I took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles a few years ago. I went coach and it was about the same price as an airline ticket, maybe $10-$20 less.

I took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles a few years ago. I went coach and it was about the same price as an airline ticket, maybe $10-$20 less. The Southwest Chief was nice, but the train to Chicago was noisy and dirty. The sleeper car would have been about triple what we paid for the two coach tickets. It wasn't bad sleeping in the coach seats, though I am sure the sleeper car would have been fun. We bought our own food and ate on the train. We took a 2 day stop to visit Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon before continuing on to LA. It's worth doing. I enjoyed the ride and got paid for it too because I was able to work while aboard the train.