Sleepers are a Bargain

[denmarks]

I just sat down and computed what the average meals would cost in the dining car and what I paid for my standard sleeper. My trip was from Sacramento to Chicago to New Orleans and back. There were a total of 6 of each meal. The average cost of breakfast was $8.60, lunch $11.50, and dinner $18.43. This is with the average entre price and average desert price and a soda. This comes to $231.18. If 2 people share the room it is $462.36 with the room costing about $650. So let's say the room is therefore $200 net for the trip. This is only $16.67 per day per person for the sleeper. Why travel coach?

I hope I did my math right. You may yell if there is an error. This all assumes that if you traveled coach you would eat all meals in the diner. More than likely you would go to the snack bar and spend a lot less.

 

[GG-1]

More than likely you would go to the snack bar and spend a lot less.

Aloha

Not checking any math but last time I got a meal from the snack bar I don't remembe if it was cheaper but it wasn't worth what I paid for the lunch, had dinner in the diner just before geting off in San Jose This time if a cheap upgrade to sleeper on #14 is not available I will just eat in the diner untill the second train #6 to Chicago. 35 is better tan the 90 I was quoted when I booked the rest of the trip. (LAX-EMY-CHI-NOL-LAX September 14-24 )

 

[jccollins]

More than likely you would go to the snack bar and spend a lot less.

At $5.50 for an a-la-carte sandwich in the lowly snack bar lunch sure isn't much less than the diner. Dinner, on the other hand, might be, but don't forget you can always order the Amtrak dinner special for $11.50 in the diner and it's usually pretty good.

 

[Conrail]

i've seen worse

 

[amtrakmichigan]

Denmarks, you are correct assuming you get a sleeper on one of the lower pricing tiers or buckets. If you get a deluxe room that I have seen priced for over $1,000.00 one way from CHI to LAX, then it starts to mke you wonder if it's that great of a bargain.

Just to add to your fine example that you mentioned, I will add my own experience. In October my friend and I traveled from Michigan to NJ, to WAS to Cumberland, MD to Sandusky, Oh. On the leg from WAS to CUM on the Capitol Limited we purchased a standard room for $60.00. Granted it was only a 3 hour ride, but those 3 hours are during dinner hours. We split the cost so about $30.00 each. After chowing down on a $20 T-bone and desert, the sleeper price practically payed for itself. Besides that it gave us access to the Acela Lounge in WAS for our 2 hour layover. Was it worth it? YES ! But if the cost of the room was set at a higher bucket say $100, it probably wouldn't.

 

[Trogdor]

Thread's kind of old, but I'll add my own strange anecdote regarding sleepers being "worth it."

For those unfamiliar with Amtrak's pricing system on long-distance trains, travel and sleeper rooms are priced separately (rail fare + accommodation charge). The rail fare and accommodation prices each have their own separate "buckets," or fare levels, which are adjusted based on demand and supply (a form of yield management). Coach tickets (rail fare) move to higher buckets as seats sell out, or in high-demand travel periods. The same applies with sleeping cars. However, if you buy a sleeping car ticket, your rail fare will be automatically calculated at the lowest bucket, regardless of the current coach bucket available or whatever bucket your accommodation charge was.

In December 2002, I was eating breakfast in the dining car with a couple of other people, one of whom had boarded in New Orleans en route to Chicago. She had never considered a sleeper before, always traveling in coach. However, the City of New Orleans has a high demand for coach, and relatively light demand for sleepers (in fact, the lowest accommodation charge was $75 NOL-CHI, might still be).

She had made a reservation in coach, but didn't buy the ticket. When she got to the station (or maybe it was a couple of days before departure, I don't know), the only available coach tickets were extremely expensive. However, low-bucket sleepers were available, and she was able to get a sleeper room for a lower total cost (accommodation+rail fare) than if she had booked coach.

 

[amtrakmichigan]

Thread's kind of old

Yes it is, I didn't see that until after I posted. Oh well