Sleeper without meals?

[AmtrakBlue]

MAYBE it just means something they're doing on the accounting side of things.

 

[priller]

Could be an account thing. However, "Pilot de-linking of sleeper and meal service" is immediately followed by "Pilot pre-paid dining car service for coach class". Can't read too much into a bullet item. But, it could be interpreted that meal service is being considered as an add-on to the base price of sleeper and coach.

Just got'a wait and see.

 

[cirdan]

If I'm paying something like 800 dollars for a sleeper, I'm not really going to avoid the dining car to save something like 20 to 30 dollars a meal. So if they started charging extra for meals, I don't think the dining car would be empty.

On the otehr hand, if dining cars were abolished and I had to survive for two days on sandwiches from the cafeteria, that would be a serious deterrent to train travel.

 

[andersone]

She Who Must Be Obeyed and myself both thoroughly enjoyed the food in our recent EB trip. One of the dinners she had wasn't jump up and down good, but quite edible. You of course can feed my steak anytime. I think the current mechanism of including the cost in the sleeper fair is quite equitable. Twice in the six meals we had we were seated with coach passengers so they obviously felt the food was worth paying for.

 

[Ryan]

Hence: the airlines financial condition continues to improve. And, Amtrak's continues to erode.

I think you've got that backwards.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

If I'm paying something like 800 dollars for a sleeper, I'm not really going to avoid the dining car to save something like 20 to 30 dollars a meal. So if they started charging extra for meals, I don't think the dining car would be empty.

On the otehr hand, if dining cars were abolished and I had to survive for two days on sandwiches from the cafeteria, that would be a serious deterrent to train travel.

This is true for some passengers, but not everyone is paying $800 for a sleeper. Many people don't travel endpoint-to-endpoint, and undoubtedly pay a lot less. Some people (like me) use AGR points, etc. The point being that there will be a non-zero & possibly significant number of people who will choose to avoid the dining car if they have to pay for it. And reducing the number of patrons is no way to increase revenue.

 

[Dan O]

I just took a trip to New Orleans from LA with my son in a roomette that was paid by points. We figured our meals would have cost about $50 a day per person, not counting tips. So would I pay over $200 (including tips) for both of us to eat on the train? Nope. For a round trip that would be over $400 which was more than 3 nights in New Orleans and a swamp tour cost. So no, I'd just bring some food to much on and try to buy something at the longer stops like El Paso, Houston and Tucson. I enjoy community seating for the most part but occasionally we have been stuck with someone who can not converse but can run on and on. I would not want to pay say $50+ tip for the steak dinner and have to sit next to someone that is boring me to tears.

Dan

 

[jis]

Yeah, I have actually not paid anything close to $800 for Sleeper in a long long time. As a matter of fact I can't remember when I paid that much. If I was going to pay that much I'd rather go to Europe and ride real trains Now using AGR points is a different matter altogether.

My usual paid sleeper rides are east of Chicago and they are always $400 or less, or if on the Auto Train, then a bit more, but nothing even close to $800.

So, I wholly agree with Dan O. When meals were not included in Sleeper tickets I seldom used the Diners, and will again stop using it mostly, except perhaps a few dinners here and there if the meals cease to be included in the ticket. But I suppose that is just me.

 

[Bob Dylan]

You're not alone jis, I think a Majority of Sleeper passengers would opt to forgoe most meals in the Diner if Amtrak returned to the old way ( Amtrak and Class Is) of paying a la carte for food and drink!

I used to ride the Southern Crescent often in Slumber Coaches and Breakfast was usually the only Meal I did in the Diner!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I used to enjoy the Frozen Railroad Toast and the Chef Inspired meals but these days I'm not seeing those on the routes I'm traveling. The Precooked Pancakes are terrible and even the sausage was bad on my last trip (I'm not even sure how can you mess up sausage). I typically skip a meal or two already simply because it's not worth eating empty calories that don't taste good. I'm curious why AmChow junkfood gets so much love on here. Prior to the Chef Inspired meals it was honestly pretty bad and now that those options were cut it's back where it started again.

 

[user 1215]

You're not alone jis, I think a Majority of Sleeper passengers would opt to forgoe most meals in the Diner if Amtrak returned to the old way ( Amtrak and Class Is) of paying a la carte for food and drink!

I used to ride the Southern Crescent often in Slumber Coaches and Breakfast was usually the only Meal I did in the Diner!

I, for one, would forego the sleeper before foregoing the diner.

 

[Ispolkom]

I'm curious why AmChow junkfood gets so much love on here. Prior to the Chef Inspired meals it was honestly pretty bad and now that those options were cut it's back where it started again.

I'd have to agree with you. I started regularly eating in dining cars in 2008, when I started traveling in sleeper class (I could never justify any meal but breakfast when I had to pay for it in coach). The chef-inspired meals led to, I thought, a general improvement in dining car fare. Now it's back to about where it was in 2008, and it can become pretty monotonous on a multi-day western trip. If I had to pay for meals in sleeper, I'd pack more picnics.