Overseas callers / lower level seating

[deborahm]

I live in England. I was trying to find out the difference between more expensive lower-lever seating, and ordinary reserved coach seating. Amtrak have a little diagram of identical seats, but one costs more. In the interests of being obfuscatory, they don't say why. I thought "it must be better" and nearly paid the extra, but then tried a minute or two of research.

I tried to call Amtrak, but toll-free numbers don't work from overseas, and Amtrak don't give any regular number out. I emailed them, but I think they block email from people they don't know, or some such customer-friendly thing.

Anyway, I finally google-imaged the superliner, and the lower level looked depressing. Then I googled the "lower level seating", and found it was reserved for people who have trouble with stairs. Couldn't they put that on the website, together with a number (even if not free) that actually got to a human?

Having said all that, I went all over the States when I was a student on Amtrak, and I am excited to be about to ride an American train again.

 

[AlanB]

Deborah,

Some lower level seats are indeed automatically saved for people with mobility problems. The rest of the seats are open to the general public, should they for some other reason wish to sit on the lower level. For example if they have motion sickness, as there is less sway on the lower level.

Personally, unless you have some specific reason, I would not suggest booking a lower level seat, simply because the view is better upstairs and everything else other than the bathrooms, requires that you be upstairs. You can't get to the diner or the lounge car, except when you are on the upper level.

Finally, since we're not Amtrak and therefore can't improve Amtrak's website, I'm going to move this topic over to our Amtrak forum, where other members might express their opinions on the lower level vs the upper.

 

[George Harris]

Talk to your local telephone company and ask what can be done. When I dial a US "800" number from Taiwan it works, but before you are connected you get a recording that states something to the effect that, this call is not toll free from outside the US and you will be charged normal international calling rates. Since the recording is in English, I assume that it is on the US end.

What happens from other countries, I don't know. A lot of companies do give alternates for thier "toll free" numbers for calls from outside the US. Since Amtrak does advertize internationally, (I have seen brochures in Chinese) they have got to have a way to be reached from outside the country.

 

[eliyahu]

I tried to call Amtrak, but toll-free numbers don't work from overseas, and Amtrak don't give any regular number out. I emailed them, but I think they block email from people they don't know, or some such customer-friendly thing.

a station agent can usually forward your call to the reservations center (800-USA-RAIL), so try calling a station in the NEC somewhere and ask to be forwarded to reservations. i was able to do this by calling the springfield station not too long ago.

-- eliyahu

austin, tx