I travel the Sunset Limited between Houston and LAX about once a month and go sleeping car. I don't know if you know how these long distance trains operate or not, but it takes 5 full time "on board" crews that live int the LAX area and make the entire round trip in 6 days. They would have to hire 5 employees (dishwashers) to accomplish going back to china. That would add an annual expense of $300-$400K cost. Can't see it happening in the near future.
Email or call Customer Relations at Amtrak--I don't think the folks at Union Station will be helpful. If you don't have time to do that right now, make some notes about your experience so you remember details.
Call and ask to speak to customer service... they are probably well aware of the food problems on your train... and probably got complaints from others. It can't hurt to politely request a full refund as per operational problems. At least you will get a travel credit voucher of a few hundred. These can be valuable for future travels.
It does not say “”Menus are subject to change or substitution," or words to the same effect.”
It was. It was a good baked potato and pretty filling for what it was. It just needs a side salad to make it a full meal.
You should call Customer Relations. Chicago staff is not renowned for being customer oriented, and is not empowered in any case. Amtrak is very slow is responding to emails, assuming they do. They don't always.
Depends on which commissary the train received it’s food from.
When I rode cross country in April and May of this year, I found the food on the Western Trains to be quite good - food I would happily pay real money for.
And from what I've seen, that's generally true for trains that have returned to Traditional Dining. Sure there's an occasional foul-up, or kvetching about liking an old dessert better, but most people seem quite satisfied. And it's a good thing that they're changing the menu from time to time, especially if they can't have different menus on different routes.
Since it's return traditional dining has been great. I have always said good cooked to order food has always been an integral part of the Amtrak experience. Hard to believe it's been over four years since Richard Anderson introduced flex food,saying it was a new revolutionary adventure in dining.
When I was riding the Empire Builder to & from college in the '70s, plain potato chips were the default side for lunch in the dining car, and were pretty lame. (I don't think Terra Chips were around yet at that point.) I'd eat the Terra Chips, but then I'll usually eat almost any kind of chips in preference to plain potato chips.
You can complain here for all the good its going to do.☺
They did make a notable improvement on the flex meals about a year ago... more taste for sure. The agent who I spoke with recently indicated the return of full service dining and the placement of those beautiful dining cars back on the Eastern trains... and that the pandemic has hit Amtrak just as it did the airlines... with work and supply shortages.
of course the flex meals began on the eastern trains well before the pandemic.
That's true, but OTOH the pandemic's aftereffects on labor are making it difficult to expand services to pre-pandemic levels. So Flex is not a product of the pandemic, but the inability to return to Traditional partially is.
Possibly. I’m not entirely convinced Amtrak wants traditional dining back on all trains. But I’m hopeful it will come back.
Actually there was something even less attractive than the Flex Meals called Contemporary Dining which the Millenials were allegedly supposed to love - that was introduced in the LSL when they ran out of serviceable Diners while the Viewliner II Diners were delayed for almost a decade. It did not have any hot dish for dinner or breakfast! And then even that pretense went away when they discontinued Dining altogether on the Silver Star. So we have come a long way baby!
