I booked a spring vacation in 4 legs--Portland to Washington Dc on the Empire Builder and Capitol Limited staying 4 days in DC and on to New Orleans on the Crescent and staying 2days, then on to Los Angeles on the Sunset Limited and staying 2 days before coming home on the Starlight. After I bought my tickets a friend asked to come along so I called and had her added to the reservation, however , when I picked up the tickets today they were Reserved Coach tickets. Whenever I have added her before the room # was on the ticket, are we going to have trouble with her staying in the Roomette?....do I need to go back and change her tickets? I want to avoid her having (or me) to ride Coach.
Posted by DeeCT (Member # 3241) on :
Wayne,
I would give a phone call to Customer Services and explain just as you have here. Ask if you should have the tickets reissued. If they say no it is all set -- I would request that they send you a letter confirming that your friend is ticketed for Roomette # in car #. Explain that you wish to have something to show the car attendent to be assured there will be no problem.
Dee
Posted by DeeCT (Member # 3241) on :
To All,
The question above reminds me of one I have never had answered. As a solo traveler who always books a roomette, I am essentially paying for a room for two including meals for two. What if I were to meet someone in the lounge car (a coach passenger) that I wished to have join me for a meal. Would/ should I have the right to do so at no additional cost to me or them??
Dee
Posted by wayne72145 (Member # 4503) on :
I was told by a car attendant that if you ran into a friend the Conductor could put him/her on the ticket. I have noticed in my travels that nearly all Conductors are different and moody at times when they are asked to go out of their way. It's worth a try but I wouldn't count on it.
Posted by MDRR (Member # 2992) on :
There is no way for a conductor to "put someone on a ticket", at least not without charging. They may informally agree to let you share a room, etc. Also, Amtrak's official policy is, meals are provided only for those passengers ticketed in the rooms. How closely this is enforced is going to vary from crew to crew. For this reason, And the number of trains Wayne is riding, Wayne may benefit from getting his tickets reissued to prevent any problems. He may need a supervisor's assistance to prevent him from being charged the current fare on the trip when reticketing.
Posted by RRRICH (Member # 1418) on :
Wayne -- what happened to you is the same as what happened to us on our 2008 trip, I believe -- there is only one charge for the sleeper accomodation, yet each person in that accomodation also needs to pay a basic "rail fare" ticket. So I am guessing that your friend has been booked in your room, since you have already paid for the room -- the room is the same price, regardless of how many people are in it. But, your friend also needs to pay the basic "rail fare" which is equated to a "coach seat ticket" the way AMTRAK tickets, I believe.
In other words, to travel by train in a sleeper, you need:
1 rail fare + accomodation charge = total fare
For our 2008 trip, we got 2 sets of tickets -- we got all our sleeper tickets with my name on them, plus some additional tickets with my wife's name on them which were the basic rail fare -- I don't remember if they said "coach" on them, but they were just her rail fare only.
Is that clear as mud now? You should still ask your agent about it.
Posted by wayne72145 (Member # 4503) on :
I called Amtrak and got it all ironed out after 45 minutes on hold. The answer was "yes" that our tickets must match to avoid trouble with the diner and Conductor. I had not noticed but one ticket had her going from Seattle to Washington DC with no train number. I'm sure that would have caused trouble even getting on the Capitol Limited. Now I have to drive up to Eugene again for the re-issue and I'm not completely comfortable with this being over.