Originally Posted by
GrayAnderson
I cannot speak to crowding on those specific trains, but I can say that on the vast majority of the sets there is both a "regular" BC car and a long-distance Superliner that provide BC. The long-distance car is a real treat insofar as you get legrests and something like an effective seat pitch of 55" or so...so I'd say that I consider that to be worth the extra cost. Also bear in mind that you get a snack pack (right now it's chips, hummus, a bit of trail mix, and I think some cookies) and a glass of wine with BC as well as a 25% points-earning (and TQP-earning) bonus, so there are enough bells and whistles that I consider it to be well worth the extra $20 or so.
Are they running the Superliner as a BC car now? For years, it was just behind the BC car but was part of the Coach section. (I of course generally preferred the Superliner, but back in those days, it didn't have the wifi module installed, so what you gained in comfort, you lost in connectivity--that's changed now and they have onboard wifi.) It does make more sense to offer it as Business.
Superliner aside, unless you're on a s/o train, I find Coach and Business to be virtually indistinguishable, so I don't bother with Business. The 25% bonus comes out to 50 cents' worth of points on a ~$40 ticket, and I don't think a newspaper, snack pack, and glass of wine is worth $18.50--they're appreciated, but if I went to the snack car to buy those items, I almost certainly wouldn't spend $18.50 of my own money to get them, so they're not really worth $18.50 to me.
That said, on a s/o, SRO train, the equation changes considerably.