I deserve the snarky reply for my snarky reply I'll admit.
That is interesting...I hadn’t heard of that method before. I’m always a little gratified when I visit a bar that has a point-of-sale [POS] system in place, where each order is correctly entered into the register thus tallying up the amount of individual ingredients sold. (In many cases that’s combined with an automatic dispensing system for common liquors and measuring stoppers for ‘top shelf’ items.) Bars are one of the biggest money pits in the business world; if they aren’t used for masking income, then they are used for draining money from their owners (sometimes on purpose, but often not). One establishment of my acquaintance was infamous for having cocktail servers who would ‘forget’ to return change from an order and who would forge the tip line amount on card receipts. I later found out that both the owner and many of his employees (whom he associated with off-duty) had a nasty drug habit which had to be financed somehow.
Yes, it genuinely bothers me to be nickeled and dimed on basic amenities after handing over $500+ one way. Is that really so surprising?
If you're tipping prior to receiving a service or product then you're not really tipping at all. Although I do not doubt that casually bribing the cafe attendant probably works wonders for basic requests.
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Hopefully those penny pinching nanny bars are paying a great standard wage because measuring shots is the fastest and easiest way to ensure your bartenders will suffer perpetually slim tipping. Must be nice to work as some distant faceless bean counter casually altering the terms of the social contract without having to suffer any of the consequences when the contract rebalances itself. I can understand carefully measuring a twenty year single malt or thirty year blend that runs $45 a shot, but auto-dispensing generic dirt cheap cocktail brands like Bacardi and Beam is just plain insulting.
I think if you are paying that much, you should get a few amenities to go with it. I paid $161 for a roomette from Chicago to WAS, I did get a really good deal, but still, even some hotels provide you a free breakfast. Granted breakfast is included, but on the CL and the SM looks like we will be missing dinner, so we will only get one free meal. So getting coffee or water for free when you want should be included.Let's imagine that you have paid $500 or a lot more for your sleeper train ride, is having to pay a few $ for coffee or juice really such a blight on the experience?
Maybe an SCA can't stay awake for 48 hours... They may need to "be asleep then" between some station stops, to "be awake when folk detrain" ?
I find that "tipping" a bit of change when requesting hot water from the cafe car goes a long way towards my "nice cup of tea".
Ed.
All my LD journeys I have a thermos and had them fill it when I go for breakfast and dinner, when the DCA comes back with it, I tip them, that way I always get my hot water. The only time there was no coffee or juice available, and I had issues getting a bottle of wate3r was between Seattle and LA, I refer to this SCA as Houdini, he managed to escape his duties to the point where the whole car was making up their own bunks.
Only in your dreams...unless you run across a sleeper attendant with a private sta$h....Haven't been in a sleeper for a very long time... do they still put those chocolate mints on your pillow at bedtime?
You can make your dinner rez for the CL at the Metropolitan Lounge desk when you check in there (or at least you used to be able to). You should be able to get a rez for before 7 if you get to the lounge before a lot of others.
ok, thanks for the tip
Just to be a technical PITA, the time zone change in northwestern Indiana is the county line between Laporte and St. Joseph Counties - about 70 miles or so east of the Illinois - Indiana state line.
Yep, long as you have service!
Hmm, not necessarily, but most likely. My phone did not change time zones when I took the LSL to Chicago a few years ago. My tech support (family member) advised me to put it into then out of airplane mode. Or to reboot. Or both, I think. I think the airplane mode solution was what I did first and it worked. After that, it did change for the rest of the timezones I passed through.
Mine is always off airplane mode too, but I needed to turn it on and turn it off to get mine to sync that time and then after that it sync on it's own each time I went into a new timezone. Just an idea if yours does not sync when you change timezones.
It can actually depend on several factors; who your carrier is, what your device is, and what the operating system is. I usually travel with two connected devices, same carrier [Verizon], and one will update relatively quickly and the other takes up to an hour longer (and it sometimes varies between devices).
