Resale of Used Sleepers

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William W.

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Does Amtrak resell sleepers that have already been occupied at some point earlier in a trip?

Example: Roomette X is occupied from Chicago to Denver. Can someone else purchase the same room from Denver to Emeryville, or would it be unavailable for the rest of a trip? I wouldn't think that they would carry extra bedding onboard, so this probably isn't possible after a night, but if someone bought one and detrained before nightfall, would they be able to?
 
Sleepers are available as soon as they are unoccupied. The SCA sometimes has his/her hands full changing beds and cleaning rooms. On my last trip on the Starlight, the SCA said he had to turn 7 rooms at Sacramento.
 
So they do carry extra clean bedding to turn rooms? I just wasn't sure about that.
Yup. When we boarded in ABQ, the room had been turned. Our SCA had to replace the bedding a second time, as the prior occupant had left a bottle of OJ in the top bunk, and it broke open when the top bunk was closed (the SCA hadn't seen it, as it was stuck between the bunk and the wall.
 
Sleepers get Hot Racked all the time with a new occupant coming in right after someone detrains. Normally only the Sheets and Pillowcases are changed and as with hotels, the Blankets stay put for God Knows how long :unsure: :eek:
 
Like others have said, yes. boarding the Silver Meteor in Orlando, I found the used ticket stub that showed someone boarded at Miami, and disembarked at Kissimee.

Bruce-SSR
 
Yes.

Rooms can be sold as many times as there are vacancies.
So has anybody ever added up consecutive fares to see if they make more money selling multiple segments than they do selling one end to end trip? Just curious.

BN
 
Yep. Me neither. Heck, I even got my own stateroom before I wrapped it up. Lotsa room on the LSD when there aren't any jarheads around.
Yeah, you officers live the life of reily aboard ship while the poor swabbies are crammed into compartments down in steerage! LOL
 
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Yep. Me neither. Heck, I even got my own stateroom before I wrapped it up. Lotsa room on the LSD when there aren't any jarheads around.
Yeah, you officers live the life of reily aboard ship while the poor swabbies are crammed into compartments down in steerage! LOL
I was just an RM2 on a Tin Can!
Talk about a small world! , USN 1962-1966,/Old Navy!! RM3-RM2 /USSSomers ( DD-947.)1963-1965 (6th Ship to bare this name!)) Aboard before it was converted to a Guided Missile Tin Can and changed to DD-34 IINM. She was sunk of Hawaii as a target in 1998 I've read, a sad end to a proud ship!
 
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You surface guys don't know a thing about hot racking. 3 guys to 2 bunks, with 2/3 of a coffin locker for each of you. I lived like that for my first two years on the boat, except for my 90 days of cranking (excuse me, FSA'ing).
 
Yes.

Rooms can be sold as many times as there are vacancies.
So has anybody ever added up consecutive fares to see if they make more money selling multiple segments than they do selling one end to end trip? Just curious.

BN
I have; and they do.
It's just like on Acela, they are going to make more money if they sell the same seat from BOS - NYP and then again from NYP - WAS than as a one seat ride from BOS -WAS.
 
It's actually pretty obvious, you can see it by making a couple of test reservations on amtrak.com. Amtrak's revenue for CHI - DEN sleeper + DEN - EMY sleeper is MUCH higher than its revenue for a CHI-EMY sleeper.

I doubt that this is a good pricing system for most of the trains.

It is *not* revenue-optimizing most of the time.

But it is what Amtrak does.
 
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That however appears to be the general practice in all major passenger railroads in the world. As you travel a longer distance your cost per km (or {flame bait} miles in certain backward looking countries :p {/flame bait} ) goes down.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
That however appears to be the general practice in all major passenger railroads in the world. As you travel a longer distance your cost per km (or {flame bait} miles in certain backward looking countries :p {/flame bait} ) goes down.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
I'll be going from Washington DC to Los Angeles on an upcoming trip and of the three segments I'll be taking (Capitol Limited, Texas Eagle, and Sunset Limited), the highest trip segment, calculated on a per mile basis, will be on the Capitol Limited. I'll be traveling on sleepers throughout and my tickets are all low-bucket, but I almost considered dropping the sleeper accommodation on the Cap Limited, since it's relative cost was much higher than the other two segments. Also, I figured I could survive the first night in coach. Ultimately, however, I decided to splurge and keep the sleeper because I prefer privacy over saving money.
 
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