Bedroom A Bedroom B (price on Meteor)?
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Were you changing from A to B? If so, sounds like the agent did not know how to MODIFY your reservation which would have retained the same price you paid for A. You might want to call back and ask for a supervisor - hopefully they can refund the difference if you did pay more.
I saw on Amtrak.com that the points for a bedroom was 44,446 points. I called to reserve it. She confirmed that price until I asked if it was bedroom B. That I wanted bedroom B in a new car. She then said the fare is different. She said it was 64,930 points. I questioned her and she said the bedroom B was priced higher.
I would phone back. The reservation system probably pulled bedroom A and the agent may not have known how to "return it" to inventory to pull bedroom B. Bedroom B may have ended up in the next bucket.
I, too, prefer bedroom B on the Meteor.
I, too, prefer bedroom B on the Meteor.
Just called. Yes. Because I originally took the last bedroom for the 44,000 points, it went out of inventory and the 64,000 points was the new fare. I can no longer get the bedroom B at the original fare. She couldn’t change it unless I paid the extra points. I guess I’ll just have to be happy riding backwards. If only I was offered a NEW menu, not the flex, then I’d be REALLY happy.
I would try to call back tomorrow. Maybe you can get an experienced agent who knows how to "modify" your reservation and switch rooms (or ask to speak to a supervisor).
I dont understand. I have been in bedrooms on Amtrak before but I dont know the difference between BR A or BR B?? Please explain the difference. Thanks in advance.
on the Silvers, the couch in B is facing forward (the direction of travel); whereas the couch in A is facing backwards.
One last question. I see in other posts on this thread that B costs more, I assume because it faces forward. So, if the engine is attached to the opposite side of that car, does B turn into A?
B does not cost more. It just so happened in this case, A had been pulled from Inventory and B was in the next bucket. Years ago, when the sleepers were at the front of the train, the couch in A was facing forward. A and B stay in the same position.
Im replying to everyone now because I dont want to keep bothering the person that answered a couple questions. Im confused with Amtrak terminology. Sometime I have no clue what Im reading. I have been replying with a certain person talking about Bedroom A & B and why one is cheaper, and why they face a certain direction. They said the couch faces a certain way and thats how you tell them apart. My wife and I will be in a bedroom, Room D, car 531 on the CZ westbound 7 months from now. But all Im reading about on this thread are A & B. Am I reading something wrong here? Also this person I was replying to mentioned the word "bucket", whats a bucket? Dont laugh at me.
They are referring to the single level trains in the east which only have 3 bedrooms in each car (A,B & handicap). The cars are oriented the same way 99% of the time, so they know which way the couch will be facing.
You are booked on a two level train. There are 5 bedrooms upstairs (A-E) and two downstairs (handicap & family). These cars can be oriented in either direction, so there’s no way to know which way your couch will be facing.
Buckets are fare levels. They will sell x # of rooms at one bucket and when those sell out, they’ll sell the next x # of rooms at the next heigher bucket. These fares are not assigned to specific rooms.
The discussion on A & B are about Viewliner sleepers that run on Eastern single level trains. They tend to run oriented in a consistent direction since they usually run with the vestibules towards the diner since diners do not have vestibules.
Your room on the CZ is in a Superliner sleeper. Superliners have 5 bedrooms, A-E, while Viewliners have 2, A and B. Superliner sleepers are typically do not follow any consistent orientation and are switched into consists whichever way they happen to be facing. So you can kind of predict which way bedroom couches will be facing on Viewliners, but not on Superliners.
Buckets are fare points used by Amtrak yield management. There are 5 buckets and the top bucket is usually more than twice as much as the lowest bucket.
Amtrak yield management allocates the inventory between the buckets as they see fit. There may be 1 bedroom in the low middle bucket, 1 bedroom in the middle bucket, 2 in mid high and 1 in high. Say you purchased the one bedroom in the low middle bucket. There aren't any more, so the next bedroom will be offered at the middle bucket. If you want to change rooms, an inexperienced agent will just pull the next room, which will be at the current bucket. An experienced agent can hold the price and reassign rooms, but my understanding is that process is more difficult and more involved (Amtrak's Arrrow reservation system is an antique). As AmtrakBlue said, fares are not attached to rooms.
Your room on the CZ is in a Superliner sleeper. Superliners have 5 bedrooms, A-E, while Viewliners have 2, A and B. Superliner sleepers are typically do not follow any consistent orientation and are switched into consists whichever way they happen to be facing. So you can kind of predict which way bedroom couches will be facing on Viewliners, but not on Superliners.
Buckets are fare points used by Amtrak yield management. There are 5 buckets and the top bucket is usually more than twice as much as the lowest bucket.
Amtrak yield management allocates the inventory between the buckets as they see fit. There may be 1 bedroom in the low middle bucket, 1 bedroom in the middle bucket, 2 in mid high and 1 in high. Say you purchased the one bedroom in the low middle bucket. There aren't any more, so the next bedroom will be offered at the middle bucket. If you want to change rooms, an inexperienced agent will just pull the next room, which will be at the current bucket. An experienced agent can hold the price and reassign rooms, but my understanding is that process is more difficult and more involved (Amtrak's Arrrow reservation system is an antique). As AmtrakBlue said, fares are not attached to rooms.
Winecliff Station
Service Attendant
I must have spoken to the same agent…. on Thursday I called to see if my LSL trip that evening in B could be moved to H as long as no one disabled was using it. She told me the room was as available but it would cost an additional $500+ because of the fare increase as well as losing the companion coupon I’d used, as it had since expired. Something didn’t sound right about that but I didn’t feel like playing agent roulette by calling again and waiting another hour on hold. Then I considered asking to move when we boarded but the SCA seemed a bit frazzled so I let it go.
You should have asked for a supervisor. Besides helping you they’ll be teaching the agent how to switch room assignments without incurring changes in fare. I had an agent thank me because she learned something new to her.
Winecliff Station
Service Attendant
Yeah I have to learn to get over the fear of sounding condescending or entitled when asking for a supervisor….plus I’m generally non confrontational so it doesn’t always occur to me to even ask. I’m working on it though lol
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Has you called for reservations for the room when both A and B were available instead of changing it after the fact, you would have found they were the same price. Had you gotten Bedroom B, the next person would have been told (or seen on the reservations page that one bedroom (A) was available and the cost would have been higher than you paid.
We reserved a roommette for my brother in law on the Meteor. He had a mini stroke and his walking and balance was affected. Day or 2 before our trip I called to see if the handicap room was available for him. He was changed to that room without a difference in fare.
On another occasion, we were booked in a bedroom and we were asked if we would give up our bedroom for a family that wanted the 2 bedrooms together. We were put in the handicap bedroom and was refunded the difference between a roomette and the bedroom.
On both occasions I asked about the difference in the fare and told that was the fare for a handicap cabin. I have to add that this was in 2017 and 2019. Things may have changed.
People have said the the handicapped bedroom should be at the same fare as a roomette when occupied by a passenger who is eligible for the handicap fare discount. I have found that not to be strictly true, but it's usually within a few dollars.
If the handicapped bedroom is not purchased by an eligible individual, at some point (I think 2 weeks before departure) it becomes available to anyone, but I believe it's at the regular bedroom rate.
In your second instance, perhaps you were granted the roomette fare because it was a special circumstance and the system had not yet released it for general occupancy at the higher fare.
I had a rude guest rewards agent two weeks ago when I couldn’t log in to my account on Amtrak and wanted to know my point balance. The agent answered me in a rude tone saying that she spoke to me earlier and that nothing has changed since then. In the same rude tone I answered her back that I had not called her before and that if this is the way she speaks to people, she needs retraining. I then asked her my points question and I got my answer.
Both instances were maybe 2 or 3 days before travel. Either way I was glad my brother in law had the extra space. Where as I was ok in the handicap room with its extra space, my husband wasn’t. And now with the new viewliner II, I wouldn’t like it.
Well then, maybe the agent booked the handicapped bedroom at the lower fare in appreciation for your cooperation, or maybe it was just less work to do that because of one of the many weirdnesses in the reservation system.
Winecliff Station
Service Attendant
Can I ask what hubby found objectionable about the H cabin, other than the lack of a chair?
On my first Amtrak trip, my sister and I purchased a roomette. Maybe a week or 2 before the trip, we got a notice that Amtrak was moving us to an H room with no difference in price. I never did find out why. So I think it really is the same price as a roomette.
Please think again.
It may be the same price as your original and already-paid-for Roomette when Amtrak makes the change, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the same price if the H room is offered as an option when booking.
Matter of fact, in all the thousands of fare searches I've made, I don't ever recall the H room offered at the same price as any other accommodation - it's always, IIRC, a little different.
