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I regularly take the Amtrak Crescent overnight to visit family down south. With two people (my wife and I), a roomette has been about on par with air travel pri

I regularly take the Amtrak Crescent overnight to visit family down south. With two people (my wife and I), a roomette has been about on par with air travel pricewise the last couple of times we've traveled. Total privacy, comfy accomodations, internet access, meals and snacks included. Yeah, it does take longer, but frankly I find air travel to be stressful and uncomfortable. The longer travel time is worth it to me, especially if it's roughly the same price. Not to mention that air travel at our airport has had declining on time reliability, probably because of problems with and shitty business practices of its biggest airline. Our trip might take double or triple what we expect anyway due to canceled or delayed flights. As a bonus, a sleeper car ticket counts as "first class", so we get to enjoy the lounge at Moynihan Train Hall during our stopover in NYC. Clarification edit: the Amtrak Crescent roomette has been on par pricewise with two regular old sardine-class airplane tickets. I'm not comparing first class to first class. I've never actually flown first class. I doubt it is as nice as an Amtrak roomette.

tivert 3y ago
> I regularly take the Amtrak Crescent overnight to visit family down south. With two people (my wife and I), a roomette has been about on par with air travel pricewise the last couple of times we've traveled. Total privacy, comfy accomodations, internet access, meals and snacks included. I'd really like to travel by train sleeper car, but I just can't justify it as transportation (rather than as "an experience") given the prices. In the US, either air travel needs to get a lot more expensive, or they need to pump subsidies into trains, or it'll stay an impracticable niche thing.
- VyseofArcadia 3y ago
  > I'd really like to travel by train sleeper car, but I just can't justify it as transportation What an odd comment. It gets you where you're going, the same as any other form of transportation. For a long time it was the default way people took long distance trips. I don't take it repeatedly for the "experience". I take it because it's a more pleasant way to travel at roughly the same price point. Do you also consider road trips or long bus rides to be not transportation? > given the prices. Again, with two people, it's been about the same price the last few times we've done it.
  - soulofmischief 3y ago
    > Again, with two people, it's been about the same price the last few times we've done it. What rates are you finding? Because in my experience just earlier this year, while moving cross country, I found that an Amtrak across the US costed exorbitantly more than an airplane ticket, and comes with a dozen times as many transfers. It was cheaper still to just say screw it and rent a uHaul the entire way.
  - tivert 3y ago
    >> I'd really like to travel by train sleeper car, but I just can't justify it as transportation > What an odd comment. It gets you where you're going, the same as any other form of transportation. For a long time it was the default way people took long distance trips. But far slower than air travel, which I imagine is a big reason why air travel displaced it. > Do you also consider road trips or long bus rides to be not transportation? I don't take the bus, but when I drive, it's cheaper than flying (or flying + car rental). >> given the prices. > Again, with two people, it's been about the same price the last few times we've done it. But it's slower, so the time-cost is higher.
bunderbunder 3y ago
I've flown first class. Whether it counts as nicer or not probably depends a lot on your preferences. The actual service provided on a first class plane flight is definitely more classy. Everything in the plane is more likely to be in perfect repair, with no signs of wear and tear like you see on Amtrak's aging Superliners. And the flight attendants are more likely to give you "first-class" treatment than an Amtrak porter in small ways like more consistently using "ma'am" and "sir" when they talk to you. None of that is consequential to me, but I realize it's worth calling out because my rust belt sensibilities are maybe tuned a bit differently from others'. If you don't mind things being a bit less polished, though, a Roomette is physically more comfortable than a first-class seat in almost every way. It's quieter, you can get up and walk around as much as you want. You don't have to deal with airports and airport security. You can close your door and make a phone call without bothering anybody. You can close your door if you don't want to listen to your neighbor's conversation. You can close your door and watch a movie without headphones. There's an actual table so you can play a proper card game with your traveling partner. etc.
- fatnoah 3y ago
  I've done numerous trips with both experiences, and this aligns with my experience as well.
- landemva 3y ago
  First Class flight within USA is significantly different than a international long haul first class flight. But nobody takes an over water long haul train, so these are different markets.

tivert 3y ago

> I regularly take the Amtrak Crescent overnight to visit family down south. With two people (my wife and I), a roomette has been about on par with air travel pricewise the last couple of times we've traveled. Total privacy, comfy accomodations, internet access, meals and snacks included. I'd really like to travel by train sleeper car, but I just can't justify it as transportation (rather than as "an experience") given the prices. In the US, either air travel needs to get a lot more expensive, or they need to pump subsidies into trains, or it'll stay an impracticable niche thing.

VyseofArcadia 3y ago
> I'd really like to travel by train sleeper car, but I just can't justify it as transportation What an odd comment. It gets you where you're going, the same as any other form of transportation. For a long time it was the default way people took long distance trips. I don't take it repeatedly for the "experience". I take it because it's a more pleasant way to travel at roughly the same price point. Do you also consider road trips or long bus rides to be not transportation? > given the prices. Again, with two people, it's been about the same price the last few times we've done it.
- soulofmischief 3y ago
  > Again, with two people, it's been about the same price the last few times we've done it. What rates are you finding? Because in my experience just earlier this year, while moving cross country, I found that an Amtrak across the US costed exorbitantly more than an airplane ticket, and comes with a dozen times as many transfers. It was cheaper still to just say screw it and rent a uHaul the entire way.
- tivert 3y ago
  >> I'd really like to travel by train sleeper car, but I just can't justify it as transportation > What an odd comment. It gets you where you're going, the same as any other form of transportation. For a long time it was the default way people took long distance trips. But far slower than air travel, which I imagine is a big reason why air travel displaced it. > Do you also consider road trips or long bus rides to be not transportation? I don't take the bus, but when I drive, it's cheaper than flying (or flying + car rental). >> given the prices. > Again, with two people, it's been about the same price the last few times we've done it. But it's slower, so the time-cost is higher.

bunderbunder 3y ago

I've flown first class. Whether it counts as nicer or not probably depends a lot on your preferences. The actual service provided on a first class plane flight is definitely more classy. Everything in the plane is more likely to be in perfect repair, with no signs of wear and tear like you see on Amtrak's aging Superliners. And the flight attendants are more likely to give you "first-class" treatment than an Amtrak porter in small ways like more consistently using "ma'am" and "sir" when they talk to you. None of that is consequential to me, but I realize it's worth calling out because my rust belt sensibilities are maybe tuned a bit differently from others'. If you don't mind things being a bit less polished, though, a Roomette is physically more comfortable than a first-class seat in almost every way. It's quieter, you can get up and walk around as much as you want. You don't have to deal with airports and airport security. You can close your door and make a phone call without bothering anybody. You can close your door if you don't want to listen to your neighbor's conversation. You can close your door and watch a movie without headphones. There's an actual table so you can play a proper card game with your traveling partner. etc.

fatnoah 3y ago
I've done numerous trips with both experiences, and this aligns with my experience as well.
landemva 3y ago
First Class flight within USA is significantly different than a international long haul first class flight. But nobody takes an over water long haul train, so these are different markets.