For the 1st time in nearly 200,000 miles of Amtrak travel, I received in the mail a new Amtrak timetable - unrequested, and with my 1st name given a weird spelling - plus the Empire Builder magazine - which includes detailed prices of all diner and lounge items - and which we will be riding in a few weeks.
Reasonable prices? Dinner steak $25.75, dinner seafood catch $21.75, lunch Angus steak burger or veggie burger $9.50, breakfast pancakes or French toast $9.00.
Crossword puzzle, articles, timetable, and relevant ads fill out the colorful 32-page magazine.
Posted by ColdRain&Snow (Member # 15381) on :
Yikes, while probably nice to be on the receiving end of, I don't think Amtrak should be mailing out unsolicited, bulky (i.e. expensive to ship) packets to its passengers. Money is very tight, and sending out unsolicited timetables strikes me as a poor use of scarce organizational resources.
Scratching my head on that one.
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
That's weird---never heard of anyone receiving this stuff before. And I agree---Amtrak can't afford to do this type of marketing.
Posted by Henry Kisor (Member # 4776) on :
Could be a small test of niche marketing to see if Amtrak can build repeat ridership on the EB route.
Posted by SilverStar092 (Member # 2652) on :
No, this was not special marketing by Amtrak. Knowing that Canaveral was about to leave on his trip, I ordered one for him as a surprise when I ordered myself a timetable. The misspelled first name was intended as a tip-off that I had it mailed. Unfortunately, Mr. Canaveral is busy daydreaming about his trip and didn't catch the obvious. Sorry this mislead you guys.
Posted by Henry Kisor (Member # 4776) on :
Oh, well, at least we know that Amtrak isn't frittering away money on useless marketing . . . at least in this case.