CUS Metropolitan Lounge

[crescent-zephyr]

Yes that's true.

The silliest I've seen is in Cary NC where all passengers have to line up inside the station to be escorted out to the platform... Which is right outside the door.

 

[zephyr17]

Yes, if you wanted to board directly from the lounge, you took the kindergarten walk. My guess is the reason was it went through non public areas along the through track and the walkway just on the track side of the gates. If you were late for the walk, or just felt contrary, you could always go through the coach gate. What you could not do was use the back door unescorted.

 

[willem]

Honestly if they just had someone man the rope by the tracks CONSISTENTLY and had ACCURATE information from the lounge and conductors on the trains that would pretty much resolve the issue. Problem is one hand doesn't know what the other is doing, and honestly many of the gate attendants have a less than stellar attitude.

Amen to all that. It constantly surprises me that the minders at the track gates do not know that there are sleeping car and business class passengers who will board trains from some place other than the coach waiting area.

It also dismays me when there is a first call for boarding in the lounge and then a last call before I make it down to the entrance.

 

[Steve4031]

Honestly if they just had someone man the rope by the tracks CONSISTENTLY and had ACCURATE information from the lounge and conductors on the trains that would pretty much resolve the issue. Problem is one hand doesn't know what the other is doing, and honestly many of the gate attendants have a less than stellar attitude.

Amen to all that. It constantly surprises me that the minders at the track gates do not know that there are sleeping car and business class passengers who will board trains from some place other than the coach waiting area.

It also dismays me when there is a first call for boarding in the lounge and then a last call before I make it down to the entrance.

I call this Chicago stupid since this is the only place that such disconnect occurs. They did this every day for multiple trains with sleepers so there should no surprise when sleeping car and business class passengers show up.

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[Lonestar648]

A manager in Chicago who is responsible for boarding operations should have seen this disconnect and corrected the problem. So, if management doesn't care about the passengers, why should the workers at the gate and the ropes care? Just put in your hours and go home, hopefully no passenger wants anything.

 

[Steve4031]

I met the manager. He is not competent. I was guesting a friend into the lounge and the two employees were stonewalling me. I asked for the manager and got this guy. He sided with his emolyers. I called agr to see if there was a change. The agent said no. And asked to the manager. She corrected him and he grumpily let us in.

With management like this there are still huge problems in Chicago.

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[Lonestar648]

I hate to say this, but seems typical of Amtrak in Chicago.

 

[wwchi]

I was so annoyed at the gate employees one day waiting in CUS. There were people that were up by the gate trying to get some help and I look over and all 3 employees were sitting along the back wall looking at their phones. I was so angry I took a picture of it...but then decided not to do anything with it. I have a new phone now so not sure I would even still have the photo. But it's typical...when you get a nice one you're surprised and happy! LOL!

 

[Manny T]

It's frustrating. Is there any possibility of receiving clarity, either from Amtrak or members here, about what is SUPPOSED to happen?

Many remember the k-walk from the old lounge--some didn't like it, but it occurred PRIOR to boarding other PAX and went directly from lounge to train via shortest route.

I was always settled in my sleeper before any coach boarding took place. To me, that would be the definition of "priority boarding."

Now here is what Amtrak PROMISES on its website for Metropolitan Lounge PAX:

"Amtrak customer service representatives will check your baggage and later pre-board you from the lounge to your Amtrak train."

What does that mean? It can't possibly mean just an announcement of the Track and telling you to go there, unaccompanied, can it? Is that pre-boarding you?

For comparison, here is what Amtrak PROMISES on its website for CUS Legacy Lounge Customers:

"...the Legacy Club features...priority boarding allowing access to Amtrak trains ahead of general boarding."

^ Is this the same OR different from what's supposed to happen in the Metropolitan Lounge, because I do see lines of passengers being led out of the Legacy Club for pre-boarding all the time.

 

[CAMISSY55]

The Legacy Lounge does offer true priority boarding in the old kindergarten walk manner well ahead of general boarding.

 

[ain't no Metroliner]

Having boarded a train at CHI last week after waiting in the Metropolitan Lounge, here are my thoughts:

1. The "directions" provided over the PA in the ML for how to get to the train sounded pretty complicated and VAGUE, and I was not able to digest them while getting up and gathering my party of 8 people to head out the door. I like solid landmarks and area names and the directions sounded like "go right, go left, and then go past all the people". That could mean many different things as you will see below. Also, admittedly since we were a party of 8 including children and a lot of carry on bags, we didn't make it out of the ML with the wave of people who were able to jump up at the first boarding announcement. So we missed the "crowd" who all traveled to the gate together.

2. From what I remembered of the "directions" provided over the PA in the ML for how to get to the train, they did not address the two issues I ended up having with boarding my train. Those issues were as follows:

a. Are you supposed to enter the general coach boarding area, which is where the signs to the "Amtrak trains" point to, or are you supposed to continue to the South Concourse and turn left and pass through the red velvet rope with the warning sign that says you can only pass through there if you are accompanied by Amtrak personnel (or something to that effect)? I and my party of 8 chickened out at the velvet rope and warning sign as I recognized that this is how you exit the Amtrak platforms and it didn't seem to be an approved entrance and I wasn't interested in getting yelled at by Amtrak personnel or Amtrak police. So that leads me to my second issue.

b. We backtracked to the general boarding area for Amtrak trains and went to "Gate D", which is what our train was listed at. We had to go past a lot of people queued up for Gates B or C IIRC so that seemed to be following the ML PA instructions to "go past all the people". At that point, since we were coming from the ML, were we supposed to get any preferential treatment (i.e. go to the head of the queue at that gate for our train), or were we supposed to join the back of the queue? We joined the back of the queue, because it was short and moving and only took a minute or two to reach the Amtrak employee checking tickets, and I didn't see anyone else jumping to the front of the queue.

Based on some of the more recent posts here, it seems we may have been allowed to go past the velvet rope and warning sign, but I don't see how we would have had any proof that were were allowed to do that, unless our business class tickets would have sufficed. And if that's the case, then the warning sign at the velvet rope should have said "Boarding here for Business Class and Sleeper Customers is Permitted". Furthermore, the "directions" provided over the PA in the ML for how to get to the train should have said "follow the signs for the Metra trains / South Concourse, turn left, go through the velvet rope, and show your business class / sleeper tickets if anyone asks". That would have explained everything.