Passenger Trains > No roomette number....

Just booked my outbound leg to new orleans and it just says roomette, but not the number or car. Is that new?

Posted from Android

It's usually in the PDF contained within the E-Mail they send you after you book. You'll never see it on the website.

If in doubt, call Julie and she'll tell you.

Thats so in case the oversell, they can set you up a cot in the baggage car.

DevalDragon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's usually in the PDF contained within the
> E-Mail they send you after you book. You'll never
> see it on the website.
>
> If in doubt, call Julie and she'll tell you.

You can also look it up using your Smartphone App by downloading the e-Ticket using the Reservation number to look that up. Usually that is the first thing I do after making a reservation, so that I can pull it into my Apple Wallet.

You should be able to select your room on line when you book. The airlines do it with seats. You can see what seat are open before you decide if you want that flight or not. Amtrak should be able to do the same.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You should be able to select your room on line
> when you book. The airlines do it with seats. You
> can see what seat are open before you decide if
> you want that flight or not. Amtrak should be able
> to do the same.


I agree, although one possible reason why they don’t allow this is they seem to link less desirable accommodation to lower fare buckets. I once asked a reservations agent if I could get a Superliner bedroom other than A. Even though they were available, she told me I couldn’t move unless I paid a higher fare. Of course a better on line app would turn this into an up sell opportunity without the customer needing to go to an agent.

Dave

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You should be able to select your room on line
> when you book. The airlines do it with seats. You
> can see what seat are open before you decide if
> you want that flight or not. Amtrak should be able
> to do the same.

I small teeny tiny difference:

An airplane seat is from the origin of the flight to the destination of the flight.
A ticket on a train is from one stop to another stop, which neither may be the origin or destination of the train.

On most reserved seat air flights (i.e, not Southwest, etc. style) one can choose a seat and the desirable seats thrn come at a premium of some additional cost.

Many more flights seats per day handled this way every day so AMTRAK should be able to do it.

DavidP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> andersonb109 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You should be able to select your room on line
> > when you book. The airlines do it with seats.
> You
> > can see what seat are open before you decide if
> > you want that flight or not. Amtrak should be
> able
> > to do the same.
>
>
> I agree, although one possible reason why they
> don’t allow this is they seem to link less
> desirable accommodation to lower fare buckets. I
> once asked a reservations agent if I could get a
> Superliner bedroom other than A. Even though they
> were available, she told me I couldn’t move
> unless I paid a higher fare. Of course a better
> on line app would turn this into an up sell
> opportunity without the customer needing to go to
> an agent.
>
> Dave

jst3751 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> andersonb109 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You should be able to select your room on line
> > when you book. The airlines do it with seats.
> You
> > can see what seat are open before you decide if
> > you want that flight or not. Amtrak should be
> able
> > to do the same.
>
> I small teeny tiny difference:
>
> An airplane seat is from the origin of the flight
> to the destination of the flight.
> A ticket on a train is from one stop to another
> stop, which neither may be the origin or
> destination of the train.

I'm not sure I see a distinction. Say I'm a Kansas City traveler heading to Albuquerque and want a roomette for the overnight trip. Amtrak.com shows inventory available at a price I'm willing to pay. Why can't I select my room at that time? Regardless of the origin/destination of the train (Chicago/Los Angeles on #3 in this case), my origin/destination is very well established.

And just as a point of interest, even though I'm a Denver resident, that exact itinerary happens to be my most recent long-distance Amtrak trip.

niagara484

niagara484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm not sure I see a distinction. Say I'm a
> Kansas City traveler heading to Albuquerque and
> want a roomette for the overnight trip.
> Amtrak.com shows inventory available at a price
> I'm willing to pay. Why can't I select my room at
> that time? Regardless of the origin/destination
> of the train (Chicago/Los Angeles on #3 in this
> case), my origin/destination is very well
> established.

OK lets do this to show how it is different: For this we will use just one car and only 5 rooms available, A-E to shorten the explanation on train 3 departing Chicago 07/01

Traveler 1 on 06/01 books from Kansas City to Albuquerque and wants room A
Traveler 2 on 06/05 books from Chicago to Flagstaff and wants room B
Traveler 3 on 06/10 books from La Junta to Los Angeles and wants room C
Traveler 4 on 06/15 books from Chicago to La Plata and wants room D
Traveler 5 on 06/20 books from Flagstaff to Los Angeles and wants room E.
Traveler 6 on 06/25 tries to book from Chicago to Los Angeles but no rooms available. Why, because while travelers 1, 4 and 5 do not overlap and there is time between each one for a car attendant to ready the room for the next person. but they were allowed to pick their own rooms, preventing traveler 6 from being able to get a room at all.

On an airplane, EVERYONE is traveling from point A to point B. No such thing as a mid-flight exit or entrance.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/17 11:09 by jst3751.

This is part of American exceptionalism, to not be able to let people choose seats on trains. In most other countries there are at least some seats on many reserved train that are pre-selecable.

Remember, even on flights where seats are selectable it is not unusual to blank out some seats on selection charts for various reasons. As long as you manage the inventory of selectable seats carefully, issues like those raised ad infinitum to provide geeky explanations of why this cannot be done, can demonstrably be handled and worked around.

3751, this is one post I can agree with you.

Utilization of space is the key factor in revenue for Amtrak or the lines before them.

Working with the old manual chart system, we were drilled and drilled to not cut through space, for a say a Yuma to Alpine TX, when their was already space sold San Antonio to New Orleans etc. I am talking the 1950-60's

The Amtrak computer for sleepers looks for the best room to avoid cutting long haul rooms. Call Center folks can override this, but may not being doing justice to Amtrak, but only for the experienced travels desires/demand.

Coach reservations and special location requests is a very long story, that we have not the space nor time to dive into.

jst3751 Wrote:

> OK lets do this to show how it is different: For
> this we will use just one car and only 5 rooms
> available, A-E to shorten the explanation on train
> 3 departing Chicago 07/01
>
> Traveler 1 on 06/01 books from Kansas City to
> Albuquerque and wants room A
> Traveler 2 on 06/05 books from Chicago to
> Flagstaff and wants room B
> Traveler 3 on 06/10 books from La Junta to Los
> Angeles and wants room C
> Traveler 4 on 06/15 books from Chicago to La
> Plata and wants room D
> Traveler 5 on 06/20 books from Flagstaff to Los
> Angeles and wants room E.
> Traveler 6 on 06/25 tries to book from Chicago to
> Los Angeles but no rooms available. Why, because
> while travelers 1, 4 and 5 do not overlap and
> there is time between each one for a car attendant
> to ready the room for the next person. but they
> were allowed to pick their own rooms, preventing
> traveler 6 from being able to get a room at all.
>
> On an airplane, EVERYONE is traveling from point A
> to point B. No such thing as a mid-flight exit or
> entrance.

The BIG difference is that a typical longer distance airplane has somewhere between 150-300 seats to 'play' with. And, as noted, All passengers are going from A to B...or maybe an intermediate stop at C.

On Amtrak, typically, there are only 2 'regular' sleepers (Autotrain and dorm/sleeper excepted) per train, but some have 3 all the way, others get the 3rd sleeper at SAS, SPK or ALB. That means that for the 10 or 4!!! bedrooms available on the train, the goal is to maximize occupancy. So, using the Lake Shore Ltd, the NYP passenger that gets off at CLE or TOL vacates a room that someone can ride the rest of the way. Assuming the other sleeper is already booked, If the first reservation in car 4910 wants bedroom A NYP-CLE and the next reservation wants bedroom B TOL-CHI, then 'effectively', an entire bedroom from NYP-CHI cannot be booked. Had both passengers been put in the same bedroom, the other would be available all the way NYP-CHI.

This problem only exists because Amtrak always has
to deal with artificially scarce funds. If Amtrak
was properly funded (I know, I know -- that is NOT
likely to happen, but -- please bear with me for the
sake of the point I am trying to make), this would
not ever be a problem. Assemble the train so it has
enough cars for the current demand in both coach and
sleepers, and when you run out of room you simply tell
people the train is sold out, but to check back later
in case there are any cancellations. And computers can
certainly handle the complexity of manybpeople needing
different origin-destination pairs and different preferred
seats or rooms.

It all comes down to Amtrak being forced to live on a
starvation budget. It is not a for-profit company, and
is providing essential transportation, so what's the
problem with allowing people to choose preferred seats
and rooms? Does everything have to make an oh-so-holy
profit?

(By the way, there IS plenty of money for all important
services; it is just both being spent on the wrong things
and hoarded -- to the tune of trillions of dollars. Also,
please note that wen the Powers That Be want to do something,
there is always plenty of money to do it, but when they do
not want to do something, then we read and hear cries of
"It is too expensive!" See CA HSR for a really good example
of something where the huge cost was never a problem for
The Powers That Be.)

Yeah its on the PDF... wierd they don't put it prominently in the app too... room 8 on 0230... Jan 7th can't come soon enough!

Posted from Android

> Traveler 1 on 06/01 books from Kansas City to
> Albuquerque and wants room A

> Traveler 4 on 06/15 books from Chicago to La
> Plata and wants room D

> Traveler 5 on 06/20 books from Flagstaff to Los
> Angeles and wants room E.

> Traveler 6 on 06/25 tries to book from Chicago to
> Los Angeles but no rooms available. Why, because
> while travelers 1, 4 and 5 do not overlap and
> there is time between each one for a car attendant
> to ready the room for the next person. but they
> were allowed to pick their own rooms, preventing
> traveler 6 from being able to get a room at all.

Got it. If Travelers 1, 4 and 5 are using the same room for their trips, Travelers 6 and 7 can book Chicago-LA trips. But what makes them so special? It's not necessarily a valid assumption that in the original setup all three rooms won't fill (other than some mileage to turn the room) anyway. Traveler 8 may also want to go in a sleeper from Chicago to La Plata; Traveler 9 might want to book Winslow to San Bernardino, and they can both still utilize room A around Traveler 1. Similar logic applies to the other two rooms. If 1, 4 and 5 get their way then yes, Traveler 6 may have to choose another day to travel or even a different mode, but that doesn't mean the inventory goes unsold.

Another bit of food for thought. I picked a random day (Feb. 12) just now to price a bedroom on the Chief, one occupant. Some different city-pairs:

Chicago - LA $1858
Chicago - KC $607
Topeka (dept. 2/13, same train) - LA $1516

There's about $250 more revenue to be made by selling two shorts instead of an end-to-end fare. I see this in pricing on the Starlight a lot; the difference between a SEA-Oakland and SEA-LAX ticket in a sleeper suggests that the equivalent fare for Bay Area-LA is only a few dollars, which is certainly not the case.

And since anecdotally there are relatively few end-to-end passengers on a long-distance train anyway, I'm not sure I see what's so horrible about letting people pick the rooms they want - there's something to be said for that whole "customer service" thing to which Amtrak sometimes pays lip service as well. I just don't see the harm in letting people pick their rooms.

jst3751 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> OK lets do this to show how it is different: For
> this we will use just one car and only 5 rooms
> available, A-E to shorten the explanation on train
> 3 departing Chicago 07/01
>
> Traveler 1 on 06/01 books from Kansas City to
> Albuquerque and wants room A
> Traveler 2 on 06/05 books from Chicago to
> Flagstaff and wants room B
> Traveler 3 on 06/10 books from La Junta to Los
> Angeles and wants room C
> Traveler 4 on 06/15 books from Chicago to La
> Plata and wants room D
> Traveler 5 on 06/20 books from Flagstaff to Los
> Angeles and wants room E.
> Traveler 6 on 06/25 tries to book from Chicago to
> Los Angeles but no rooms available. Why, because
> while travelers 1, 4 and 5 do not overlap and
> there is time between each one for a car attendant
> to ready the room for the next person. but they
> were allowed to pick their own rooms, preventing
> traveler 6 from being able to get a room at all.

If Amtrak wanted to offer room selection as a customer amenity, the website could be programmed to optimize efficient room usage, as the human agents do already. In this example, traveler 4 would only get C as an option, and 5 would only get A, leaving D and E open for longer itineraries. At least the early birds would have a choice, and wouldn’t have to waste an agent’s time to request a particlular room.