can 2 people with separate reservation be in the same roomette?

[DraftBeer]

Newbie question, never been on Amtrak trains before.

My friend and I are taking Amtrak to LA on an overnight train. (20 hours) We each have our own reservation for coach. I later changed my reservation by calling Amtrak and purchased a roomette. The Amtrak agent charged me the difference and assigned me a room number.

Can my friend be in the roomette with me or must I call Amtrak again to merge or link our reservations together?

Thanks!

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

You will need to merge the two reservations. The roomette charge is per roomette but the manifest should have your fellow traveler also on it so that he/she can eat in the dining car without paying for meals as a coach passenger. Incidentally, when your coach fare was upgraded to roomette, your claim to a seat in the coach was released. Unless your companion upgrades to sharing your roomette(no additional charge), he still has claim one coach seat Amtrak cannot sell.

 

[DraftBeer]

You will need to merge the two reservations. The roomette charge is per roomette but the manifest should have your fellow traveler also on it so that he/she can eat in the dining car without paying for meals as a coach passenger. Incidentally, when your coach fare was upgraded to roomette, your claim to a seat in the coach was released. Unless your companion upgrades to sharing your roomette(no additional charge), he still has claim one coach seat Amtrak cannot sell.

is there a deadline for when I must call them to merge the reservations?

thanks!

 

[ehbowen]

There's no need to delay. The rail fare for your friend in the roomette should be just about the same as what he originally paid for coach, as you have already paid for the roomette upcharge (which is good for up to 2 adult passengers). It may even be less, depending upon which coach "bucket" price his ticket was originally purchased in.

Another option is to have your friend convert his coach ticket to what is known as an "open sleeper" ticket and have it linked with your reservation, not merged. The price for this should be exactly the same as merging it with your reservation. The upside here is that if your friend has to cancel (within the window for a voucher or partial refund), he can do so without it affecting your own travel and reservation. (Of course, if you cancel he will have to scramble to see what is still available in coach....)

 

[the_traveler]

The other person should buy an open sleeper ticket, and then have that associated with your room!

The reason for this is that (as explained) the charge for the room is per room, not per person. Additionally, each passenger is charged the lowest bucket (fare) as the base fare. So if (s)he paid $189, but the lowest bucket is $123, there would be a savings of $66!

This can be done anytime before departure.

 

[KmH]

Yep. you need to call Amtrak again, and you'll need your friend's reservation information,

The sooner the better, but I would say at the latest a day or 2 before your travel date.

 

[neroden]

The magic phrase is "open sleeper ticket". That's what your friend needs. Some of the Amtrak reservations agents have never heard of this (sigh) so if your friend gets one who doesn't know about it, ask for a supervisor or call back. Probably best if you're both on the phone...

 

[StriderGDM]

For the record I've done this. Met a friend in WAS (I got on in NYP) and went on to Orlando. All she did was change her reservation to an 'open sleeper' and linked it with my reservation number and we were all set.

 

[PVD]

Depending on the fare your friend was ticketed under, he may or may not save money on the fare. However, as a sleeper passenger, regular meals in the dining car would be included, and the accommodation charge is per room not per person, so 2 people are a much better deal overall. You do not say which train, and where you are boarding, so it is impossible to say which meal periods are normally covered. Might as well do it sooner rather than later, it puts another seat into inventory that might benefit someone else.

 

[DraftBeer]

The other person should buy an open sleeper ticket, and then have that associated with your room!

The reason for this is that (as explained) the charge for the room is per room, not per person. Additionally, each passenger is charged the lowest bucket (fare) as the base fare. So if (s)he paid $189, but the lowest bucket is $123, there would be a savings of $66!

This can be done anytime before departure.

I just spent almost an hour talking to 2 different Amtrak agents on the phone. I'm very confused right now. Both agents said by linking my friend's coach reservation to my roomette reservation, there would be an additional $61 due. I waited 20 minutes between the two calls and both times their computer came back with the exact same $61. (well, $61.38 to be exact) I had already paid for the fee to upgrade my own coach reservation to roomette and now my friend has to pay another $61 to be in the same roomette. Could this be due to the fact that my friend's coach ticket was originally booked at the lowest possible price?

I told them to just leave everything alone and not to change anything. Should I just "sneak" my friend into the roomette on the day of travel?

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

You will not be able to "SNEAK" your friend into the sleeping car. The Sleeping Car Attendant will know and there is no way I know to avoid that. If you have not, join Amtrak Guest Rewards and call the AGR phone number instead of the Amtrak.com(Julie)number. Phone numbers are available on both sites where it says "Contact Us". Not knowing any details of your reservation it is not possible for us on this forum to give any better advice than already given. Simply put: Your friend should not attempt to SNEAK into your roomette. When making or adjusting your reservations be sure to let customer service reps know if you qualify for AAA or Senior Discounts. They do apply to your coach fare part of your tickets even if you add sleeping accommodations which are not discounted. Also, coach and sleeping car accommodation charges change so if your friend purchased a low "saver" type fare he will have to pay the "value" fare instead which depending distance you are traveling very well could be $61.

 

[niemi24s]

Both agents said by linking my friend's coach reservation to my roomette reservation, there would be an additional $61 due. I waited 20 minutes between the two calls and both times their computer came back with the exact same $61. (well, $61.38 to be exact) I had already paid for the fee to upgrade my own coach reservation to roomette and now my friend has to pay another $61 to be in the same roomette. Could this be due to the fact that my friend's coach ticket was originally booked at the lowest possible price?

If your friend's coach ticket was at the Saver fare rate (which is 20% below the low bucket coach fare) then the $61 additional fee might be that 20% difference. If so, then the low bucket coach fare works out to $305 and the Saver fare works out to be $244. Those fares, however, are greater than for any single long distance train and way, way more than for any 20 hour train ride.

There must, therefore, be some other explanation and I've no idea what it might be.

 

[Ryan]

If you tell us where you are starting we can probably be more help.

 

[neroden]

I think the Amtrak agents are screwing up. Had they actually heard of "open sleeper" tickets?

 

[niemi24s]

20 Hours or so from LAX on the:

• CS is 20h 25m from Dunsmuir CA with coach fares of $78 Saver and $98 Value or a $20 difference

• SWC is 20h 37m from Las Vegas NM with coach fares of $82 Saver and $103 Value or a $21 difference

• TE/SL is 20h 57m from Alpine TX with coach fares of $103 Saver and $129 Value or a $26 difference

So if Amtrak wants $61 additional (instead of $20, $21 or $26) could this mean there's now a change/upgrade fee of $35 to $41? But the last paragraph here https://www.amtrak.com/changing-reservations says there's no change fee but that ". . .other fees may apply".

Other fees?

 

[Don Newcomb]

See if I understand this. Suppose passenger A was taking the Sunset from NOL to LAX and reserves a roomette. His friend/brother/wife/whatever (passenger B) was joining him at HOS and continuing to LAX. Passenger A could buy a regular roomette ticket online through the website. Passenger B would need to call Amtrak and request an "open sleeper" ticket from HOS to LAX and link it to A's reservation? This could not be done trough the website?

 

[KmH]

No.

The web site has no way to book an 'open sleeper' ticket.

 

[Ryan]

The rest of it is correct, however.

Also, because it's relatively rare, it's fraught with peril. Agents don't know how to do it, so sometimes they try to charge more (like above), sometimes the reservations don't get linked and you don't know there is a problem until you are one the train and the conductor doesn't know what you're talking about.

The one time I did it with a friend, he ended up not on the manifest somehow. Fortunately both the conductor that did the ticket lift and the LSA in the diner were OK with it; but had either of them wanted to make it an issue they could have.

 

[niemi24s]

FWIW, a google search for "Amtrak open sleeper ticket" revealed absolutely nothing. Could it be that agents are not familiar with it simply because there's no such thing? Or is it a feature of the manifest system that Google can't ferret out?

 

[Ryan]

I get over 63,000 results when I google that, many of them discussions here.

It is very much a thing:

 

[jis]

FWIW, a google search for "Amtrak open sleeper ticket" revealed absolutely nothing. Could it be that agents are not familiar with it simply because there's no such thing? Or is it a feature of the manifest system that Google can't ferret out?

I used it yesterday so there is such a thing. It seems the only thing lacking is your google skills

 

[AmtrakBlue]

1st page:

About 63,800 results (1.08 seconds)

















No results found for "Amtrak open sleeper ticket".
Results for Amtrak open sleeper ticket (without quotes):

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[niemi24s]

My Google skills are just fine as I found the same things you did. I should have said my Google search for "Amtrak open sleeper ticket" revealed absolutely nothing from Amtrak dealing with something called an open sleeper ticket. All the other hits talking about it are from various boards and forums like this and I think you'll agree they don't establish Amtrak policy. So...

...please be good enough to refer me to some specific AMTRAK link dealing with it.

If it's some unwritten Amtrak policy or procedure then I can understand why many agents don't know about it.

 

[jebr]

I haven't found anything on Amtrak's website detailing it.

That being said, it's in the Amtrak Service Standards Manual (retrieved from Amtrak through a FOIA request and screenshot above by Ryan, although I think his is newer than what I have through a FOIA request) and some people here, including myself, have booked them before and used them without issue. They're not often used, so agents don't know much about them, but they do exist even if they're not listed directly on the Amtrak's website.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

My Google skills are just fine as I found the same things you did. I should have said my Google search for "Amtrak open sleeper ticket" revealed absolutely nothing from Amtrak dealing with something called an open sleeper ticket. All the other hits talking about it are from various boards and forums like this and I think you'll agree they don't establish Amtrak policy. So...

...please be good enough to refer me to some specific AMTRAK link dealing with it.

If it's some unwritten Amtrak policy or procedure then I can understand why many agents don't know about it.

I used it once myself. Rather my friend got one with the help of a member here when she was considering going on a trip with me which I had already booked. Word of mouth from people who have used them is good enough for me.