Insider.com and businessinsider.com stories about Amtrak trips

[Amtrakfflyer]

I initially thought it was our friend again from a couple months ago on revision 9 or 10 of his article. It’s actually a girl and she already has three versions of her article floating around this week. Definitely has a millennial or younger vibe to the article referring to the “dining hall” and very open about her potty issues which could have just been implied and not spelled out as she did.

Im not that familiar with Business Insider but are these type of amateurish articles normal for them? The cynical part of me is screaming that Amtrak paid to have them done to show that this subpar service is what millennials want. While she somewhat liked Flexible dining (in one article at least), overall she didn’t like the trip, so if that was Amtrak’s goal they failed again.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/...ew-york-city-to-miami-experience-essay-2021-1
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/spent-30-hours-amtrak-nyc-181640029.html

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Too long and too bumpy? What was she expecting?

And she admits she has travel anxiety and being between destinations makes her anxious.

That’s about as far as I could make myself read. She lives in NYC and takes commuter rail there, but being in her own roomette on Amtrak overnight made her anxious?

I could understand if she was taking the EB and (like me) is afraid of mountains —I was anxious going through the Rockies.

But NYC to Florida is nice and flat (with maybe some nice manageable East coast mountains at night? Is that where those bumps are that I barely wake up for?)

Heck, the only thing even reading that far did was get me wishing for the end to eastern flex meals and the end of the virus running rampant through the south—because now I really want to go on the Silvers and on that route again!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

For me there seemed to be no attempt at a coherent narrative. She makes random and conflicting statements but rarely tries to reconcile anything. She has travel anxiety but thinks a 30+ hour trip is a good idea. She's been riding trains all her life but is also surprised by almost everything. She comes across like someone who struggles with every mode of transportation and flying is best simply because it's faster and cheaper. In the end it feels more like an attention seeking Instagram post than a real article meant to be read and digested by adults. I'm kinda surprised she didn't ask What do you think of my ink? toward the end.

 

[Cal]

"The author tries to sleep."

Maybe it'd help if it wasn't broad daylight out and you close the curtains? I don't know about you, but I don't find it particularly easy to fall asleep when theres sunlight shining directly onto my face.

 

[Seaboard92]

Business Insider really almost always seams like amateur hour in my view. It's like a bunch of millennials just trying to get their five minutes of fame. It's like poor instagram style stuff.

Then you have the other ones like the Points Guy, View from the Wing, and a few other more aviation centered blogs. I oftentimes look at them as spoiled rotten and if they don't get their way they are fast to write about it and complain. I don't really care for them either.

 

[sttom]

I remember watching a YouTube review a flight once and he was mad that he didn't get a drink service in business class! The poor baby! The flight was under and hour and my thoughts were "dude, why'd you waste money for business class on a flight under an hour?" I wouldn't say it's a generational thing, so much as an expectations thing. Some are more down to earth regardless of age and some don't have touch with reality. It's a human thing and the internet has ripped out collective blinders off.

 

[Seaboard92]

I remember watching a YouTube review a flight once and he was mad that he didn't get a drink service in business class! The poor baby! The flight was under and hour and my thoughts were "dude, why'd you waste money for business class on a flight under an hour?" I wouldn't say it's a generational thing, so much as an expectations thing. Some are more down to earth regardless of age and some don't have touch with reality. It's a human thing and the internet has ripped out collective blinders off.

Heck I do a drink service on ten minute regional flights. It's doable if you hustle. And I like to hustle.

 

[20th Century Rider]

I initially thought it was our friend again from a couple months ago on revision 9 or 10 of his article. It’s actually a girl and she already has three versions of her article floating around this week. Definitely has a millennial or younger vibe to the article referring to the “dining hall” and very open about her potty issues which could have just been implied and not spelled out as she did.

Im not that familiar with Business Insider but are these type of amateurish articles normal for them? The cynical part of me is screaming that Amtrak paid to have them done to show that this subpar service is what millennials want. While she somewhat liked Flexible dining (in one article at least), overall she didn’t like the trip, so if that was Amtrak’s goal they failed again.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/...ew-york-city-to-miami-experience-essay-2021-1
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/spent-30-hours-amtrak-nyc-181640029.html

She just eliminated most forms of transportation when she said, "I took a 30-hour train from New York to Miami, and the motion sickness and terrible sleep were too much for me."

How else is she going to travel without motion sickness??? Fly? Take a boat? Ride a car? Perhaps she would have less motion sickness if she walked or rode her bike!

 

[sttom]

Heck I do a drink service on ten minute regional flights. It's doable if you hustle. And I like to hustle.

I've primarily flown on budget airlines (Southwest, Frontier, United and British Airways) so my expectation of a flight is basically nothing beyond the transportation. And I do count United and British Airways economy section as a budget carrier. But for someone like me, expecting anything out of an under an hour flight besides the transportation is asking too much in my book. Or paying for business class for that short of a flight.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I remember watching a YouTube review a flight once and he was mad that he didn't get a drink service in business class! The poor baby! The flight was under and hour and my thoughts were "dude, why'd you waste money for business class on a flight under an hour?"

If all this guy wanted was drink service in business that sounds pretty reasonable to me. Even on a short flight business class is a small cabin easily served.

I wouldn't say it's a generational thing, so much as an expectations thing. Some are more down to earth regardless of age and some don't have touch with reality. It's a human thing and the internet has ripped out collective blinders off.

My first couple decades with American, Southwest, & United included drink service in coach on short flights, so I'd say it's probably a generational thing for many.

 

[AmHope]

She just eliminated most forms of transportation when she said, "I took a 30-hour train from New York to Miami, and the motion sickness and terrible sleep were too much for me."

How else is she going to travel without motion sickness??? Fly? Take a boat? Ride a car? Perhaps she would have less motion sickness if she walked or rode her bike!

As someone who gets motion sickness, a flight in good weather is definitely more stable than freight track on the long distance Amtrak routes. The caveat being that turbulence can be far worse than even the worst track, but it's usually much shorter in duration.

Obviously the train wins when you're on non third world track in a civilized country that has rail infrastructure not maintained by UP/BNSF/CSX.

 

[sttom]

My first decade with Southwest and United included full drink service in coach on very short flights, so yeah I'd say it's probably a generational thing for many.

The YouTuber I'm referencing is closure to my age, so very much a millennial. Southwest still give you a drink and peanuts on some flights, no idea what the time limit is if there is one. I still think it's unreasonable to expect anything beyond transportation on an under an hour flight.

 

[Nick Farr]

Heck I do a drink service on ten minute regional flights. It's doable if you hustle. And I like to hustle.

I'm curious which airlines even cater these flights to allow you to do it.

Of course, on private jets it's another thing...

 

[Nick Farr]

Im not that familiar with Business Insider but are these type of amateurish articles normal for them?

The article is about the limit of what you can expect the average Instagram user to read. It's conversational and has some embedded tips.

The author's experiences appear to be primarily with European and MTA commuter rail trains. If you're used to continuously welded ballast-free high speed rail in Europe, traveling Amtrak LD will be a shift for sure.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I'm curious which airlines even cater these flights to allow you to do it.

Since we're talking about premium cabins all of the legacies were restocked as of this last summer. Even with the DFW meltdown AA was still managing a full drink service in F/J on sub-hour flights. DL was even providing drinks and cocktails in Y+. Many people who buy these tickets expect drinks because that's part of what the airlines advertise as the upgrade sales pitch. I'm not sure why expecting to receive what you were sold is a bad thing to some but whatever.

 

[Nick Farr]

Since we're talking about premium cabins all of the legacies were restocked as of this last summer.

Ah, I meant the short flights. I ask because I'm often on a ~100 nautical mile flight that's basically an ascent and descent. They have bottled water, but this flight is almost never catered. Going from my home airport to any of my preferred airline's other hubs, we always get the boarding drink service and a mid-flight snack and drink service.

 

[Barb Stout]

I thought it was odd that the first article was in Business Insider Australia. So before I read it, I assumed that she was visiting from Australia, but after reading a few lines, no it appears that she is an East Coast American.

I am somewhat sympathetic to the motion sickness situation as I have troubles with that on cars and buses, but not really on trains, although sometimes when I'm eating on the train I can get a little tummy upset. But I don't think it's due to the quality of the food; I think it's the combination of motion, bumps, and opening my mouth wide to get the food in. When I'm sleeping, I really love the motion. It's like being rocked to sleep or getting a massage all night long.

 

[MARC Rider]

The only short flight segment on a major airline where there wasn't drink service, even for coach was a 15 minute flight on United from Dulles to BWI. (I was flying from Denver, the plane stopped at Dulles before continuing on to BWI, so I got my drink and meal service -- this was back in 1987 -- earlier on the Denver - Dulles segment.) There was always drink service on Northwest when I would fly from BWI to Detroit, which was about an hour or less in the air, and in my college days, I specifically picked meal flights between Philadelphia and O'Hare to avoid having to eat at the airport. They had no problem doing full meal service on those short flights.

 

[MARC Rider]

I'm surprised she didn't mention that the mattress in the upper berth of the Viewliner roomette appeared to be made out of concrete. At least that was my experience on my recent trip on the LSL. I really did have trouble getting to sleep that night.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

I'm surprised she didn't mention that the mattress in the upper berth of the Viewliner roomette appeared to be made out of concrete.

She’s saving that for version 4 of the article.

On the opposite end of this sort of hack “reporting,” I am greatly enjoying videos by a Canadian hockey player who takes the Canadian in his off-season time and a kid (I think also Canadian but I’m not sure) who did the SL in coach and actually made a cheerful adventure out of it.

Yes, I know they are also in it to make some money, but how much more entertaining to “travel” with someone with an upbeat attitude, a willingness to try new adventures, and an attempt to scratch the surface and present the viewer with a good travelogue than these whiny business insider people.

I know who I’d rather be seated in the dining car with!

 

[trainman74]

Southwest still give you a drink and peanuts on some flights, no idea what the time limit is if there is one.

They used to do it on every flight (unless turbulence was such that the flight attendants couldn't get up), but it's currently limited to flights of 250 miles or more, with a very limited beverage selection (only Coke, Diet Coke, 7Up, bottled water, or coffee).

 

[MARC Rider]

They used to do it on every flight (unless turbulence was such that the flight attendants couldn't get up), but it's currently limited to flights of 250 miles or more, with a very limited beverage selection (only Coke, Diet Coke, 7Up, bottled water, or coffee).

Do they still sell alcoholic beverages?

 

[Cal]

As someone who gets motion sickness, a flight popw a ive in good weather is definitely more stable than freight track on the long distance Amtrak routes. The caveat being that turbulence can be far worse than even the worst track, but it's usually much shorter in duration.

Obviously the train wins when you're on non third world track in a civilized country that has rail infrastructure not maintained by UP/BNSF/CSX.

Ive had some very smooth rides on freight tracks. Mainly UPs sunset route and the southern transcon.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Ah, I meant the short flights. I ask because I'm often on a ~100 nautical mile flight that's basically an ascent and descent. They have bottled water, but this flight is almost never catered. Going from my home airport to any of my preferred airline's other hubs, we always get the boarding drink service and a mid-flight snack and drink service.

My shortest flights in 2021 were a little under 250 miles (less than an hour in the air) and on those segments we received drinks and cocktails in premium cabins but no PDB's. I cannot comment on 100 mile flights since that's not something I've seen around these here parts.

They used to do it on every flight (unless turbulence was such that the flight attendants couldn't get up), but it's currently limited to flights of 250 miles or more, with a very limited beverage selection (only Coke, Diet Coke, 7Up, bottled water, or coffee).

It's hard to know what a full drink selection will become moving forward. Everything is scaled back with mini cans and no official lists that I could find.

 

[trainman74]

Do they still sell alcoholic beverages?

No, partly as a result of the incident in which a Southwest flight attendant had teeth knocked out by a passenger. The five selections I listed are the only beverage choices, period.

On a Southwest flight I was on last week, one of the flight attendants claimed that another reason for the current limited service is because they would normally read lips to figure out what beverage passengers were ordering over the sound of the cabin, but that's obviously impossible with masks... therefore, they only have five choices so that passengers can order by holding up the appropriate number of fingers.