I am finally home !

[amtrakmichigan]

I just thought I would say hi to everyone, I just got back home last night (Nov 29) from a 2 week and 1 day rail trip from Michigan to Florida covering a few miles short of 4,000. I am going to write a trip report on the trip report page as I get time. I will write it in sections, since I rode 6 different trains, it will take a long time to type it all in one.

Trains we rode (myself, wife and 8 year old daughter)

- Wolverine- Dearborn, Mi to Chicago - Business Class

- Capitol Limited - Chicago to Washington DC - SL Deluxe Sleeper

- Silver Meteor - Washington DC to Kissimmee,FL - 2 VL Standard rooms

- Sunset Limited - Orlando to New Orleans - SL Deluxe Sleeper

- City of New Orleans - NOL to Chicago - 2 SL Standard Sleepers.

- Lake Cities - Chicago to Dearborn, Mi. - Business Class

Overall it was a great trip. I was getting nervous on Wed. night when I found out that the eastbound Sunset was running 13 hours late into Florida. I was riding this consist on the next day(Thanksgiving) westbound and thought they would have stopped it in NOL to turn back around. I was not about to ride a bus for much distance if this was going to be the case. Anyway this worked out alright, and the train departed Jacksonville westbound on Thanksgiving about 2 hours late, and arrived into NOL about 5 minutes late (talking about a ton of padding

The next nightmare happened in NOL boarding the City of New Orleans. This could have been a true nightmare but actually turned out to be ok. When we went to board our Deluxe room "e" we were stopped like normal by the attendent for him to check the manifest. We wern't on it !

:angry: How could this be?? The conductor came over and checked my tickets,sure enough we had the correct tickets. He informed me somebody was in our room already, and couldn't kick them out because they were the ones on the manifest. The conductor walked me into the station to the agent. After the agent checked the computer there was only 1 Standard room available out of both cars. He refunded the difference between the DLX room and STD room which was a whole $16. But wait we have 3 people, one STD room wasn't going to do the job for 3 people. After boarding and on our way our car attendent informed me that he had 2 extra STD rooms and I could have one of them. (he really went out of his way to do this for us) I will explain all of this in more detail on my trip report in the near future. What it came down to is we were in the Dorm car whre the DLX rooms are not sold they are only used for the crew. And 2 STD rooms in this car are not sold for whatever reason. I won't mention the attendents name since he did some "extras" for us that he would probably gotten in some big trouble for if a higher up found out what he did. But I can say this,he was the best attendent I have ever had in all of my many travels. This person really truly enjoyed his job and it showed!

Well that was the most nerve racking part of my trip. In a few days Iwill start my actual trip report and give all the details.

Have any of you guys ever ran into the "double booking" problem on a trip?? and how did you handle it??

 

[AlanB]

What it came down to is we were in the Dorm car whre the DLX rooms are not sold they are only used for the crew.

The Superliner Dorm/Lounge does not have any deluxe bedrooms. Except for the handicapped room on the lower level, this car only has standard bedrooms.

Have any of you guys ever ran into the "double booking" problem on a trip?? and how did you handle it??

As for a double booking on a sleeper, while I never did find out exactly what happened, I had this happen once on the Federal. I however didn't see the manifest so I don't know who was listed as being in the room that I was assigned.

I got on in Back Bay and the person in my room had gotten on at South Station. It's also possible that he had the wrong ticket for that day and no one noticed.

The attendant was breaking in a new attendant, so they gave me the room that the trainee was in. The trainee moved to the empty handicapped room.

 

[amtrakmichigan]

The Superliner Dorm/Lounge does not have any deluxe bedrooms.  Except for the handicapped room on the lower level, this car only has standard bedrooms.

Allen,

They didn't use a transition sleeper or dorm lounge on this train. This car was #32039 Superliner I sleeper. Our car was the third in the consist only behind the locomotive and baggage car. I couldn't tell you if they use a normal sleeper all the time on this train or not for a Dorm car,or if it was stuck in there for a temp. replacement for a bad order. It kind of reminded me in a way of the old dome coaches/lounges since I could stand at the front door and see pretty good over the baggage car roof and almost high enough to see over the locomotive.

So yes this car has all the rooms that a normal sleeper has (because it is a normal sleeper) And the information I gave is correct about the deluxe rooms all being used for the crew.

They may use this car as a primary dorm car and overflow for standard rooms because this car has never been referbished. It still had incondescent lighting in the STD rooms, the ugly off white plastic paneling on the asle walls and was in pretty sorry shape. I had a pretty good air leak in my window along with the old ugly lime green sink vanities in the bathroom and the bright orange vanities in the DLX rooms. In fact the foam arm rest in my STD room was so worn out from people putting there arm there for 23 years that it was worn down to the metal base. Infact I would think Amtrak would be embarresed to sell anybody a room in this car, because it was so worn out and in bad need of a rebuild.

 

[AlanB]

Jamie,

Wow, that's interesting that they placed a regular sleeper there. The City of NOL is one of two trains that Amtrak is supposed to specifically sell the rooms in the normal Trans/Dorm car, which should have been in the consist.

While I understand that you were quite happy with the attendant in the car, overall both Amtrak and the crew of this train did not handle this situation properly. It upsets me to learn that a crewmember was not bumped from a deluxe room. As a paying passenger you should have been given priority. :angry: The crew does not as a general rule get deluxe bedrooms anyhow, since as I mentioned above, the normal Trans/dorm does not have deluxe bedrooms.

It's not your fault that they overbooked that train and I understand why they couldn't bump another paying passenger from your original room. However knowing full well that they had a regular sleeper posing as the crew dorm, they should have bumped a crewmember out of a deluxe bedroom for you. That crewmember should then have gotten the standard room. While I respect that most of the Amtrak crews do work hard, the passenger still must come first.

 

[AlanB]

He refunded the difference between the DLX room and STD room which was a whole $16.

By the way, this also seems quite wrong to me. I think that the agent did something wrong when he re-ticketed you. I just priced both a deluxe and a standard sleeper for this Wednesday on the City with 3 people.

Deluxe $409.50

Standard $316.50

With no discounts involved, that's a difference of $93 dollars.

Either that agent forgot to apply any discounts that you may have been using, like AAA, or he charged you the going rate for that standard bedroom. You should have been charged the rate that the standard bedroom was at when you brought your original deluxe tickets.

Sounds to me like you paid top dollar for that standard room, even though since it was Amtrak's mistake you should have been charged the lower rate that would have been in effect when you brought your tickets.

As the train fills up, the prices go up. But you should not have been subjected to that increase if this was not your fault. You need to talk to Amtrak and find out what happened. You should be due more money than 16 bucks.

Frankly you should also be due something for the inconvenience, but I don't know if they will send you a travel certificate for that or not. They've really cracked down on handing out travel certs.

 

[amtrakmichigan]

By the way, this also seems quite wrong to me. I think that the agent did something wrong when he re-ticketed you. I just priced both a deluxe and a standard sleeper for this Wednesday on the City with 3 people.
Deluxe $409.50

Standard $316.50

Allen,

You know, you and me think alike. I thought of that too when I was on that train relaxing after everything was taken care of. At that point of the trip I looked at it as an equil trade. I got $16 back and then got another room free of charge, pretty good deal. But I read your reply and called Amtrak customer relations. A very nice lady by the name of Debbie took about 1/2 hour on the phone with me to look everything over. She agreed with us . I was charged 2nd from the lowest bucket originally for my DLX room, and charged the highest bucket for my replacement STD room. She says I will be getting another $75 refunded on top of my $16 refunded in NOL. So it's even a better deal ! B) Thanks for saying something, that's what made me call Amtrak and inquire about it. By the way, my discounts were transfered over to the new ticket (AAA), so that part was OK.

 

[AlanB]

$91 sounds a whole lot better than $16, I had a very strong suspicion that's what the agent in NOL had done. I'm glad that you did pursue this matter.

If it had been you're fault, then Amtrak could have charged you the premium. But since it was their fault, you should not be penalized, beyond the penalty of the smaller room.

The fact that you got lucky and got a second room is irrelevant in this equation. Especially in light of the fact that as I mentioned above, the conductor should have kicked one of the crew out of a deluxe room and put you into that room. The crewmember should have taken the standard room.

By the way, just as an FYI had this happened on a train with Viewliners the difference between the two bedroom classes would have been much greater. Since the Viewliners only have two deluxe rooms per car, they are in a premium situation. So typically one can expect to pay any thing from $200 to $300 more for a deluxe vs. a standard.