Free upgrades?

[northnorthwest]

I've been taking the occasional sleeper trip, always in a roommette, for over a decade. Recently, I had a roundtrip (with companion) booked in a roommette. In both directions, I got an e-mail on the day of the trip saying the trip was updated. The first time, it was upgraded from a roommette to room H. The second time it was upgraded from a roommette to bedroom A. No charge. No bidding. It was just updated both times to these new much larger rooms. This was my first time in either of these configurations. Is getting upgraded just a thing that I never knew about? Any particular system or method to when and why this might happen? Does it relate to your AGR status? (Am I dreaming?)

 

[trimetbusfan]

I've been taking the occasional sleeper trip, always in a roommette, for over a decade. Recently, I had a roundtrip (with companion) booked in a roommette. In both directions, I got an e-mail on the day of the trip saying the trip was updated. The first time, it was upgraded from a roommette to room H. The second time it was upgraded from a roommette to bedroom A. No charge. No bidding. It was just updated both times to these new much larger rooms. This was my first time in either of these configurations. Is getting upgraded just a thing that I never knew about? Any particular system or method to when and why this might happen? Does it relate to your AGR status? (Am I dreaming?)

I’ve been regularly traveling on Amtrak over the last few years and have never received a free upgrade to a bedroom ‘just because.’

However I have heard of others getting upgrades due to their being a mechanical issue with the room you were originally assigned which could include any number of things that can’t easily be fixed (such as the upper bed not working as intended, the door latch not working)

 

[Bob Dylan]

I've been taking the occasional sleeper trip, always in a roommette, for over a decade. Recently, I had a roundtrip (with companion) booked in a roommette. In both directions, I got an e-mail on the day of the trip saying the trip was updated. The first time, it was upgraded from a roommette to room H. The second time it was upgraded from a roommette to bedroom A. No charge. No bidding. It was just updated both times to these new much larger rooms. This was my first time in either of these configurations. Is getting upgraded just a thing that I never knew about? Any particular system or method to when and why this might happen? Does it relate to your AGR status? (Am I dreaming?)

You didn't indicate if there was more than one Sleeper on your train when you received the Upgrades.

The usual reason this happens is due to a bad ordered Sleeper or Room, or someone booking more than 1 Roomette and wanting to have their party together in the Sleeper.

I've had this good fortune happen a few times in my over 50 years of riding Amtrak, but it is rare!

Far more often passengers are downgraded from Bedrooms to Roomettes, or from.Roomettes to Coach, mostly due to bad ordered equipment or late connections!

 

[PaTrainFan]

I've been taking the occasional sleeper trip, always in a roommette, for over a decade. Recently, I had a roundtrip (with companion) booked in a roommette. In both directions, I got an e-mail on the day of the trip saying the trip was updated. The first time, it was upgraded from a roommette to room H. The second time it was upgraded from a roommette to bedroom A. No charge. No bidding. It was just updated both times to these new much larger rooms. This was my first time in either of these configurations. Is getting upgraded just a thing that I never knew about? Any particular system or method to when and why this might happen? Does it relate to your AGR status? (Am I dreaming?)

Have you also had success in the lottery? Seems like the same amount of luck is involved!