I will be traveling from Deland,FL to Beaumont,TX on the Sunset Ltd on Nov.30 (my first train trip) and had a bit of difficulty booking the specific standard bedroom I wanted. When booking an airline flight online, you are given the opportunity to select the seat you want. When I booked my reservations for a standard bedroom on Amtrak's website, however, I was never asked which room I wanted. I immediately called Amtrak customer service and was told I had been assigned room #5. I have vertigo problems and am prone to motion sickness, so to be on the safe side,(and after reading some of the posts on the subject in this forum), I wanted to book a lower compartment in the middle of the car. This translates to room 11 or 12 on the floor plan I have. To make a long story short (too late!), I was told that requesting a specific compartment would cost $40 more that the $263 price I had just booked on the web site. The cust.service rep gave me several different stories as to why room 11 would cost more that room 5 including:
1) Lower level compartments cost more that upper's.
2) Requesting a specific room cost more than a randomly assigned room.
3) Price was based on availability (although the rep herself admitted there were plenty of standard bedrooms remaining).

None of these reasons quite made sense to me and the cust. service rep changed the reason for the higher cost and became progressively more belligerent each time pressed her on the reasons. I asked to speak with a supervisor and, after he could not give me a satisfactory answer either, eventually gave me room 11 for the price of room 5.

Can any of the experienced train travelers out there tell me why requesting a specific compartment is such a hassle?

Many Thanks,
Joe Marsh
Atlanta, GA