RogerD408

Check back often to see if anything has opened up. Also, ask the attendant if anything is available. Downstairs may be closer to the facilities and has less sway, but is closer to the track so a bit more noise. Also, there is no through traffic downstairs.

cwc

Thanks all. We are in different car (1431 for the roomette & 1432 for the bedroom). It seems like all the upstairs roomette is sold out.

A couple more question:
1. Price drop, so I called to get price adjustment: For the roomettes, they charged me $47.6 for refund fee. The bedroom didn't charge me anything. Is that correct?
2. The reservation agent was very adamant that there is no "two bedroom configuration" only bedroom + roomette to make a bedroom suit. But the Amtrak website said bedroom suite configuration is with 2 bedroom.

zephyr17

You had a bad agent. For the price adjustment, the agent needed to issue a voucher (no fee) versus a refund (fee). Second, a suite between a bedroom and a roomette is the one that is impossible. No roomette adjoins a bedroom. Bedroom suites on a Superliner can be made between Bedrooms D & E and B & C. Here is the link to the Amtrak site's description of a Superliner bedroom suite:
https://www.amtrak.com/servlet/Conte...=1241210576129

zephyr17

Of course, both A&B or C&D in a single car must be open at the time of booking to do a bedroom suite. It is quite possible that the combination wasn't, which is why it was impossible to do. This close to departure, that is very likely the case.

AlanB

The A room is not able to be converted into a suite. Only B & C and D & E can have the sliding door between the rooms opened to convert it into a suite.

Dromomaniac

That was the case since January (they were running the car on only one train per week), however full PPC service was scheduled to be restored this month. Initially, full service was scheduled to resume March 1, but it was pushed back to mid-month. To my knowledge, all the PPCs are now back in service.

acker

My spouse and I booked a Bedroom on Coast Starlight LAX-SEA for Sept. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I found out the price: $1400 +/-! I can't believe people regularly pay this but then for the last 17 yrs I've become expert at working every deal - using ff/codes/free nights/mistakes or whatever. Looks like I'll used 51k SPG points for the trip. I'm not going to squander a hard pull for the Amtrak card. Still blows my mind that in the real world people pay the big bucks for travel.

cwc

Hi acker,

I was totally shock too by the price when I booked my April trip back in Feb. However, if you are diligent (or obsessive in my case), you can check the price everyday with http://biketrain.net/amsnag2.0/amSnag.php and do price adjustment when fare drop.

This was my strategy traveling with 6people, since the in-law MUST have a bathroom (grandpa needs to go in the middle of the night). I booked them a bedroom (982$bedroom). My sister, husband, daughter & I were booked in 2 roomette (318$/roomette).

Two weeks ago, the roomette price drop to $199, I called Amtrak got a refund $95/roomette (less the processing fee). Yesterday, bedroom price drop $579(but only 1 bedroom at that price), so in-law bedroom refund at $403, no processing fee . Today, one more bedroom open up at $579, I upgraded my roomette to bedroom. I was able to move everyone into the same car and on the same floor Total SCORED!!!

Now, if we can just find the B&C or D&E together to open the door between them, we will be all set, if not, we will still have fun trip. BTW, how is roomette 9? It is next to the door, will it be super noise? Thanks all!

zephyr17

Yeah, I know, I had it right in my first post, but dashed off the update that the rooms had to free too fast.

acker

cwc,

Great news about price drops. I look forward to checking obsessively over the next 6 months . I'm a SWA gal, so it's second nature.

serpens

You can also set up a fare watch at amsnag and get notified when the price drops. This does require registering at the site and (obviously) providing an email address. You get a notification whenever any fare (coach, business, roomette, bedroom, family room) drops from anything to anything lower, so there can be a lot of uninteresting notifications.

It used to be, and I believe still is, that you can get 100% refund in the form of a voucher. The voucher needs to be used within a year. That means booking a trip, not necessarily making a trip, and the reservation does not need to be in the original passenger's name. In other words, even though the voucher is in your name, you could book a trip for a relative or friend.

acker

Wow, it just keeps getting better. Thanks!

cwc

We will be boarding in SJC at 8:11pm. Will we get dinner? Also, what is the operating hour for the café? If we can buy some midnight snacks.

Oh, we have 6people in different room, I wonder if we can all seat together to have meals or they just do from room to room.

Thanks!

BelmontRef

If the train is on-time or close to it, you should get dinner. Assuming you are in a sleeping car, a good car attendant will have dinner reservations waiting for you. Tables in the Dining Car are for four. Ideally, they will seat you four at one table and two across the aisle. Even with reservations, parties are seated at available spots as they arrive.

The cafe should be open until sometime around 11:00 to midnight, reopening at 6am.

boxo

At this point, I don't remember what I read about previous experiences here, but I must say it was not worth it. Part of the problem was I hardly slept two hours before the 6:35 am departure and was very very tired. But the car attendant was a surly one. She was confrontational, defensive, and hardly ever checked in. The highlight was catching sight of the guy across from me snorting coke off the web of his hand a few minutes before he got out at SJC. I guess that bit of entertainment was what I got for the +$25 minus $6 food voucher.