Tipping Sleeping Car attendants

Guest · Feb 25, 2004

. I have never heard of attendants leaving before the end of the trip unless they are ill or something, with the exception of the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle combination/split in San Antonio.

Sleeper Attendants on the silver service go the full circle. Mia, NYC, MIA

They are there the whole time except in down time on board. Unless they have a family emergency and have to leave. Then they will find someone to cover the car.

Now tipping --- This is at passenger/ customer disgression and not a rule of amtrak ...20$ a person is a way of saying thanks you really took excellent care of me... well. It a good feeling to know you done all that you can for that person. You might ask " The question " Have I done all that I can for you? Directly That might get a few points.

but dinner in the room with wine gets you more with pleasent answers about what there next connection is and city their going to.

I have been on few occassions been had 50's

The modern day passenger needs all the help they can get. That what makes the difference.

but usual is 5 and a thx at the door. That door works for me to.

They all add up!!

B)

Rides Often · Feb 25, 2004

hummmmmm could be

battalion51 · Feb 25, 2004

Guest said:
I have never hear of attendants leaving before the end of the trip unless they are ill or something, with the exception of the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle combination/split in San Antonio.

That's a seperate issue though. Sunset attendants work the whole trip, and stay with their respective car. For example the sleeper attendant on 422 will stay with that car all the way to Chicago, while the attendants for 2 will stay with the car all the way to Orlando, there are no crew changes (anymore) for on board service empoyees on the Sunset. Trains that I'm aware of that have mandatory crew changes en route for OBS include the Palmetto (Savannah), the Three Rivers (Pittsburgh), and temporarily the Cardinal (somewhere in WV) due to the removal of its crew car. Attendants on all other trains work the entire trip for the most part. Now there are a couple of special scenarios however. For example the Silver Meteor will ocasionally have a MIA-DLD Coach Attendant (they work to Deland on 98 and then go right back on 97). Then the Meteor also has a JAX-NYP Coach Attendant and Waiter in the Dining Car. As for the Silver Star they carry a NY based Coach Attendant and Chef from NYP-KIS (those two turn take 91 down and then turn around and go back on 92 same day). There may very well be other similar cases across the country, but for the most part a large part of the crew remains intact for the entire trip except on the Palmetto, Three Rivers, and Cardinal (temporary).

AlanB · Feb 26, 2004

battalion51 said:
Sunset attendants work the whole trip, and stay with their respective car. For example the sleeper attendant on 422 will stay with that car all the way to Chicago, while the attendants for 2 will stay with the car all the way to Orlando, there are no crew changes (anymore) for on board service empoyees on the Sunset.

When did that change B51? Last I knew the OSB crew switched in NOL. It had been that way for years.

battalion51 · Feb 26, 2004

It switched two or three years ago Alan.

Amtrak OBS Employee · Mar 8, 2004

battalion51 said:
Guest said:

I have never hear of attendants leaving before the end of the trip unless they are ill or something, with the exception of the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle combination/split in San Antonio.

Click to expand...

That's a seperate issue though. Sunset attendants work the whole trip, and stay with their respective car. For example the sleeper attendant on 422 will stay with that car all the way to Chicago, while the attendants for 2 will stay with the car all the way to Orlando, there are no crew changes (anymore) for on board service empoyees on the Sunset. Trains that I'm aware of that have mandatory crew changes en route for OBS include the Palmetto (Savannah), the Three Rivers (Pittsburgh), and temporarily the Cardinal (somewhere in WV) due to the removal of its crew car. Attendants on all other trains work the entire trip for the most part. Now there are a couple of special scenarios however. For example the Silver Meteor will ocasionally have a MIA-DLD Coach Attendant (they work to Deland on 98 and then go right back on 97). Then the Meteor also has a JAX-NYP Coach Attendant and Waiter in the Dining Car. As for the Silver Star they carry a NY based Coach Attendant and Chef from NYP-KIS (those two turn take 91 down and then turn around and go back on 92 same day). There may very well be other similar cases across the country, but for the most part a large part of the crew remains intact for the entire trip except on the Palmetto, Three Rivers, and Cardinal (temporary).

The few cases where OBS crews switching out are as follows as I know so far:

The "Sunset Limited" : Entire crew (LAX crewbase btw) is LAX-SFD (except a waiter and a coach attendent who both swing at Houston and back to LAX) goes all the way to FL from LAX. And of course those jobs on the through cars on "The Texas Eagle" go onto CHI.

"Silver Service" : MIA crewbase employees take the entire trip MIA-NYP (except "Palmetto") and return on their respective trains. Jax crewbase sends three attendants (one coach and two waiters) down to ORL and KIS. The ORL swing is a waiter who goes north on the "Meteor" and the other waiter and coach attendant go to KIS and then head north on the "Star." They all three then step off in JAX on their return trip south. The "Southbound Meteor" could use an extra waiter south of JAX, but that is not likley to happen unless staffed out of MIA. The MIA-DLD swing job on the "Meteor" used to be a regular line job (180 hour guarantee), however, Amtrak cut that job and they only run it off the extra board as needed. The "Palmetto" is a wierd deal in itself, but a good deal for the OBS crews. And with recent changes it now is as follows: MIA employees (LSA and coach attendant) run MIA-SAV. JAX crewbase employees (LSA and two coach attendants) run from JAX-WAS. At WAS employees from NYC crewbase (who brought the "Southbound Palmetto") return to NYP with the train. The MIA and JAX employees get hotel stays while NYC employees swing back to their home base.

I am not sure of how the "Three Rivers" works, however, the "Cardinal" now belongs to the NYC crewbase and I am not sure of how the swing operations on that train work either since that came into effect.

Also in general, Amtrak creates swing jobs on just about all of the long distance trains in the system these days when necessary (especially during holidays, peak times, group moves, etc) through a cetralized crew managment center. However, these jobs are only temporary assignments, therefore allowing them not to be subject as posted bid jobs as per union contract. There are other factors the company considers when extra staffing is concerned such as passenger count, where the peak count occurs in route, etc.