty much goes for anything, not just this.

 

[seat38a]

Whats next, are we going to allow visitors to the front of the plane to your lie flat seat to converse as well? Maybe it will help sell more premiums seats on the plane? How about into the PPC as well.

Reading all the "What if I book a roommete and my kids in coach" or some variation of that question over the past couple of months, I agree with Ryan at some point enough is enough and the the rules should be enforced.

 

[pennyk]

Unsurprisingly, I'll provide the contrary opinion.

On the door to the sleeping car should be a sign:

ImageUploadedByAmtrak Forum1461075260.735170.jpg

Are your coach guests "Sleeping Car Passengers"? No? Have your reunion elsewhere, like the cafe/lounge car.

Can you get away with it? Perhaps, especially if you are quiet and well behaved. But common courtesy toward your fellow passengers that paid for private accommodations involves not allowing unauthorized passengers into somewhere they don't belong.

I agree with Ryan.

 

[HenryK]

Just make sure the Portland-bound passenger of the opposite sex that you invite to your Seattle-bound sleeping car on the Empire Builder goes back to the coaches before the train gets to Spokane.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Just make sure the Portland-bound passenger of the opposite sex that you invite to your Seattle-bound sleeping car on the Empire Builder goes back to the coaches before the train gets to Spokane.

I was waiting for you to post this, Henry.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Just make sure the Portland-bound passenger of the opposite sex that you invite to your Seattle-bound sleeping car on the Empire Builder goes back to the coaches before the train gets to Spokane.

I'm Shocked! Shocked! to find out that Working Girls are on Amtrak Long Distance Trains! Round up the Usual Suspects!

 

[SP&S]

By the book, they should not be allowed back in to the sleeper. But ask. Nicely. A couple of years ago Mrs SP&S and I were traveling from LAX to PDX in a bedroom and our daughter had a coach ticket on the same train for EUG - PDX. Our SCA, after a little thought and after being assured that no meals or parlour car access was involved, let her board directly to our car. She also got a good tip. I mention that she boarded directly into our sleeper because the SCA didn't want to explain this to the conductor when our daughter went from coach thru the diner and parlor. The worst they can do is say no.

 

[HenryK]

I heard that story about the train splitting and the lady getting left behind from at least seven sleeping car attendants who swore it happened on their train. Some told the story with considerably more relish (and eyebrow wagging) than others.

 

[Walt]

Unsurprisingly, I'll provide the contrary opinion.

On the door to the sleeping car should be a sign:

ImageUploadedByAmtrak Forum1461075260.735170.jpg

Are your coach guests "Sleeping Car Passengers"? No? Have your reunion elsewhere, like the cafe/lounge car.

Can you get away with it? Perhaps, especially if you are quiet and well behaved. But common courtesy toward your fellow passengers that paid for private accommodations involves not allowing unauthorized passengers into somewhere they don't belong.

I agree with Ryan.

I agree with Ryan too. And would also go as far as asking the conductor or SCA to enforce the rule.

I've been in too many trains where I have to deal with loud "partying" coach passengers in the sleeper car.

Or tag-team sleeping, where once an hour, someone from coach goes to the door of a sleeper accommodation and knocks, pounding hard enough to wake the sleeping person, aggressively enough to convince the sleeping person to leave (as they apparently agreed). The previously sleeper person slams the door when leaving to express their unhappiness with having to be the one who now has to go to coach.

I'm not going to look the other way, anymore.

If a sleeper passengers wants to socialize with a friend or family member that's in coach, meet them in the lounge.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I too FIRMLY concur Coach pax stay in Coach-try wandering into First or Biz on an airliner! And I never have been able to figure out these groups that split between Coach and Sleeper, rotating back and forth creating nothing but confusion and mayhem for other pax and crew.

 

[jhillm]

I agree completely with expecting civilized behavior (which goes for Coach, too - I might add.)

But I fail to understand why, within the capacity of the accommodation, I can not invite a new friend to visit, sleep, or eat with me.

A roomette is the same cost whether 1 or 2 people are booked in it. Clearly any Coach passenger has already paid at least low coach fare.

Why is it taking advantage of the system to add a second occupant? (A single second occupant, not a hot bunking rotation of entertainment.)

Yes I see that there is a rule against it - but to what purpose?

What if it is not a new friend, but an old friend? Say I have a roomette from CHI to LAX, and dear friend intends to join me in Kansas City? Would they not purchase a coach seat from Kansas City and just join me in the roomette? We would use no more "service" that the couple across the aisle who paid exactly the same for the roomette, and both occupy it from CHI.

 

[seat38a]

I agree completely with expecting civilized behavior (which goes for Coach, too - I might add.)

But I fail to understand why, within the capacity of the accommodation, I can not invite a new friend to visit, sleep, or eat with me.

A roomette is the same cost whether 1 or 2 people are booked in it. Clearly any Coach passenger has already paid at least low coach fare.

Why is it taking advantage of the system to add a second occupant? (A single second occupant, not a hot bunking rotation of entertainment.)

Yes I see that there is a rule against it - but to what purpose?

What if it is not a new friend, but an old friend? Say I have a roomette from CHI to LAX, and dear friend intends to join me in Kansas City? Would they not purchase a coach seat from Kansas City and just join me in the roomette? We would use no more "service" that the couple across the aisle who paid exactly the same for the roomette, and both occupy it from CHI.

Well if you call Amtrak and then get your real friend on the Roommette reservation problem solved. So unless your willing to put a complete stranger in your roommette reservation and have the conductor upgrade them onto your reservation(if allowed), until that happens your new "friend" is still a "coach passenger." So as the the second part of the sign says, upgrade away, if that means paying extra or you adding them to your reservation, thats fine. Until your "friend" is on the manifest for the sleeper they don't qualify for food inclusion in the dining car or anything else. If your willing to upgrade some random stranger into your room reservation and give them complete access to it, which by definition of putting them on your reservation they get, then whatever happens to you or your belongings is completely on YOU.

 

[TiBike]

On the other hand, when I'm at a hotel or on a cruise ship, I can invite any other paying guests into my room, to enjoy whatever amenities there might be. Visitors just have to observe the same standards of decorum and courtesy as the people assigned the room. I understand the noise/disturbance issue, but that's not unique to visitors -- people properly booked into a sleeper accomodation can be just as much trouble. The difference is you have immediate recourse if it's a visitor who can be sent back to coach. Which seems to me to be the main purpose of the rule: give staff a tool to use to quickly solve problems. If there's no problem, there's no need to employ it. Unless a genuine disturbance results, it's none of my business. It's a matter for the people involved and the SCA. Not my problem.