Interesting topic that is not as pronounced at Amtrak, I think in part because the space is not so limited on the rails:
Also, France is replacing it’s sleeper fleet but only one for one. Still interesting read because my presumption was national railway sleeper service was done for in Europe outside of RailJet.
https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2025/01/29/france-shows-faith-in-night-trains/
Another look at Amtrak’s RFP:
Thanks. Interesting. First class coach makes sense on shorter rides where business travelers might use rail.
Travel First Class whenever you can.
Flying from Chicago to the Mid-East two years ago, the difference for us to upgrade to First Class was $8,000. I suffered 16 hours in coach and enjoyed spending the money on other things.
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Flying from Chicago to the Mid-East two years ago, the difference for us to upgrade to First Class was $8,000. I suffered 16 hours in coach and enjoyed spending the money on other things.
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I only pay first class domestic, would never do so internationally. This is the whole reason for affinity programs. I sent my Parents and one of their friends Business Class to Germany, which I offered First Class but they declined…all free to me and done with affinity programs and FF miles. An extreme example because I had racked up about 500k in FF miles at that time. However, even with affinity programs plus cash you can get a good deal with an international First Class ticket. Charge to affinity cards and pay off in 30 days. I charged my last car in part to my CC for the affinity deal.
Also, as I get older I get smarter about money. In Texas my city offers rebates off new appliances if they are on the list for energy efficiency or water efficiency. So charge to affinity card, claim the rebate, and cut the water bill (heh-heh). Last roof replacement due to hail, charge to affinity card, upgrade to class4 hail resistent shingle, claim the insurance discount, etc, etc.
My wife used to be Diamond Medallion on Delta when she still worked fulltime. She’s down to Platinum the last couple of years and will probably be Lifetime Gold next year. We keep checking fares and sometimes can find Business Class for only 2x Main Cabin going to Europe. That’s well worth the cost. At other times, we’ll pay for E+ and then upgrade using miles. Some people fly cheaply because they don’t start their vacation until they get to their destination. We believe in starting our vacation when we get on the plane. We’ll probably only do 1-2 more transatlantic trips.
On Amtrak I usually always go sleeping car to Chicago from Dallas but might try overnight coach one of these times just for chuckles. Most of the time in the sleeper is spent sitting up when you travel 1 overnight. By the same token, every single time I travel by Amtrak I co-mingle with the coach passengers in the Dining car or Lounge Car and they tell me…I was smart to book sleeper and they will never do coach again overnight. So I kind of wonder what goes on there.
Agree. I know people that scrimp on each part of their trip and they return home after the vacation more stressed when they left. What is the point of that? Also do not get these people that drive their cars and set ridiculous driving distance mileage objectives each day of the trip. Why not drive leasurely? I think they are so conditioned to rush hour traffic, they do not know any better.
I used to do the “maximum mileage” thing when I was young. That’s why when my brother was living in Pensacola and I drove down to visit him twice, I never ventured off of I75 to visit the Clinchfield in Erwin, TN. I still kick myself over that.
We’re leaving for Woodstock, VT tomorrow morning. We’re splitting it into two days to make it leisurely. The first day to the Finger Lakes and the second the rest of the day. On the way back, we’re going through PA and spending the night in Williamsport.
Guessing you’re going up 15. Corning glass museum is worth it.j
Bet they wouldn’t have been so unhappy on a 1950s 44-seat coach. Much more recline when seats are on 52-inch centers.
And many with multiple-section fold-out legrests. As good as one of those business-class aircraft ‘beds’ if you don’t mind not being in a ‘pod’…
I like travelling first class by sea… No so and so in a reclining seat in front with no respect for the person behind.
On the other hand, I tend to be Corbusian (e.g.treating the bedroom as a machine a habiter) when it comes to sea travel of any modern kind. I’ll be out in the common areas or on deck until I’m ready to sleep, and then a simple bed with an adjacent sink and wardrobe will do me fine…
When I was commuting with Amtrak, I would make a beeline for the seats with the best legroom which were the Superliner coaches on the bi-level trains and a specific seat on the Amfleet coaches. Main reason was to have adequate room to see my laptop.
The bi-level cars built for the Surfliner had an interesting feature, reclining caused the seat cushion to move forward and thus preserving the legroom for the person behind. I remember Western Airlines having similar seats in the early 70’s, in part because I was sitting in a seat with the ratchet put in backwards and getting very annoyed everytime the seat cushion moved forward at the slightest provocation.
Now to build this as a Pullman car! While I’m glad the Breitspurbahn didn’t catch on… it would be a promising platform to resurrect for this sort of reason. Picture THIS up or down through the Hudson Highlands…
True, but one famous definition “first class” is simply “more room.” That applies to hotel rooms, too. Anyway, more room and a private toilet is my definition of first class by train.
Since going to work in New York following graduation from Penn State in 1964, I have opted for a room when traveling on an overnight train with two exceptions.
The first exception was on the Tilt Train – Queensland Railway – from Brisbane to Proserpine (Whitsundays) Australia. It was a comfortable ride.
The second time was on the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington, DC. I was in a penny-pinching mode and decided to save some money by going coach. The train was full, and I sat next to a woman who decided that I needed to be saved. She dragged out her bible and went to work on me. She was nice about it, but I finally told her that she was wasting her time. I escaped to the lounge car where I spent most of the night.
I have ridden coach on many of Amtrak’s long-distance trains, as well as trains in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and UK, during the day. But I will not do overnight in coach again.
I was thinking of coming home thru Scranton but now you’ve got me thinking. We were going to hit the Grand Canyon of PA the second day but maybe we can do it on the first day coming home.
