And I guess I should have been more specific with the "spoil you" statement. Via Rail will "spoil you" in regards to how you are treated as a customer on their trains, in GENERAL. Comparatively I was "spoiled" by the courtesy of the station agents in Moncton, NB, my sleeping car attendant on The Ocean, the dining crew on The Ocean, even the lounge attendant on The Ocean.
I didn't feel all that spoiled when the first class attendant barked at me to put my bags in the overhead luggage rack, rather than in the empty floor based rack at the end of the car as I entered the train. I tried to comply, but the overhead bin would not hold my laptop backpack, so after putting my suitcase above, I went back and put my laptop in the floor rack. He turned around to see me doing that and yelled at me "I told you to put that in the overhead." I told him that it wouldn't fit and returned to my seat. Two minutes later he walked down the aisle with my bag and proceeded to shove it into the overhead bin without comment.
I didn't find out till later than night that in the process of his abusing my bag, he broke a flashlight in the front compartment and knocked a full water bottle out of the side compartment that I didn't notice as I removed the bag in Toronto.
So while I suspect that this was more of an aberration, I can tell you that I wasn't feeling too spoiled after that run.
And while the food was superior to Acela's first class food, the 2 & 2 seating that didn't provide any more legroom that an Amfleet one also didn't make me feel too spoiled. To VIA's credit, the other attendant seemed just fine and did take good care of getting me my food.
OK, I'll bite, what do you mean, "....Last year they wouldn't let me ride!
And for a little while I was beginning to wonder if they were going to let me ride this summer.......?"
Last year my mom and I went to the On Track On Line Southern California Railfest in the LA/San Diego area. While most returned back east via the SW Chief, our plans saw us taking the Coast Starlight up the coast to Seattle, a Talgo to Vancouver, and then the Canadian to Toronto, before finally returning home on the Maple Leaf.
As the fest was riding down the coast to San Diego, word came that the engineers for VIA were considering a strike. I spent time while in San Diego, back in LA for one night, and while riding the CS booking alternative plans just to get us home in case of a strike. And they did indeed go on strike 2 days before we were to travel. The settled the day our train was supposed to leave, but that was already too late for us and too late for the train to run that day anyhow.
This year's OTOL is in the Pacific Northwest, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. So again we figured, we're going to be right there this time, let's try again. We booked the reservations about 5 months ago for the Canadian. Word came at the beginning of June that the OBS, phone agents, stations agents, and others were considering a strike at the end of June, the 27th. At least this time I had some forewarning and wasn't actually already in the middle of my riding while starting to scope out other alternatives. Thankfully this time the union settled the day before the strike deadline.
So unless they vote down the contract, we should be good to go.
But again, I'm not exactly feeling spoiled and special.