I want to make a reservation for a Lower Level Roomette.

Am I able to do this online at Amtrak.com?

I know that I can book online, but from what I have read on this web site, I expect to be assigned whatever Roomette the computer selects. Since most of the Roomettes are on the Upper Level and I will be booking for a July trip, I assume I would be assigned an Upper Level accommodation.

If this happens, am I able to change the assigned accommodation online?

If this happens, ought I call Amtrak Reservations to change the assigned accommodation prior to finishing the booking? Or, should I complete the booking online and then call Amtrak?

I appreciate any advice and information. Thank you very much!

I would call from the get-go. I wish you could chose rooms on Amtrak, but at this point you can't. Book on the phone to make sure you can get a lower level roomette.

Just call.

If you book online and want to change the Roomette you got, you have to call Amtrak to get it changed.

If you call to book the Agent can assign your Roomette when you book.

So call to book.

I also say just call. It's so much easier, and you can request your room.

Thanks for the replies!

Am I correct in remembering that Roomettes #11 and #12 are closer to the center of the Lower Level? Roomettes #13 and #14 would be adjacent to the Family Bedroom accommodation. Correct?

yes that's correct.

Roomette 14 is darker at night with one less window pane looking into the hallway. This room only has an interior window in the sliding door.

chakk said:

Roomette 14 is darker at night with one less window pane looking into the hallway. This room only has an interior window in the sliding door.

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Which is why I liked it, for privacy, ABQ~LAX round trip last year.

I usually don't like lower level, because of the fact that most times I've had a lower level accommodation, there has been a VERY noisy family room next to me.

One night, a kid watched a video on his iPad or something super loud the entire time I was trying to sleep.

Anywho, I do enjoy it because I tend to be noisy when I detrain (it's typically at Toledo, middle of the night) so I think it's better so I am not bothering others.

As everyone else said though, you have to call.

The one time I was in a roomette on the lower level, there was one quiet person in the family bedroom. I stayed in a family bedroom once with my wife, and we were very quiet. So the family room is not always occupied by noisy families--in fact I would guess that it is relatively frequently empty.

Definitely book over the telephone or with a station agent if that's a possibility, although station agents may take considerably more time pulling specific rooms due to inexperience with this particular situation (we don't do it very often, some have never had to direct-sell a specific room).

WARNING: Technical info for those who are curious:

ARROW, the Amtrak reservation system, automatically pulls the "best available" inventory when an agent (be that the website, or an actual station or call center agent) selects the inventory type (coach, roomette, deluxe bedroom, accessible bedroom, family bedroom, etc.) for the particular train service and date you select, which may not be the exact room you'd prefer. IIRC, ARROW generally pulls rooms closer to the center of the car first, then works out toward the trucks, which tend to be less desirable.

In order to pull the specific room, an agent manually needs to "direct sell" a specific room number/letter for a particular car on that train's consist. We will typically pull up the consist diagram for that train service, get a couple preferred choices from the passenger, and then attempt to direct sell the room. The room we select may not be available, ie. already reserved by someone else, and we'll then try to select a different car number (if there are multiple sleeper cars in the consist) with those same preferred room numbers, or try new ones. It can sometime take quite a bit of time to do this, especially if you have a complex reservation with more than one sleeper segment that needs to be modified.

Some agents incorrectly "go fishing," meaning they'll pull a roomette CHI-LAX, notice that they didn't get the preferred room for the passenger, then pull a second, or third, or fourth roomette for the same segment, hoping they'll get a roomette that the passenger wants. This is a MAJOR problem, though, because pricing is based on available inventory, and if one agent is pulling 4 roomettes on a specific train, the prices almost certainly WILL go up temporarily for everyone else who may be booking or checking prices online, over the phone, on the app, at the call center, or at other stations. The prices will normalize as the agent deletes the unwanted roomettes from the reservation.

There has been an Advisory put out for ticket agents about this very issue, advising against "fishing" for the room instead of direct-selling it, and the effects it has, as I've described above.

NTL1991 said:

Definitely book over the telephone or with a station agent if that's a possibility, although station agents may take considerably more time pulling specific rooms due to inexperience with this particular situation (we don't do it very often, some have never had to direct-sell a specific room).

WARNING: Technical info for those who are curious:

ARROW, the Amtrak reservation system, automatically pulls the "best available" inventory when an agent (be that the website, or an actual station or call center agent) selects the inventory type (coach, roomette, deluxe bedroom, accessible bedroom, family bedroom, etc.) for the particular train service and date you select, which may not be the exact room you'd prefer. IIRC, ARROW generally pulls rooms closer to the center of the car first, then works out toward the trucks, which tend to be less desirable.

In order to pull the specific room, an agent manually needs to "direct sell" a specific room number/letter for a particular car on that train's consist. We will typically pull up the consist diagram for that train service, get a couple preferred choices from the passenger, and then attempt to direct sell the room. The room we select may not be available, ie. already reserved by someone else, and we'll then try to select a different car number (if there are multiple sleeper cars in the consist) with those same preferred room numbers, or try new ones. It can sometime take quite a bit of time to do this, especially if you have a complex reservation with more than one sleeper segment that needs to be modified.

Some agents incorrectly "go fishing," meaning they'll pull a roomette CHI-LAX, notice that they didn't get the preferred room for the passenger, then pull a second, or third, or fourth roomette for the same segment, hoping they'll get a roomette that the passenger wants. This is a MAJOR problem, though, because pricing is based on available inventory, and if one agent is pulling 4 roomettes on a specific train, the prices almost certainly WILL go up temporarily for everyone else who may be booking or checking prices online, over the phone, on the app, at the call center, or at other stations. The prices will normalize as the agent deletes the unwanted roomettes from the reservation.

There has been an Advisory put out for ticket agents about this very issue, advising against "fishing" for the room instead of direct-selling it, and the effects it has, as I've described above.

Click to expand...

Excellent explanation. Thank you. I experienced a situation last night where the first telephone agent to whom I spoke informed me that she could only sell me one particular room (apparently the room that Arrow chose). I phoned back immediately and got another agent who informed me which rooms were avaiable (there were only 3 left) and I chose the one that I thought was the best for me.

pennyk said:

Excellent explanation. Thank you. I experienced a situation last night where the first telephone agent to whom I spoke informed me that she could only sell me one particular room (apparently the room that Arrow chose). I phoned back immediately and got another agent who informed me which rooms were avaiable (there were only 3 left) and I chose the one that I thought was the best for me.

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I'm very happy to hear that it worked out for you! Sometimes trying another agent is the best way. They will gain experience with time, but I understand it's frustrating when you know something can be done, and it's within policy, but they are unaware of it.

More technical information for those interested:

The reservation system that Station Agents use is called RailresSTARS, which is basically just a Graphical Interface to Command-Line ARROW, and was designed back in the 90s for Windows 95. There's no mouse interface to the software. It's mostly Function Keys and typing the necessary information (dates, station codes, inventory codes, etc.) into fields. While it's very quick and efficient, the display and input of data is very limited.

It would be AMAZING to be able to pull up a train and actually see a color-coded diagram of the equipment and it's availability, much the same as the airlines when booking a seat online. Also it would be nice to see what coupons our AGR members have in their account and apply them directly to their reservation, rather than requiring them to bring up the eCoupon on their phone or print it out, which is kind of silly.

One major limitation of STARS is that it can only accept one credit card per reservation. In order to accept two, agents need to hold the unpaid travel reservation, write down the res number, make a NEW reservation, manually create a Miscellaneous Charge segment, price it at the value the passenger wants to apply to the first card, run the charge, print out the paper-value Miscellaneous Charge ticket, go back into the original travel reservation, apply the Miscellaneous Charge as an Exchange form of payment, then charge the remaining balance to the other credit card as a second form of payment.That paper-value Miscellaneous Charge ticket now needs to be die-stamped, marked EXCHANGE across it's face with the ticket numbers of the reservation it was exchanged against, and then sent off to Revenue Accounting in Texas along with the other station reports for that day's work. It's a VERY tedious process. And with multiple forms of payment, there is a specific order they must be done in. Paper-Value Exchanges FIRST, then eVouchers/Transportation Certificates, THEN everything else (Cash, Business Check, Transit Subsidy Checks, etc). Sometimes, in a complex reservation, it takes a moment or two to think about the order and process to get a particular outcome. Errors may result in charge-backs directly to agents, so many play it safe and won't do things out of their comfort zone, which is unfortunate.

Amtrak is currently in the process of developing a replacement to STARS which should be rolled out in early-to-mid 2017, called Project EPIC, which will take advantage of today's better graphics, provide better software ergonomics and accessibility, allow for new input devices, and allow for the use of customer-facing payment devices for magnetic strip, chip, and tap-and-pay cards, eliminating the need for agents to handle the customer's payment cards. QuikTrak kiosks will also be replaced with a new solution, there has even been talks about providing a webcam-based kiosk to connect passengers with reservation sales agents, such as those used at Bank of America, for example.

Also, eBaggage is part of the new program, allowing for printed bag tags for checked baggage and printed wabybills for Express shipments. This will allow us to track baggage and shipments real-time, which we are currently unable to do. This will also give station/baggage agents volume information BEFORE the train arrives into the station, allowing them to get the proper equipment ready. Unless the conductor is nice enough to call ahead, agents don't know if there are 5 bags in the baggage car or two pallets, 50 bags and 3 bikes. The current baggage tracking system for delayed and lost bags (extremely rare) involves calling other stations and asking "have you seen such and such bag". Very embarrassing!

I've long realized that a lot of Amtrak's seeming customer unfriendliness is due to computer system limitations.

PS Thanks for the inside info. It sure beats all the guesses and speculation.

NTL1991 said:

In order to pull the specific room, an agent manually needs to "direct sell" a specific room number/letter for a particular car on that train's consist. We will typically pull up the consist diagram for that train service, get a couple preferred choices from the passenger, and then attempt to direct sell the room. The room we select may not be available, ie. already reserved by someone else, and we'll then try to select a different car number (if there are multiple sleeper cars in the consist) with those same preferred room numbers, or try new ones. It can sometime take quite a bit of time to do this, especially if you have a complex reservation with more than one sleeper segment that needs to be modified.

Some agents incorrectly "go fishing," meaning they'll pull a roomette CHI-LAX, notice that they didn't get the preferred room for the passenger, then pull a second, or third, or fourth roomette for the same segment, hoping they'll get a roomette that the passenger wants. This is a MAJOR problem, though, because pricing is based on available inventory, and if one agent is pulling 4 roomettes on a specific train, the prices almost certainly WILL go up temporarily for everyone else who may be booking or checking prices online, over the phone, on the app, at the call center, or at other stations. The prices will normalize as the agent deletes the unwanted roomettes from the reservation.

There has been an Advisory put out for ticket agents about this very issue, advising against "fishing" for the room instead of direct-selling it, and the effects it has, as I've described above.

Click to expand...

To add a side-note to what NTL said about "fishing" for rooms, this was likely the cause of the myth that was around years ago that specific rooms had specific prices. The best available fare bucket for a room might be $200, and there would be only one room left at that fare. Someone would call and ask for room 4, and the agent would first ask for the auto-assigned room (say, room 3). This would then bump up fares to the next bucket (e.g. $250). Then the agent would try and get room 4 while room 3 was already being held, and it would show a fare of $250.

The agent, not knowing any better, would tell the passenger that room 4 would cost $250, instead of $200 for room 3. This then created the urban legend that there was room-specific pricing on LD trains.

NTL1991 said:

Also, eBaggage is part of the new program, allowing for printed bag tags for checked baggage and printed wabybills for Express shipments. This will allow us to track baggage and shipments real-time, which we are currently unable to do. This will also give station/baggage agents volume information BEFORE the train arrives into the station, allowing them to get the proper equipment ready. Unless the conductor is nice enough to call ahead, agents don't know if there are 5 bags in the baggage car or two pallets, 50 bags and 3 bikes.

Click to expand...

I don't know if they still do this (maybe less now that NTAMS does a lot of the train status reporting automatically), but back when I was at the company and had access to Arrow (and Carleton will remind you that it's not ARROW, because Arrow is a name, not an acronym), I saw that station agents would put baggage info into the remark field of the train status report as a heads-up to downline stations. Of course, having it done automatically would be far better.

Hotblack Desiato said:

To add a side-note to what NTL said about "fishing" for rooms, this was likely the cause of the myth that was around years ago that specific rooms had specific prices. The best available fare bucket for a room might be $200, and there would be only one room left at that fare. Someone would call and ask for room 4, and the agent would first ask for the auto-assigned room (say, room 3). This would then bump up fares to the next bucket (e.g. $250). Then the agent would try and get room 4 while room 3 was already being held, and it would show a fare of $250.

The agent, not knowing any better, would tell the passenger that room 4 would cost $250, instead of $200 for room 3. This then created the urban legend that there was room-specific pricing on LD trains.

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I don't know if they still do this (maybe less now that NTAMS does a lot of the train status reporting automatically), but back when I was at the company and had access to Arrow (and Carleton will remind you that it's not ARROW, because Arrow is a name, not an acronym), I saw that station agents would put baggage info into the remark field of the train status report as a heads-up to downline stations. Of course, having it done automatically would be far better.

Click to expand...

That's exactly the case as far as bucket pricing is concerned. If there is one roomette at the lower bucket, the agent pulls it and realizes it's not a room that the pax wants, then "fishes" and pulls a second roomette, that roomette will come in at the higher bucket, even if the agent then deletes the first roomette. (That first roomette will then still show in inventory at the original lower bucket price). It would be up to the agent to manually modify the segment to the inventory code of the original roomette. Once that second roomette segment was modified to the lower bucket (remember, there was only one left at that price), the first roomette (which is back in inventory) will jump up to the next bucket.

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On some LD trains, especially out west, it is very common to see agents insert remarks regarding how many bags on and off, conductor's cell numbers, etc. In the Train Status policy, Amtrak strongly discourages the use of remarks in the TS display. I've personally had to insert remarks regarding last-minute unaccompanied minors. I'll typically add something like "UMNR to you, STM-BOS, See Res # 123456" to that train's TS for BOS, so anyone checking the train status would see that right away.

Some baggage/redcap agents, especially down on the south end of the NEC like to add remarks like "Bag Assist - *VIP* First Car" which is unnecessary if the MAAS was added as an SSR to the pax's reservation and just crowds the display.

Good catch! You're right, Carleton would certainly correct my use of ARROW instead of Arrow. I always look forward to the slightly-sarcastic comments he adds to the Daily Advisories.