Why So Many Snobby "Roomette" People on Here?

Not to be rude, but I have been reading through a lot of posts on here with posters giving advice. I am apalled at how many of you see fit to look down upon riding in Coach. I have read countless bloggers saying "Well, back in my poor college days when I rode coach...", "On the ONE time I rode Coach", "We book sleepers only"- seriously? I guess you would never know the economy was as bad as they say it is if you come on here- everyone must be super rich.

There is nothing wrong with riding in Coach on Amtrak- it still beats flying. And I find it very interesting that so many of you have thousands of dollars to just blow away on a room for 2 days. Seriously, the average cost of a roomette alone is $500 for an overnight. And the Bedrooms are three times as much.

It's okay if you have the means to do it, but stop downplaying Coach and the people who ride in it. I am not ranting - just observing what I have read on here.

I think many here are frequent riders that use AGR points to pay for their roomettes.

Roomettes used to be cheaper, for one thing. A lot of people on this forum have been travelling Amtrak for a long time. The prices have gone up a *lot* in just the past couple of years. Some of us hope they'll drop when new equipment arrives, but it may be a vain hope.

Also, roomettes are frequently cheaper if you book them far in advance; for the heck of it, I just got a quote for one, and it was $237; in this case that only includes one meal (for two people, of course). I grabbed a quote for a different trip, which was $257 and includes three meals (for two people).

Either of these would have been closer to $180 a couple of years ago, mind you. The pricing of a few years back was very comparable to the cost of a road trip.

By contrast, Bedrooms have been eye-bleed expensive as long as I can remember. I don't actually know who would buy one given that two roomettes usually costs less than one bedroom.

Nothing wrong with coach, of course, and at current prices I wouldn't consider a sleeper for a day trip. Many people do sleep a lot better in sleepers, though, and once you've factored in the included food, it can be worth the extra cost (with advance purchase, anyway).

Many folk on AU are rail travel fans, they enjoy rail travel as a leisure hobby and not just as a means of travel and are happy to pay the extra for an enhanced experience. Having said that, I do find the "us and them" attitudes of some sleeper passemgers hard to take. As a foreign visitor, I have enjoyed meeting a rich variety of passengers during my tens of thousands of Amtrak coach miles. Sleeping flat is a big bonus once you get to my age, so there is the constant lure of the comfortable and more expensive roomette against the cheaper coach.

Our attitude to, or views of our fellow travelers is a reflection on each of us as individual human beings, snobs reveal quite a lot about themselves!

Ed

I think many of the AU members ride longer distances and maybe end point to end point, so it make sense that they would have sleeping accommodations. I grew up riding trains because my Dad worked for a railroad. When we did overnight trips, we often went Pullman, even if it was a section. When I was younger in college or in the Air Force, I went coach, but if there was a slumber coach, I did that. Now that I am upper middle age, I want to be able to sleep over night trips so I get a sleeping accommodation. I don't consider it being snobbish, just being practical.

I think that you're really only talking about a bare handful of people on here, and like DET63 mentioned many are "paying" for their rooms with AGR points.

There just as many posters on here that speak very well of riding in coach either occasionally or exclusively.

I've certainly never been snobbish about roomettes.

In my younger years I've ridden in coach a lot. I even remember thinking - a bit like you - why anybody would want to pay more for something so pointless, seeing coach was just fine. But as one grows older and also moves on in life and can also afford more creature comforts, one also craves that little extra.

I don't know how old you are, but maybe in 15 to 30 years time you may be whistling a different tune too. So don't be too quick to condemn.

craig82 said:

Seriously, the average cost of a roomette alone is $500 for an overnight. And the Bedrooms are three times as much.

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I don't know what train that would be, but for a LD trip on a Silver, its less than half that for a roomette. And for that additional price, I get 6 meals in the dining car (3 each), a private place with two beds, a shower, and a real comfy place to wait for the train with snacks, soda, juice, and coffee.

Why would anyone want to travel with less? :hi:

I guess I could be called a "sleeper snob." But, like many of the prior posters, I have accumulated a lot of AGR points and use them to purchase sleepers when I am unable to get a reasonable advance ticket price. When I was younger (I am 60 now), I rode in coach also. I have a "thing" against coach restrooms on long distance trains, and, as I got older, I made the decision to only travel in sleepers, but I forwent many trips when I could not afford last minute sleeper prices. Getting my AGR Master Card "saved the day" for me. For many of my trips, the train ride is the vacation and, if it is not comfortable for me, I would rather stay home.

On the other hand, there are many AU members (some on them even older than I am :giggle: ) who routinely travel in coach and do not complain about it.

Everyone needs to know that "Aunty Gail" who started several other controversial topics which have been hidden/locked is the person who started this topic. If this one goes down hill, it will also be locked!

I think there is a certain chunk of the population that just wants to be superior in one way or another. If they commute by rail and accumulate AGR points, some of them take the opportunity to look down on their "inferiors". But I have met a lot of sleeper car travelers, and only two couples seemed to be of this snooty sort. Most of the sleeper travelers I have met have been encouraging, not dismissive. And the conversation at the table frequently does end up on train travel.

Here in the States I simply can't rationalize paying for a Roomette, so I travel in overnight trips in Coach. I have traveled around the world by train and generally travel in couchette or in a sleeper overseas. It is a bargain and it is comfortable, but here in the States the premium is simply too high.

But I really miss the comfort and luxury of waking up in a bed, rocking along with the train. The Trans-Siberian costs less than $800 for 5 nights of travel, no meals of course but it is around just $150 a day. The overnight sleeper from Bangkok to Chiang Mai 2nd class air con is around $25, though you have to buy your own food, you do wake up to see a rain forest out your window, and a porter with a chinese congee for around a dollar outside your curtained compartment.

I wish we had more Sleeper cars so that the price of Roomettes would, maybe, come back down a bit. But I am not going to lose any sleep over it. ;-)

DET63 said:

I think many here are frequent riders that use AGR points to pay for their roomettes.

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Pretty nearly every long-distance trip I take on Amtrak these days is in the sleeper paid for with AGR points. I have the AGR credit card and accumulate points by using my card for gasoline, oil changes, tires....... anything related to the expense of commuting to work.

The 'back in my younger days' comment is not generated so much by snobbery as, I believe, by the fact that....... well......... frankly there are a number of things that I endured better when I had my first passenger train rides 40 years ago than I do now.

One tip........ and I am perhaps about to pull the trigger and actually pay cash on this one - there are roomettes available on the City of New Orleans certain nights in July for as low as $130 over the rail fare...... well - NOT cash but my AGR card. Gotta accumulate those points somehow!!!!!!!

pennyk said:

For many of my trips, the train ride is the vacation and, if it is not comfortable for me, I would rather stay home.

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Same for me.

Oh, Is that why I see a post in my email and then it disappears?

We rode in our first sleeper last Sept. and loved it. but We am riding coach in a few weeks after moving my daughter to Santa fe in her car. We are returning by train. Coach is comfortable and soooo much better than flying or driving. If we were rich, we would always go in a roomette. but we are not and use our reward points for that once a year or maybe every 2 years as we see the benefit of taking a coach ride to gain more points.

When I come here, I expect people to be pro train and a bit snobbish about it. I agree they are train hobbyist. I don't mind. When they tell me I would enjoy it better in a room, I might agree but I can't always afford it. No Problem.

I like sleepers but most of my travel is long distance routes. When two people travel together the cost is more reasonable per person.

I have traveled coach many times when sleeper accommodations were not available, but prefer sleeper.

I've been riding trains (even snuck on a few freights) for over 50 years. The early years were all coach and I loved it. Now that I'm pushing 70 and a disabled Vietnam vet I love to splurge for a roomette and I use AGR as often as possible. No snobbery about it, I'd have a hard time in coach all night these days and I'm thankful I'm able to get a good night's rest in a roomette.

I've never actually paid for a sleeper on a LD train. All my sleeper travel has been with points accumulated from my H commuting on amtrak or on my AGR MC.

However, after traveling in a bedroom on all of my LD trips, I know that I am happy to pay the extra money to be in the sleeper. Everyone has their own priorities. I am exceedingly lucky in life in that I can afford sleeper travel, even if I have to pay for it.

Unlike many online venues, the members here tend to skew towards 'old folks.' And us old people often have both the time - and either a couple of quarters or a couple of AGR points - in our pockets to rub together, and because we like to and can, we ride trains. Now our old bodies can't handle sleeping in coach any longer, so we get roomettes, and then spend too many of our waking hours afterwards writing about it. hboy:

Now you young whippersnappers who take your young flexible bodies for granted... Now that is another form of 'snobbishness,' which I'm afraid I see in the OP's OP.

I say, "Back in my college days," but I mean it fondly and with a bit of humor, like when I ate ramen or lived in a studio apartment. I liked ramen, and my studio was comfy and cute, but it doesn't mean I'd want to live like that again. I'm not looking down on Coach passengers (or college students) when I say things like that; it's more of a comment on the thing itself (Coach, studios, and ramen).

I don't enjoy Coach because I can't sleep in a recliner. I love it for day trips, though. I don't mind the other passengers or judge them, but I do mind noise; therefore, for me, a roomette is much better (though I do miss the leg room in Coach). So, my comments on Coach are more about noise and lack of sleep than the people who sit in Coach. I actually wish I could tolerate Coach since it's cheaper and there's so much leg room. Also, when traveling by myself, I don't like sleeping next to a stranger. It's not so much a safety thing as a "this is weird" thing. I end up spending the entire night in the Lounge (reading, not sleeping on the floor).

My boyfriend and I share a roomette, so the cost isn't as prohibitive as you'd think. Additionally, a roomette from CHI to ABQ generally costs about $230. Once they hit the higher prices, we use our AGR points. I've never spent more than $250 on a roomette. When you figure in two people, with the meals, we pretty much break even.

I guess the Forum Manager, MrFSS, can identify the web address of the OP.

This is obviously a troll who enjoys provoking division and even enmity. Why else would anyone use a deliberately misleading screen name? "craig82" quite naturally implies a 31 year old male.

Why get defensive, folks, and try to justify our personal travel choices?

I'm a bedroom person, and I'm snobby toward roomette people.

Nathanael said:

By contrast, Bedrooms have been eye-bleed expensive as long as I can remember. I don't actually know who would buy one given that two roomettes usually costs less than one bedroom.
Nothing wrong with coach, of course, and at current prices I wouldn't consider a sleeper for a day trip. Many people do sleep a lot better in sleepers, though, and once you've factored in the included food, it can be worth the extra cost (with advance purchase, anyway).

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I've done Bedrooms once or twice with Cash, on the EB a few months ago the Bedroom was not even $70 more expensive than the roomette. It was at the lowest possible bucket and since I knew we'd be on the train for 2 nights it was very much worth it.

Then again I was traveling with my girlfriend - so it was more about her comfort than anything else :giggle:

Well, no wonder the long distance trains don't do so well. Hardly anyone pays for the sleepers and when they do, they're remarkably underpriced.

PRR 60 said:

I'm a bedroom person, and I'm snobby toward roomette people.

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Well, excuuuuse me!

I have paid for a roomette one time, that on the CONO from Champaign to New Orleans. All other sleeper travels have been paid for with AGR points. The fact that I travel long distance in sleepers and not coach has nothing to do with the coach passengers and everything to do with comfort. I can't sleep in a coach seat, simple as that. I do in fact take shorter trips (Spokane to Seattle and/or Portland, etc) and travel exclusively coach on those short trips as I don't see the point of paying for a room for that short a period of time.