Pre Paid Meals Vouchers

[ScouseAndy]

When purchasing coach tickets why doesnt Amtrak offer an upgrade to have inclusive dining car meals on LD services? This would generate more revenue for the dining car and give the perception of better value compared to standard ticketing prices + spending $20 + per meal

The down side is that due to delays some journeys could potentially have more meals included then originally purchased and it would have to make it clear before the point of payment that the voucher covers the value of meals only during the dining car service times and no refunds are given for meals missed due to late boarding due to delays. So a 2 hour delay could mean missing lunch but getting a diner instead for example

 

[Devil's Advocate]

When purchasing coach tickets why doesnt Amtrak offer an upgrade to have inclusive dining car meals on LD services? This would generate more revenue for the dining car and give the perception of better value compared to standard ticketing prices + spending $20 + per meal. The down side is that due to delays some journeys could potentially have more meals included then originally purchased and it would have to make it clear before the point of payment that the voucher covers the value of meals only during the dining car service times and no refunds are given for meals missed due to late boarding due to delays. So a 2 hour delay could mean missing lunch but getting a diner instead for example

Or a delay could result in receiving nothing instead of dinner. Too bad there are no refunds allowed. Maybe coach customers can exchange a $30 dinner voucher for a hockey puck microwave burger and a can of Pepsi in the cafe. That should keep them happy.

 

[caravanman]

My perception is that the dining car service is a bit stretched at times as it is. There are a limited number of time slots available for dinner for sleeper passengers as things stand. Sleeper folk get priority on available tables. If it is full, then coach passengers don't get the chance to use the diner. If dozens more coach passengers are clamouring for their "discounted voucher" dinner, I don't think they could be accommodated.

I think a better route for coach passenger satisfaction might be to simply improve the food quality available from the cafe car ?

As a sleeper passenger I enjoy the atmosphere of the diner, meeting others, etc, but the food served is pretty average. As a coach passenger, I like the "steerage" atmosphere, and never go to the diner, just bring my own food and supplement with the odd hot dog and coffee from the cafe.

Many sleeper passengers like to believe they are superior in some way as they pay more, so I don't think they would be pleased to be dinning with lots of coach riff raff with their vouchers. :giggle:

Ed.

 

[RSG]

Yeah what caravanman said. Foodservice is challenging at best, even though Amtrak attempts to take something rather complex and make it even more so. In your average restaurant, management can make accommodations for unexpected numbers of people (up and down) and adjust accordingly. If the place runs out of salad, then a quick trip to Walmart, Costco, or Sam's Club will help pinch in (as a local restaurant of my patronage does). That's not possible on a moving dining room with a limited amount of space. Even if there were commissary provisioning in remote cities, often the time constraints would make deliveries difficult. Unless only canned & aseptically packaged goods are boarded at station stops, the type of foods ready for pickup are limited, as well. This is why trains such as the Empire Builder are noted for their quirky non-standard meal offerings. The cost of providing catered meals between certain points obviously outweighs the cost of maintaining a dining car from terminus to terminus.

A much better cafe car menu would indeed go a long way towards solving a lot of foodservice issues with Amtrak.

 

[Anderson]

The key is that with a prepurchased voucher of some sort (I would subject it to a refund in the event of a delay causing the mealtime to be missed) Amtrak could still plan for variable food demands in the diner (e.g. "We have 60 sleeper pax and 20 prepaid dinner vouchers on the LSL out of NYP, so the staff should be told to plan for at least 80-90 folks at dinner and supply the train accordingly"), especially if the vouchers are sold a few weeks out. Part of the reason Amtrak went to "meals included with the sleeper" was to make it easier to project diner demand; doing advance-purchase vouchers would go even further towards that end.

 

[jphjaxfl]

The Santa Fe and Union Pacific offered "meal tickets" that included all meals on their western trains. For example, I have a Super Chief Meal Ticket that was good for 5 meals on the Chicago to Los Angles trip. It included anything on the menu at each meal except the Steak Dinner had a premium added to it. It included all non alcoholic beverages. That seemed to work well for those taking longer trips. In that era, meals were not included with Sleeping Car tickets.

 

[Anderson]

It's also worth noting that some of the Trans-Pacific carriers have been experimenting with items like Singapore's "Book the Cook" where you place a meal order in advance.

There was an interesting point made by Matt Hardison (I think) at NARP last fall which noted that the main roadblock to this was that Arrow only knows how to book a "seat" or "accommodation" leading to issues in trying to add anything to a reservation (e.g. a meal reservation). Hence "Train 997" (the Legacy Club) Theoretically it shouldn't be that hard to stitch together a workaround of some sort involving perhaps a five-digit train number (e.g. 10097/10098 being the "train number" for "food vouchers on the Silver Meteor").