The Official Onboard Sleeper Upgrade Thread

[yarrow]

i heard from a conductor on the cs a couple weeks ago that onboard upgrades are no longer sold at low bucket but at whatever price the room was selling at through the ticket agent. he said this was effective sometime in early january. anyone else hear this?

After the last AU flare-up of this topic, I called Amtrack and asked about the upgrade policy. The answer was that it is still policy to sell upgrades; but she agreed with the conductor regarding the price.

so it looks like on board purchases of accomodations at a lower bucket than available for the ticket agent are a thing of the past. i wonder if amtrak still calls coach passengers a day or two before departure offering lower bucket accomodations when they have a lot to sell? they have called us with such an offer a couple times in the past

 

[sunchaser]

We were able to upgrade from a roomette to a deluxe bedroom (E) on the #5 California Zephyr from Grand Junction, Co to Salt Lake City, Ut on Oct 28th for $50.00!

It was a great deal! The Conductor insisted that even if we were coming from coach, the price would be the same.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I was able to upgrade on the LSL last month in CHI from coach to a roomette for the low bucket price, it was the last one available and this was when the other CHI-NYP sleeper had been bad ordered and they put a sleeper load of pax into a coach which the SCA turned into sort of an ad-hoc slumber coach! (ie they received a refund on the sleeper fare,

still got meals in the dinette and could use the shower and attend the welcome reception in the diner!)

 

[PetalumaLoco]

We upgraded from a roomette to a bedroom on #3 SWC on the 2nd night out for $88, this last August. We were elated.

 

[user 1215]

Another thread prompted me to revive this one. It's facintating seeing the prices on some of these trips. On a trip I took to San Diego from ABQ back in '07, the cost seems to have stayed the same for coach (around $85 each way) but the cost for a sleeper has gone up more than $110.

 

[DET63]

If you want to upgrade in middle of journey, the best chance would be when a lot of passengers deboarding the train at major station, like Albuquerque, then more rooms will be available. Again, it's gambling.

Yes, and the gamble might involve more people getting on in Albuquerque that already have tickets for the sleeper.

If you're heading westbound, perhaps the best place to gamble would be a few stops before Albuquerque, say, Las Vegas.*



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*Las Vegas, NM, that is.