Bid Up questions and experiences

[trimetbusfan]

I have a bid-up related question for those of you with relevant experience! A Bedroom has become available on the Cal Zephyr for the dates of my upcoming trip (I have a Roomette.) I don't think it's likely I would get the room via bidding, since I don't want to even go near the current selling price and I'm sure someone will be willing to pay that. However, what's stopping me from even placing a low bid just in case is...I don't want to screw myself out of a view by "upgrading" to a bedroom that turns out to be on the lower level. I am wondering if the reason a bedroom is now suddenly available is that it's the accessible room that hasn't been booked by anyone with a documented need for it yet. I await your wise counsel, fellow travelers!

I am currently assigned to Roomette 8, if that informs anyone's opinion of the view/risk situation!

(I think I would be fine with downstairs on the Empire Builder but for my first time on the Zephyr, I want the best possible view from my room.)

BidUp only lets you upgade to one of the full bedrooms (A-E), which are all on the upper level. The Family Room and Accessible room cannot be booked via BidUp.

 

[Shanson]

BidUp only lets you upgade to one of the full bedrooms (A-F), which are all on the upper level. The Family Room and Accessible room cannot be booked via BidUp.

There's no F, except on VIA's The Canadian.

 

[trimetbusfan]

There's no F, except on VIA's The Canadian.

yeah oops.. i fixed that. thanks.

 

[ferroaficionada]

BidUp only lets you upgade to one of the full bedrooms (A-E), which are all on the upper level. The Family Room and Accessible room cannot be booked via BidUp.

Thank you very much for that clarification!

 

[slasher-fun]

I'm booked for a trip on the Vermonter in two weeks.

About a month ago, I made a bid for a business class upgrade: the lowest bid available was $20, and I elected for a $24 bid (which was $1 above the "fair" level iirc)
Looking again today, my $24 bid is still there, but if I want to change it the amount the lowest bid available is now $25, and it's a "poor" bid.

Any crystal ball insight on whether my initial bid still stands a minimal chance?

In the end, decided to max out on the bid, which was $35, and still didn't get the upgrade, even though there were still 2 business class seats available at the time of departure.

 

[drinian]

FIrst time posting. I put a bid in on a roomette from coach. The option is still available to bid on a bedroom. Can i put in a bid on that as well? Or will that mean i get both. Not sure what happens if i do that.

 

[railiner]

There's no F, except on VIA's The Canadian.

What about the Auto Train?
No ‘F’, but does have J-N….
The Deluxe Sleeper has 10 Bedrooms on the upper level. For clarity, they skipped F,G, and H (already an ‘H’ handicap on lower level) so they could have consecutive A thru E, and then J thru N at the other end where the 1 thru 10 Roomettes are on ordinary Superliner sleepers.