Amtrak Guest Rewards - Eaten alive by bedbugs on the California zephyr

I just thought I should warn folks of a little problem you may encounter if you are unfortunate enough to wind up in the same car I did....

Took the CZ from DEN to LNK and back in a roomette a few weekends ago. The way out was fine, but on the way back I woke up to find my feet and legs, which were the only uncovered spots of skin, covered with 20-30 intensely itchy red welts, some of which were clustered in groups of 3 (classic for bedbugs).

After I first noticed the welts, I checked the bed, and noticed little black spots on the bedding, which I have been told is a sign that a bed may be infested.

It's been almost a month, and I still have marks from the bites...looks like I may wind up with scars from them.

Anyone else have an experience like this in a sleeper car?

I cancelled my reservation in November because of this experience!

They can be found in the best hotels around the world, so don´t simply blame Amtrak. I hope you reported the situation so they became aware of the problem. I understand your concern, but if you cancel Amtrak and can´t assume you won´t find the critters in your hotel as well. Good hotels, and I trust Amtrak, spray for them on a regular basis.

Anyone else have an experience like this in a sleeper car?



No, and I've taken about 50 sleeper trips on Amtrak.

I wouldn't want to minimize your account, but I'm getting tired of the bed bug story in TripAdvisor hotel reviews slamming a property out of proportion to the likely reality.

Certainly there was no good reason for you to cancel a future reservation.

Certainly there was no good reason for you to cancel a future reservation.

Except that I know my car doesn't have bedbugs. Sorry if I offended you all by sharing my experience....I personally would have appreciated it if someone had warned me about the possibility that I would be covered with itchy weeping sores for over a month. I would have driven instead.

The Amtrak rep didn't seem to care too much one way or the other when I mentioned that the reason I was canceling was bedbugs, so I really doubt letting them know resulted in any additional measures to control them. I'm not saying it's their fault, I know that it's a tough thing to control. I am sure it sucks to be a hotel owner (or train, or whatever) and have your business ravaged by a pest that is totally beyond your control.

However, it's also not fair to expect customers that have a horrible experience (and yes, actually it IS a horrible experience...I was miserable for weeks and now have deep pitted scars on my legs), to not warn other people away, just because it's not the business owner's fault. As I said, I sure wish someone would have warned me. If I stayed at a hotel that had bedbugs, I wouldn't go back to that same hotel, even if the hotel owner was the nicest person in the world and even knowing it wasn't their fault.... why would I knowingly put myself in that position again? It's the same with the train. Yeah, maybe I got unlucky, but why would I take the chance again, knowing that my first trip was marred by such a miserable experience, and knowing that I can drive the same distance without getting turned into lunch?

I am totally aware of the fact that hotels from flea-bag to five star can have bedbugs, but it seems that the problem will only get worse if people aren't aware of it, because they won't know to look for them in hotels, sleeper cars, and other lodgings, and will unwittingly bring them back home.

Did you report the problem to the car attendant? They can only correct what they know is wrong.

The Amtrak rep didn't seem to care too much one way or the other when I mentioned that the reason I was canceling was bedbugs, so I really doubt letting them know resulted in any additional measures to control them.

The Rep you spoke with's job is to make reservations and change reservations. He/she would not only probably not care, they don't have the means to do anything about it. Kind of like calling Hilton's Toll Free Reservation line, the agent there wouldn't be able to do much about bedbugs at a hotel in say LA.

You would have needed to report it to the attendant on the train, and/or call the main Amtrak number and when Julie answers say "Agent". Once you've got an agent online, ask that agent to transfer you to customer service. This department is the only one that might have been able to do something about it. And sadly now, it may be too late, as they may no longer be able to figure out exactly which car you were in and get it taken out of service for cleaning. I think that they can only track a car for 1 month after your trip.

Customer service is also the only department that can authorize some compensation for the problem. But be warned, they tend to send you any compensation in the form of a voucher good for a future trip, although you may well be able to get them to send you a check.

They can be found in the best hotels around the world, so don´t simply blame Amtrak. I hope you reported the situation so they became aware of the problem. I understand your concern, but if you cancel Amtrak and can´t assume you won´t find the critters in your hotel as well. Good hotels, and I trust Amtrak, spray for them on a regular basis.

Not at any "best hotel" that I stay in! Any upscale or luxury hotel with this problem would lose customers very quickly if it were ever more than an extremely isolated incident that they dealt with immediately.

Did you report the problem to the car attendant? They can only correct what they know is wrong.

I would have if I had actually encountered a car attendant at some point prior to getting off the train, but he/she didn't seem to be around.

The Rep you spoke with's job is to make reservations and change reservations. He/she would not only probably not care, they don't have the means to do anything about it. Kind of like calling Hilton's Toll Free Reservation line, the agent there wouldn't be able to do much about bedbugs at a hotel in say LA.

You would have needed to report it to the attendant on the train, and/or call the main Amtrak number and when Julie answers say "Agent". Once you've got an agent online, ask that agent to transfer you to customer service. This department is the only one that might have been able to do something about it. And sadly now, it may be too late, as they may no longer be able to figure out exactly which car you were in and get it taken out of service for cleaning. I think that they can only track a car for 1 month after your trip.

Customer service is also the only department that can authorize some compensation for the problem. But be warned, they tend to send you any compensation in the form of a voucher good for a future trip, although you may well be able to get them to send you a check.

You are right. I had assumed that the reservations agents and customer service were more or less the same department, but now I can see that is not the case. I did send a note to customer service a short while ago, asking them to look into the problem. Hopefully, they are already doing something about it. I suspect that I can't have been the only person who reported a problem.

I couldn't care less about compensation, nor do I expect any.

I couldn't care less about compensation, nor do I expect any.

The point of compensation in any service industry is to appease you in order to make you come back and give the product another try (hopefully after they've fixed whatever problem is being complained about.

Their customer service really has nothing to offer you, given that you have no intention of doing that no matter what offer they make you.

All I can do is say that in my experience, the experience of every other FTer who has posted in this thread, and of the several years I have been following this forum as well as another Amtrak-focused forum which has hundreds of members who each travel dozens of thousands of miles on Amtrak every year, I have never heard of bedbugs being a problem. You must consider that your experience was a complete fluke and not something that would be repeated.

I'm sorry you won't be able to experience the joys of rail travel because you are choosing to hold on to and base your decision on an isolated incident that has not been experienced in the combined dozen million miles of rail travel per year done by people I know.

I've been able to enjoy life so much more because I am able to let things go and try them again. I would have to give up some of my favorite restaurants if I held grudges because I got food poisoning from them. Instead, I reported the experiences to the management and health board, let things settle out, and returned to find the food better than ever (with a few extra sneeze guards in place). I feel sorry for people who can't do that and end up limiting their lives.

As one of our own moderators once said, if everyone boycotted every company that any other FTer had complained about, we'd all be walking.

Not at any "best hotel" that I stay in! Any upscale or luxury hotel with this problem would lose customers very quickly if it were ever more than an extremely isolated incident that they dealt with immediately.

Sure the hotels you stay at check every customer for bugs before they check in.

Please google the numerous undercover TV reports that show the cleaning at the most upscale hotel is only marginally better than at the 2 star level.
With the upscale hotel chains outsourcing their cleaning to the lowest bidder the cleaning level is not good.

I stayed at a Hilton brand in DFW area and met a person who ran one of the outfits that does the cleaning on contract. He had seven motels that his company contracted to supply cleaning for. He was getting $8.00 per room cleaned and he had to pay his staff and supply the cleaning materials. Each housekeeper had to average 6 rooms per hour or he would find someone who would average the 6 per hour.
That is 9 minutes a room.
How clean do you think they can make it. Ask your spouse etc if they think they can clean a motel room in 9 minutes

OPEN YOUR EYES and smell the coffee:D

The point of compensation in any service industry is to appease you in order to make you come back and give the product another try (hopefully after they've fixed whatever problem is being complained about.

Their customer service really has nothing to offer you, given that you have no intention of doing that no matter what offer they make you.

All I can do is say that in my experience, the experience of every other FTer who has posted in this thread, and of the several years I have been following this forum as well as another Amtrak-focused forum which has hundreds of members who each travel dozens of thousands of miles on Amtrak every year, I have never heard of bedbugs being a problem. You must consider that your experience was a complete fluke and not something that would be repeated.

I'm sorry you won't be able to experience the joys of rail travel because you are choosing to hold on to and base your decision on an isolated incident that has not been experienced in the combined dozen million miles of rail travel per year done by people I know.

I've been able to enjoy life so much more because I am able to let things go and try them again. I would have to give up some of my favorite restaurants if I held grudges because I got food poisoning from them. Instead, I reported the experiences to the management and health board, let things settle out, and returned to find the food better than ever (with a few extra sneeze guards in place). I feel sorry for people who can't do that and end up limiting their lives.

As one of our own moderators once said, if everyone boycotted every company that any other FTer had complained about, we'd all be walking.


I am sure you are probably right. If there are that many people who have NOT had this problem, it seems that perhaps mine was an isolated incident. I really don't want to punish Amtrak, or anything like that. It's just a matter of "once bitten, twice shy" (literally!) Please understand that my hesitation is not based on a grudge, simply a desire avoid extreme discomfort.

I think part of the reason you were able to let things go with your favorite restaurant is because you had previously had good experiences with them. If I had taken even a couple sleeper car trips previously and had great experiences, I might have had a different reaction to this incident. But as it happened to be my first trip in a sleeper, I had no way of knowing if this was par for the course or not. If you got food poisoning at a restaurant on your first trip there, would you be quick to go back?

Since it sounds like this really may have been a fluke, if they offer me some sort of compensation, and an assurance that they have made a good faith effort to fix the problem, I may give them a second shot. There are definitely some appealing aspects to travel by train...

Sure the hotels you stay at check every customer for bugs before they check in.

Please google the numerous undercover TV reports that show the cleaning at the most upscale hotel is only marginally better than at the 2 star level.
With the upscale hotel chains outsourcing their cleaning to the lowest bidder the cleaning level is not good.

I stayed at a Hilton brand in DFW area and met a person who ran one of the outfits that does the cleaning on contract. He had seven motels that his company contracted to supply cleaning for. He was getting $8.00 per room cleaned and he had to pay his staff and supply the cleaning materials. Each housekeeper had to average 6 rooms per hour or he would find someone who would average the 6 per hour.
That is 9 minutes a room.
How clean do you think they can make it. Ask your spouse etc if they think they can clean a motel room in 9 minutes

OPEN YOUR EYES and smell the coffee:D


While you are right about the fact that the cleaning in some luxury hotels is not always that much better than in cheaper hotels, that's actually a separate issue from pest control.

Bedbugs have little to do with the cleanliness of a place, and everything to do with who has been there previously (a world traveller who unknowingly brings bedbugs in their suitcase, for example) and also with the adequacy of the pest control measures (do they spray enough, are they proactive vs. simply try to fix an infestation after the fact?). And once they are there, they can be really really hard to eliminate. Sometimes it involves extensive measures such as getting rid of furniture, carpet, drapes, etc. That's one reason why people go crazy about it, because if you bring them back to your own home....lord help you.

Although inadequate cleaning and inadequate pest control may sometimes go hand in hand, they don't always. Both are a problem, though.