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!

 

[northnorthwest]

There were at least 2 sleepers on the first trip and 3 sleepers on the second trip. We were moved to different sleepers once the updates happened. From what I could see, there were a good number of unoccupied roomettes. For the first trip we were moved to an old H room (viewliner I) and for the second the new bedroom A (viewliner II). I was happy to get these upgrades, but I did find that I prefer the sleeping position of the roomette to the sideways position of these larger rooms. Also, the water would not get hot in the shower or sink in the viewliner II. The SCA told us we have to wait "real long" for it to heat up on these new cars, but since we had already waited 10 minutes, that doesn't seem reasonable. Ended up showering in the end-of-car shower in the other old sleeper, which worked fine. It also seemed like the bedroom A in the new viewliner was already falling apart--lots of visible sealant in various spots and cracks in various places. Plus the shower/toilet floor was not designed well, so the water would not drain and just stayed there after use with a mini pool. Seems there are so many basic design flaws in so many products in the US now and things are not built to withstand basic wear and tear. For a railroad, this is not a good plan! But...like I said, I appreciate the upgrades however they come!

 

[SubwayNut]

Also, the water would not get hot in the shower or sink in the viewliner II.

I had that same issue tying to take a shower in the main shower room (I was in a Roomette) on the Viewliner II in the Boston Sleeper of the Lake Shore Limited last weekend. I ended up not really showering (I was an hour form getting off being home so it wasn't a big deal).