Note that Amtrak deems it safe for the Acela Cafe Car to sell packaged hot sandwiches (hot dogs, hamburgers), but not safe for the First Class attendant to serve the same to passengers who pay 2-3x the business fare. The "snack boxes" are wholly inadequate. I wouldn't be surprised that the boxes cost more than the contents!

Any update on the meal situation in Acela First class? Is is still just a snack box? I couldn't find any reference to this in the COVID section on the Amtrak web site.

Still a box as of last weekend. Slightly different items. Disappointing.

Yep, rode yesterday and got a choice of breakfast or lunch box. The salami/cheese portion someone mentioned above was described to me as an "adult lunchable." Agree with whoever said the box was nicer than the contents. I chose the breakfast and the muffin was a tiny junior size. Ironically, when I got to the Acela lounge in NY, they had full sized muffins and danish. Could they not have included that on the train??? I would have rather had one decent sized pastry than four snack-size things (FTR, they were the muffin, a tiny Biscoff cookie, trail mix, and a small Kind bar).

I had a coupon to burn otherwise would absolutely not have done this. The two reasons I ever do, the meal and the desire to sit alone, are both now irrelevant as this is not a meal and you are now guaranteed no seatmate on any train in any section.

If sitting alone is your thing, on a recent TQP run (signed up for AGR World card in March, so 4k TQP with no status from last year would do me no good), I had the F car to myself. The attendant said I was the only passenger north of NYP on that train in F.
​​

Wow! This one was actually pretty full for the now times, I would say. There was probably someone in every other row which would have been crazy empty a year ago but I was surprised, things being what they are. Could be everyone was burning coupons, or maybe things are beginning to edge towards normal.

And, unless things have recently changed, the First class attendants won't let "their" passengers travel into Business class to go to the cafe! I agree, Business class right now is fine -- on a recent NYP-WAS on Sunday, there were 4 other passengers in the quiet car leaving NYP; two got off in PHL, and only two others remained all the way to WAS. The non-quiet cars were almost as empty.

I've had no problem going from FC to the Cafe. Just get up, push the button, and the doors slide open. If need be, talk to the Conductor (has four stripes on his epaulets -- not the Assistant Conductor who is the other ticket taker). And don't hesitate to write Amtrak Corporate Customer Relations at [email protected] if you have comments about subpar service.

I didn't realize that about transit during the trip -- guess I was thinking about the boarding and disembarking process, where the conductor gets very huffy if you don't go out the exit at the opposite end from the galley...

That's just to make sure you walk by the attendant with his hand out waiting for a tip on your way off.

Stuck having one now. It’s really an awful “meal service”.

PLEASE... everyone should complain to OCR (at) amtrak.com -- let them know it's ridiculous that an FC passenger can go to the cafe car and buy a wrapped sandwich, but it's "unsafe" for the FC attendant to serve it. If they're so concerned, the FC attendant can give passengers vouchers for a sandwich in the cafe car. Or show the boarding pass like we do in Regional cafe cars to get a free beverage -- the cafe car attendant can have a seat number check-off sheet to keep it to one per person.

Maybe if they hear from enough of us, they'll make a change.

Well, to be fair the cafe car attendant is behind plexiglass. But I assume the FC attendant is serving beverages seat-side, no? So really no reason not to serve food, other than cost savings.
They'll probably need to hear from enough passengers who are buying first class tickets, not those using upgrade certs. :)

Upgrade certs and award tickets represent significant spend too -- it's a LOYALTY program meant to reward the carrier's best customers with perks. Just like the airlines, when a passenger accesses a premium cabin with an upgrade or free ticket, the service provided should be no different than if a full-fare ticket was bought.

Amen. And, if anything, they should be wooing premium customers, not stripping the amenities.