All about the Autotrain

Maybe she was coming from a work business trip and hates to fly/needed her car there and figured she could easily change in her roomette or the changing room in coach once she got on the train?
Okay, I wouldn't have posted it if I thought or saw that. She did not change. She boarded the next car when we boarded ours so we walked out with her and her husband. She also had the same pants and shoes on in the morning when she walked past us when we sat down in Lorton. That apparently is how she travels, but I'd say she'd never been on the AT before.
 
On a side note, what’s up with the auto train pricing? It’s always been more expensive than flying, but the price is up at least 40% from what we experienced 2 years ago. Even the vehicle pricing. Do they still use the bucket pricing? I tried different dates to see if I was running into issues with it being a high bucket time, it’s just high across the board.
My understanding is they don't use the bucket pricing anymore but they do use supply/demand pricing. Also, everything has gone up in price. I notice it with things I order from Amazon on a regular basis and in the grocery store. Our trip we just did was cheaper northbound than south and the numbers onboard showed that. We also just booked for this fall and one way was cheaper. We do use points but when seats/rooms are more, it costs more points. Yes, it's more expensive than flying, but renting a car has also gone up a lot. In mid-Nov we flew into the Dallas area for 6 days/nights. Our rental car was $450 for 6 days plus gas we put in.
 
It's probably not "fair" to compare with prices from covid or post-covid times.

I always price out 3 ways of getting there for every trip- rental/driving, airfare, and train (auto and also Silver line). Rental has gone down, airfare has surprisingly stayed the same, and it’s only the train, both auto and silver line and specifically first class, that has gone up so much. I’m just wondering if it’s demand, which it doesn’t seem to be, or if they changed the way fares are bucketed, which from what the other poster said seems to be what happened as they also changed the fare names.
 
Okay, I wouldn't have posted it if I thought or saw that. She did not change. She boarded the next car when we boarded ours so we walked out with her and her husband. She also had the same pants and shoes on in the morning when she walked past us when we sat down in Lorton. That apparently is how she travels, but I'd say she'd never been on the AT before.
Sorry, but who cares how she travels.
 


OMG. You are the one that brought up maybe she changed clothes. Why do you care what I noticed? My entire point was high heels on a moving train.
Yeah sorry, I felt bad for her so I was just trying to stick up for her.
 
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We did AT on 2007 with 3 little kids and hated it. Had a family bedroom on lower level and it was the front of the car where it attached to next car and was so loud and bumpy. And I was crammed on a top bunk that was tiny.

But we just did it last weekend, again. We live in FL and have all our family in MD and have been driving back and forth a lot...elderly parents with health issues plus holidays and weddings and all that stuff. On our way home to FL after this past Xmas we got detoured off 95 in SC due to massive back up. In the back woods there we were hit hard by a big pickup and it totaled our vehicle. We were stranded as there are no Ubers and enterprises were 25 miles away (one each direction). Rental car was not available until the next day. We had to ride in tow to a McDonald's and hire a taxi at $120 to take us 25 miles to hotel by enterprise. Took hours in the unseasonably chilly weather too. Plus our car was packed to the gills with our stuff and the windows and all were busted out. All our stuff sat overnight in busted up car.

So no more driving for a while, if ever again. We had booked a flight to come up for a wedding but have some other things to do and needed our car (to bring back some stuff). So auto train it was.

We did a bedroom and booked the week before and lucked into the best location on the train (5241 L). We were top floor in the car next to the lounge car. Nice space for the 2 of us. We could share the bottom bed. We could easily walk to lounge car to sit. Was a way better experience than 2007. And when getting off we had our car pretty fast, like 25 mins after detraining. However it was about 1k in cost. Pretty crazy and not something we can do super often.

We booked for way home too. But had to get roomette because a bedroom was 1500 and roomette was 950. No way am I spending 1500. Now this time we noticed bottom room next to the family bedroom on our car. And might be right next to engine with horn going all night, which I could hear from our last spot (4th car from engine). So I did a chat online and asked if they could find an upstairs roomette. Still not sure how close to engine we will be. They said they can mix the cars up all different ways each trip. It's 5346 (7).

Also we didn't know that they do 3 dinner settings and you pick when you arrive to check in. So the 5pm was gone at 2pm when we arrived. We got 7pm. That was fine. But FYI for any readers here who are new to AT. We had a long car line to get in. Took almost half an hour. We spoke to a lady who arrived early and had to sit as the train was an hour late and they didn't start check ins at 12:30. Hence the back up. So we plan to arrive early next time, drop car and then maybe uber out to lunch somewhere. Heard there are a lot of places near the Lorton station. FYI, sanford station has a food truck. Lorton does not.
 


We did AT on 2007 with 3 little kids and hated it. Had a family bedroom on lower level and it was the front of the car where it attached to next car and was so loud and bumpy. And I was crammed on a top bunk that was tiny.

But we just did it last weekend, again. We live in FL and have all our family in MD and have been driving back and forth a lot...elderly parents with health issues plus holidays and weddings and all that stuff. On our way home to FL after this past Xmas we got detoured off 95 in SC due to massive back up. In the back woods there we were hit hard by a big pickup and it totaled our vehicle. We were stranded as there are no Ubers and enterprises were 25 miles away (one each direction). Rental car was not available until the next day. We had to ride in tow to a McDonald's and hire a taxi at $120 to take us 25 miles to hotel by enterprise. Took hours in the unseasonably chilly weather too. Plus our car was packed to the gills with our stuff and the windows and all were busted out. All our stuff sat overnight in busted up car.

So no more driving for a while, if ever again. We had booked a flight to come up for a wedding but have some other things to do and needed our car (to bring back some stuff). So auto train it was.

We did a bedroom and booked the week before and lucked into the best location on the train (5241 L). We were top floor in the car next to the lounge car. Nice space for the 2 of us. We could share the bottom bed. We could easily walk to lounge car to sit. Was a way better experience than 2007. And when getting off we had our car pretty fast, like 25 mins after detraining. However it was about 1k in cost. Pretty crazy and not something we can do super often.

We booked for way home too. But had to get roomette because a bedroom was 1500 and roomette was 950. No way am I spending 1500. Now this time we noticed bottom room next to the family bedroom on our car. And might be right next to engine with horn going all night, which I could hear from our last spot (4th car from engine). So I did a chat online and asked if they could find an upstairs roomette. Still not sure how close to engine we will be. They said they can mix the cars up all different ways each trip. It's 5346 (7).

Also we didn't know that they do 3 dinner settings and you pick when you arrive to check in. So the 5pm was gone at 2pm when we arrived. We got 7pm. That was fine. But FYI for any readers here who are new to AT. We had a long car line to get in. Took almost half an hour. We spoke to a lady who arrived early and had to sit as the train was an hour late and they didn't start check ins at 12:30. Hence the back up. So we plan to arrive early next time, drop car and then maybe uber out to lunch somewhere. Heard there are a lot of places near the Lorton station. FYI, sanford station has a food truck. Lorton does not.
We had three dining times on the way down on 8 Jan, but only two on our way back on 31 Jan. Train was completely full heading south, but not heading north. So, with the two dining times, they do 6 and 8. We do 7 when there are 3 times.
 
We had three dining times on the way down on 8 Jan, but only two on our way back on 31 Jan. Train was completely full heading south, but not heading north. So, with the two dining times, they do 6 and 8. We do 7 when there are 3 times.
If you opt to get your dinner in your room do they stick with the dining time you got? So, since we got 7 then we couldn't ask the attendant to bring it at 5 or 6?
 
If you opt to get your dinner in your room do they stick with the dining time you got? So, since we got 7 then we couldn't ask the attendant to bring it at 5 or 6?
No idea how they're doing it now. We go to the dining car. In 2021, it was delivered due to Covid restrictions and they offered everyone a time, but I don't remember how they did it.
 

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