attendant nowhere to be found and I had to make my own bed

[Sauve850]

I would never just chance that the SCA will show up to make my bed or that the call button even works.

When boarding I always ask to make sure the SCA will stop by right after we depart. When he/she stops by I'm very specific as to the time I want my bed made up. Many long distance trips and its never failed me.

 

[Lonestar648]

Generally, the SCAs are very attentive, but also I have found twice recently on Superliners, the right side (even rooms) of the sleeper, looking to the rear door from the coffee station, where the Call Buttons did not work, At first I thought the SCA wasn't responding, but having travel a lot in these cars, it dawned on me that the when I pressed the Call Button, I did not hear the call tone, nor did the Call Light illuminate. I asked across the hall, their's worked, then the room behind me heard us and tried his with nothing happening. Once we found the SCA, she was quite concerned because she couldn't hear the tones. After she and the Conductor tried to reset something, with no luck, she made a car wide announcement of the problem, She stayed close, announcing each time she was out of the car to go to the DC or in the adjoining Transition Sleeper. She put a note on Room 1 door whenever she was out of the car, or was putting down beds.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I too was wondering if you pressed the Call button in your room?

That was the first thing we tried... but after pressing it several times, nothing happened... that's when we went and found the conductor... then nothing... didn't want to go hunt the conductor again because didn't want to be seen as troublemakers.

the SCA was still a no show during breakfast AND lunch... so we had to make out own beds and return them back to sitting position this morning.

I am so tempted to use the Soup Na-zi's voice(from Seinfeld) and shout "NO TIP FOR YOU" at the end of the journey... but I'm afraid the SCA won't be there to hear it anyway. Maybe I'll just write it on a post-it.

I've had a few SCAs like this, but since I'm able to convert the room myself and do so on my schedule, it is not too bad a problem. It does become more of a problem when they have not put out towels and such for the shower and none can be found in the usual hiding places. Interestingly, these SCAs magically appear at the steps when it is time to detrain but what is just as interesting is my tipping hand just as suddenly DISappears

 

[Meat Puppet]

Sounds like the Silver Meteor to me

 

[nirtak]

From the folks that have traveled Amtrak frequently, how often do you have disappearing SCAs?

 

[crescent-zephyr]

From the folks that have traveled Amtrak frequently, how often do you have disappearing SCAs?

The ones who totally dissapear have been rare in my experience. Maybe like 1 in 20 or 30 trips?

You have a better chance of having an SCA you wish would dissapear with bossy announcements and made up rules. That's still not the norm, most of the SCA's are good to excellent.

 

[me_little_me]

From the folks that have traveled Amtrak frequently, how often do you have disappearing SCAs?

Depending on the amount of "disappearance", here is my experience:

Total - none

Not putting beds down and up - none but twice we had to find SCA. I never make up bed but will push up top bunk in the morning after stuffing stuff from bottom into top before the SCA arrives.

Not helping with luggage - 50%

Not showing up looking for a tip - 0%

Not getting a tip - 15% (Once I gave the tip to the neighboring car's SCA as he helped with baggage while ours stood around.)

 

[Lonestar648]

From the folks that have traveled Amtrak frequently, how often do you have disappearing SCAs?

Over the past 10 years of travel on Amtrak, I can only remember two that were MIA. Helping with beds, over 90%. Help with luggage less than 50%.

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

I've never had one to "disappear" but I have had one in northbound Coast Starlight who did help put down the beds but was "asleep" in his room the next morning until almost noon and not available to help return the rooms to daytime sitting nor did he offer help carrying the bags in my room down the stairs as I deboarded in Portland. Since we were delayed immediately after departing Los Angeles for 4 hours due to hitting a pedestrian in a station about 30 minutes into the journey. Added to the over 1 hour we were delayed departing Los Angeles waiting on a late Southwest Chief we were over 5 hours late passing through Oakland, Emeryville, Martinez, Davis, and Sacramento so I am guessing my SCA out of the three sleeping cars handled the passengers boarding and deboarding through night covering for the other two SCA's. If that was the case, I think one of those SCA's he covered for should have at least visited our car and helped with returning the rooms to day time sitting. Of course, that is just a guess on my part since this was a one time experience for me. By the way, I was in roomette 002 across the aisle from the attendant in roomette 001 so I heard him talking to newly boarding passengers during the night as they boarding.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

From the folks that have traveled Amtrak frequently, how often do you have disappearing SCAs?

The ones who totally dissapear have been rare in my experience. Maybe like 1 in 20 or 30 trips?

You have a better chance of having an SCA you wish would dissapear with bossy announcements and made up rules. That's still not the norm, most of the SCA's are good to excellent.

Its been rare enough that I can't think of a specific experience. I would expect the roomette to be converted into night-time mode while we were at dinner, and into day-time mode while we were at breakfast. Not too sure what might happen to if one deviated from that (didn't go to the dining car for meals, or expected it to not happen until, say, 11pm).

I have had the dining car LSA be pretty bossy once. She made it clear that the 6pm seating didn't start until she announced it was 6pm, and we had to leave the dining car (didn't seem to care that the PA system was out in the sleepers). On the flip side, we had a LSA that walked thru the sleepers making sure we were well fed before shutting down.

 

[blackpup]

So how are the SCA's on the CL #30 and the SM #97, I am in roomette #2 on both.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I've never had a problem with SCAs. Yeah, some may not have turned my bed as quickly as I might have liked, but I knew they were busy with other pax.

 

[Sauve850]

Each train is different for SCA's. I have just found that if I discuss things with them I have little problems. Many carry a notebook to write things down. A good idea. I ask that my bed be made up early while I'm at dinner which is 7 ish . In the morning I tell them I will hit the call button (we test it upon boarding to see if it works) and leave curtain in the bedroom partially open. Only other thing I usually need the next day is some ice. Its mostly always pretty good.

 

[Skyline]

When boarding a sleeper, assuming I see a SCA, I usually say something to the effect of "I know you're busy helping others...Don't bother putting down my bed. I'd rather do this myself when Im ready" (sometimes I prefer to sit up and read, converse with a roommate, or enjoy a nightcap---using seats, not beds). If I see him or her as I head for breakfast, I'll gently let the SCA know--as a hint to make the beds while I'm out of the room. Almost always seems to work out. But it's not really a problem to make my own bed.

I'll still tip so long as a SCA is available and helpful when I ASK or hint for help.

 

[CoachSlumber]

Only on a government operation would it be not all that unusual to hear of a well-paid employee not to be performing a primary function of his job. Can you imagine what would happen if a flight attendant was reported not to have run the drink service because she didn't feel like it or was sleeping on her seat?

 

[Steve4031]

Only on a government operation would it be not all that unusual to hear of a well-paid employee not to be performing a primary function of his job. Can you imagine what would happen if a flight attendant was reported not to have run the drink service because she didn't feel like it or was sleeping on her seat?

There are plenty of complaints about flight attendants on the flyer talk website. American carriers have the most complaints, but I have read critiques of Singapore FAs and Cathay Pacific FAs.

For the most part I have seen vast improvement on the part of Amtrak scas and lsas. Flight attendants I leave alone when I fly economy. My 2 flights in business class on LOT and Asiansiana were amazing as far as customer service.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Only on a government operation would it be not all that unusual to hear of a well-paid employee not to be performing a primary function of his job.

Drink service is not considered a primary function of a flight attendant. In theory their main focus is safety. Although I struggle to imagine how the elderly grandmothers who handle long haul intercontinental service would be physically capable of actually saving anyone. Even saving a child or unaccompanied minor seems like it would be completely beyond their abilities.

Can you imagine what would happen if a flight attendant was reported not to have run the drink service because she didn't feel like it or was sleeping on her seat?

I've seen a lot of lousy flight attendants who didn't seem to care about their jobs but I've never seen one that seemed the slightest bit concerned about being reported by a customer. Americans are taught from a young age that we're not responsible for the well being of strangers. That it's basically every man, woman, and child for themselves. It's no surprise that a society that worships the individual struggles to train anyone to perform a service oriented job with pride and purpose.

 

[jis]

Only on a government operation would it be not all that unusual to hear of a well-paid employee not to be performing a primary function of his job.

Drink service is not considered a primary function of a flight attendant. In theory their main focus is safety. Although I struggle to imagine how the elderly grandmothers who handle long haul intercontinental service would be physically capable of actually saving anyone. Even saving a child or unaccompanied minor seems like it would be completely beyond their abilities.

That is a very good point. Of late though I seem to be coming across fewer and fewer of the grandmother or grandfather types in the crew that I have been traveling with. Maybe there is hope.

Can you imagine what would happen if a flight attendant was reported not to have run the drink service because she didn't feel like it or was sleeping on her seat?

I've seen a lot of lousy flight attendants who didn't seem to care about their jobs but I've never seen one that seemed the slightest bit concerned about being reported by a customer. Americans are taught from a young age that we're not responsible for the well being of strangers. That it's basically every man, woman, and child for themselves. It's no surprise that a society that worships the individual struggles to train anyone to perform a service oriented job with pride and purpose.

An interesting hypothesis. Hadn't thought about it that way before reading this.

Asian airlines and higher tier hotels have had a tradition of providing excellent service. I had figured that it flowed from the Colonial tradition. The same tradition of high class service does not find its way down in the low priced hotels and such usually. They can be outright nasty and mean.

 

[RSG]

From the folks that have traveled Amtrak frequently, how often do you have disappearing SCAs?

In the last five years of riding Amtrak, I can only recall one completely MIA sleeper attendant; but there are levels of attendance, as has been said.
I've dealt with putting my own bed down twice in the last year or so; that's preferable to me than having an attendant automatically put it down without my input (as happens more often than it should). Since I'm a top bunk sleeper in roomettes, it throws me off to find that the bottom bed is already made up (even more so when my stuff is moved to accommodate their desire to have a made bed). Luggage assistance is a 50-50 chance of occurrence, but I've gotten used to it, since handling my own luggage enables me to detrain and embark a little quicker. And in reality, the conductor on duty has assisted with luggage service more often than the SCA in recent experience---either due to SCA off-duty time overnights, or because they are there to open the car door and apparently see it as being more expedient to making a stop run smoothly.

 

[Rockymtnchris]

Only on a government operation would it be not all that unusual to hear of a well-paid employee not to be performing a primary function of his job.

Drink service is not considered a primary function of a flight attendant. In theory their main focus is safety. Although I struggle to imagine how the elderly grandmothers who handle long haul intercontinental service would be physically capable of actually saving anyone. Even saving a child or unaccompanied minor seems like it would be completely beyond their abilities.

Flight crew are also supposed to be trained to note passengers who are likely able/unable to assist in the event of an evacuation. This is why you rarely see those grandmother types seated right next to emergency exits. Off topic, but I once was assigned a seat on the aisle of an overwing exit window on a DEN>ABQ flight and the attendant asked me if I wouldn't mind trading places with a younger male (and I was still in my 40's then) seated in the row in front of me who obviously weighed much less than I do. I told the attendant I understood and switched seats. It is also possible that she noticed I wear hearing aids and worried about me losing them in a crash and not being able to understand directions

 

[Triley]

Only on a government operation would it be not all that unusual to hear of a well-paid employee not to be performing a primary function of his job.

Drink service is not considered a primary function of a flight attendant. In theory their main focus is safety. Although I struggle to imagine how the elderly grandmothers who handle long haul intercontinental service would be physically capable of actually saving anyone. Even saving a child or unaccompanied minor seems like it would be completely beyond their abilities.

Flight crew are also supposed to be trained to note passengers who are likely able/unable to assist in the event of an evacuation. This is why you rarely see those grandmother types seated right next to emergency exits. Off topic, but I once was assigned a seat on the aisle of an overwing exit window on a DEN>ABQ flight and the attendant asked me if I wouldn't mind trading places with a younger male (and I was still in my 40's then) seated in the row in front of me who obviously weighed much less than I do. I told the attendant I understood and switched seats. It is also possible that she noticed I wear hearing aids and worried about me losing them in a crash and not being able to understand directions

For those who want to be able to read the text.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Only on a government operation would it be not all that unusual to hear of a well-paid employee not to be performing a primary function of his job.

Drink service is not considered a primary function of a flight attendant. In theory their main focus is safety. Although I struggle to imagine how the elderly grandmothers who handle long haul intercontinental service would be physically capable of actually saving anyone. Even saving a child or unaccompanied minor seems like it would be completely beyond their abilities.

Flight crew are supposed to be trained to note passengers who are likely able/unable to assist in the event of an evacuation. This is why you rarely see those grandmother types seated near emergency exits.

I wouldn't have disagreed in the past. However, after US airlines started selling emergency exit rows based on upgrades and loyalty status the passenger's ability doesn't seem to play much if any role in determining the eventual occupancy. Now the person with more status or upgrade cash sits there, regardless of physical ability, mental comprehension, or moral compass. The only actionable restrictions I'm aware of are that you cannot suffer from a serious physical impairment (casts, crutches, slings, wheelchair, oxygen, blindness, sickness, amputation) or be under the age of 15. Other than that you can indeed be a frail old grandmother who struggles to lift a paperback and nobody is going to ask or remove you from that seat, at least not in my experience.

Off topic, but I once was assigned a seat on the aisle of an overwing exit window on a DEN>ABQ flight and the attendant asked me if I wouldn't mind trading places with a younger male (and I was still in my 40's then) seated in the row in front of me who obviously weighed much less than I do. I told the attendant I understood and switched seats. It is also possible that she noticed I wear hearing aids and worried about me losing them in a crash and not being able to understand directions

Was he a taller gentleman? If so it's also possible that he was simply too tall to fit into today's child sized coach pitch and he either complained or the FA realized that his legs would be stuck in the aisle throughout the flight. I've never seen anyone actively nudged to leave their seat in the manner you've described unless it was part of a customer originated complaint or was done to make room for someone who was too talk to physically fit anywhere else. This is limited to my personal experience of course, but I'm a tall guy and I've ridden in exit rows several dozen times across many different airlines. Once the booking systems were modified to assign exit rows based on status and upgrades I started paying more attention to see how it worked. So far as I can tell, once you have the exit row on your boarding pass you're almost certain to retain that seat no matter how old or frail you look or sound or move.

 

[Rockymtnchris]

Yes, he was obviously taller and thinner. In addition we both had the "aisle" seats. I've had other flyers tell me they've seen attendants "suggest" seat swaps. (As mentioned, they can't make you give up an exit row seat if you don't want to). FWIW, I ended up sitting next to an attractive lady while my original row ended up all cookie-cutter businessmen.

 

[FormerOBS]

This has been beaten to death already, so I'll be as brief as I can. (I'm never brief) :hi:

1. Passengers should never be required to make up their own beds. Some insisted on doing it, and I would reluctantly agree, but I was always afraid they would hurt themselves. There are many potential pinch points.

2. Sometimes (rarely) the SCA is unable to complete the tasks due to illness or other problems. If that happens, the Conductor or Chief (if there is one) should assign somebody to fill the gap. If the Conductor couldn't find the SCA, it was that Conductor's job to find out why and get an accounting. It sounds like the SCA and Conductor both failed. SOMEBODY OTHER THAN YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE THAT BED. You paid for and deserve proper service; and since you didn't get it, you deserve an explanation and an apology. When you make the complaint to Customer Service, as I hope you will do, tell them you also deserve a refund. You just might get it. The notion that this SCA deserves a tip is preposterous, and if he doesn't know why he didn't get one, he's too stupid to qualify for the job.

3. Don't worry about the SCA reading about this here. The only SCA's who follow this Forum are the ones who care. I can guarantee that's not this guy.

4. In my long time on the railroad, I was not always perfect. If I ever failed a passenger, that passenger got a sincere apology and explanation, and I did all I could to make it right. That's what adults do.

5. Drink service --- and other creature comforts --- are not the primary job of an OBS employee either. That would be safety. All else comes after safety.

Tom

 

[tricia]

This has been beaten to death already, so I'll be as brief as I can. (I'm never brief) :hi:

1. Passengers should never be required to make up their own beds. Some insisted on doing it, and I would reluctantly agree, but I was always afraid they would hurt themselves. There are many potential pinch points.

2. Sometimes (rarely) the SCA is unable to complete the tasks due to illness or other problems. If that happens, the Conductor or Chief (if there is one) should assign somebody to fill the gap. If the Conductor couldn't find the SCA, it was that Conductor's job to find out why and get an accounting. It sounds like the SCA and Conductor both failed. SOMEBODY OTHER THAN YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE THAT BED. You paid for and deserve proper service; and since you didn't get it, you deserve an explanation and an apology. When you make the complaint to Customer Service, as I hope you will do, tell them you also deserve a refund. You just might get it. The notion that this SCA deserves a tip is preposterous, and if he doesn't know why he didn't get one, he's too stupid to qualify for the job.

3. Don't worry about the SCA reading about this here. The only SCA's who follow this Forum are the ones who care. I can guarantee that's not this guy.

4. In my long time on the railroad, I was not always perfect. If I ever failed a passenger, that passenger got a sincere apology and explanation, and I did all I could to make it right. That's what adults do.

5. Drink service --- and other creature comforts --- are not the primary job of an OBS employee either. That would be safety. All else comes after safety.

Tom

Clarity matters more than brevity. Thanks for the clear--and reasonably brief--explanation.