first class meals

[andy milne]

Having booked a sleeper on the City of New Orleans for next march I have only just realised that there is no dining car on this train. Does this mean I will not get my meal entitlement i.e first class passenger or will I still get my meals free in the lounge.

 

[Midland Valley]

If there is no diner, there is no such thing as a first class meal entitlement. What they offer is substandard microwaved (in carcinogenic plastic) pre-formed-pre-packaged food. Sorry, I shouldn't be so reactionary, but I can't see paying for first class accomodations if they don't treat you like a first class passenger.

 

[MrFSS]

Sorry, I shouldn't be so reactionary, but I can't see paying for first class accomodations if they don't treat you like a first class passenger.

As they do on the Cardinal!!

 

[Trogdor]

I believe they have restored dining car service on the City of New Orleans, now that the train has returned to its namesake destination.

 

[andy milne]

If as you say is right i.e they have restored the dining car to the City of New Orleans,why is this not showing up on the reservations page of the amtrak website.

 

[jccollins]

The website staff is slow to update their pages, so it is entirely possible that the CONO may have restored its full service dining car. However I am surprised that this is the first I have heard of it...

 

[Trogdor]

I may have been mistaken regarding the restoration of dining car service on the City of New Orleans. I'm double-checking right now. Looking over a previous report, I may have misread/misinterpreted something...

In any event, they may have also restored the Sightseer Lounge to the Texas Eagle, as some have reported its presence in the train's consist recently.

 

[Randy Henderson]

As I have stated in other posts, the dining car has been permanently removed from the CONO. I have contacted Amtrak crew management in regards to returning to my NOL crew base job, and the crew base and dining car are gone for good, with the lone sleeper coming off sometime after the holidays. I'm sorry to say this, but the CONO will be changing to a Palmetto-style train officially when the new timetables are printed in the spring. There is talk of making the train a daylight only operation, leaving both CHI and NOL in the early morning and arriving in the late evening on the same day. This hasn't been confirmed by my sources, however, it is definately on Amtrak's scheduling priorities with Canadian National-IC (source: T&E supervisor in JAN). As I have said in the past, Amtrak is notorious for making 11th hour decisions, however, with the NOL crew base management being permanently reassigned new jobs in other parts of the country, I don't see Amtrak going away from this operation plan.

 

[Amtrak OBS Gone Freight]

As I have stated in other posts, the dining car has been permanently removed from the CONO. I have contacted Amtrak crew management in regards to returning to my NOL crew base job, and the crew base and dining car are gone for good, with the lone sleeper coming off sometime after the holidays. I'm sorry to say this, but the CONO will be changing to a Palmetto-style train officially when the new timetables are printed in the spring. There is talk of making the train a daylight only operation, leaving both CHI and NOL in the early morning and arriving in the late evening on the same day. This hasn't been confirmed by my sources, however, it is definately on Amtrak's scheduling priorities with Canadian National-IC (source: T&E supervisor in JAN). As I have said in the past, Amtrak is notorious for making 11th hour decisions, however, with the NOL crew base management being permanently reassigned new jobs in other parts of the country, I don't see Amtrak going away from this operation plan.

This is an old topic! We have discussed it before here OBS...

 

[andy milne]

Will amtrak reimburse me part of the sleeper fare if as what seems to be the opinion of most folks on this site,they do away with the dining cars.As well as booking the C.N.O we also have sleepers booked for the S.C, C.Z and the L.S. Part of the reason for booking these was to experience the dining car and it seemed good value when you consider your meals where part of the sleeper fare.

 

[trainboy325]

Unfortunately, Amtrak will not adjust the sleeping car fare due to cutting the diner that is still listed on the national timetable as a service for sleeping car passengers. The official reason why the diner doesn't exist right now is due conditions caused by the hurricane (no commissary in NOL, etc.) and that lets Amtrak use the "terms of transportation" clause of services and equipment can change without notice deal listed in your ticket jacket and national timetable. You may want to contact Amtrak just before your trip and find out what the reservations department can do for you, like an unsatisfactory service credit or something like that. Until Amtrak removes the diner from the official services list that reservations uses to sell passenger services, the only thing you can do is wait until after your trip to get a service credit for the"unsatisfactory food situation" as a first class passenger or downgrade to coach and try to upgrade to sleeper on-board at a lower rate than what you've already booked for the CNO sleeper when you expected to have diner service.