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  • Amtrak Mystery Announcement

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1585594  by Greg Moore
 
Social media is easy to do wrong and hard to do right. If this (2:1 sale) is the "big announcement" I'm calling this a huge failure.

There are currently 2 social media accounts that come to mind that I would argue get things right: KFC's Twitter (take a close look at who they follow and how many...) and Steak-Umm. They have the right amount of humor and give and take with their followers.

Marketing is about build-up and expectations. A 2:1 sale that is, as far as I can tell, basically something they do on a regular basis, isn't THAT big of a deal. It's something you can announce in advance and market the day of. But you don't try to tease folks with it. When you build up expectations and then let them down, it's like the boy who cried wolf, people stop paying attention.

So, if this was it... Amtrak blew it, big time.
 #1585600  by Shortline614
 
Yup, 100% disappointed as expected...

Is anyone gonna go on a train trip in the next few days? Buy your tickets now!
 #1585609  by electricron
 
A 2 for 1 sale is 50% off and a great value if two are riding together in coach, but of little value if two are riding together in a sleeper. The sleeper accommodation will still be over 75% of the final fare.
 #1585614  by lordsigma12345
 
With all due respect, railfans who are passionate about the dining car thing are a relatively small part of the general population. Social media is often done by social media people in a company and many times by outside contractors - they probably looked for pretty photos and the social media people don’t know anywhere near as much about the operational side of things as anyone on this and other boards. People were reading way too much into this - I doubt there was any desire to offend here / they wanted to promote a sale. The job of the social media department is to try to drive sales - I’m quite surprised the number of people that got caught up in this thinking that there’d be some big announcement about dining cars especially given it being Black Friday/cyber Monday. Anything like a dining car thing or an announcement related to rolling stock we’d all have known for a week before it went out on social media and it would not come out in this way…
 #1585630  by west point
 
B,1.1.529 is a situation that may cause more changes and vaccination mandate, mask, closures, etc. I do not expect enough personnel to maintain a full schedule if non vaxers start getting sick in large numbers.
 #1585667  by kitchin
 
Some experts think the vaccines will still work against Omicron variant B.1.1.529, so it may turn out to be a brutal wheat/chaff situation. Still very bad for hospitals in that case.

As for the sale, I saw some complaints that the way it applies to mid-level fares makes it not that exciting.
 #1585671  by Gilbert B Norman
 
lordsigma12345 wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 3:03 pm I’m quite surprised the number of people that got caught up in this thinking that there’d be some big announcement about dining cars …
For all the things I find myself being cynical about regarding Amtrak - especially regarding the LD's, I finally got to win one.

It's just another shoulder period fare promotion. These BOGO promotions make sense as Amtrak is still getting full revenue from one seat (as distinct from a "half off" promotion) and the second companion seat would likely be empty anyway.

Really, how can one expect the majority of Amtrak passengers - and let's be honest, LD advocates; that majority is riding on the Corridor - even "give a hoot" - about some ancillary amenity. They probably could care less if Amtrak were to announce that there was to be an orderly discontinuance of the entire LD system over, say, a five-year period, so long as it was emphasized that such would have no effect on the Corridor.

Since most any passenger that cares whether or not Amtrak restores full-service dining to any additional trains are already members of NARP or similar advocacy groups, let those groups circulate the word, because the general public could simply care less.
 #1585677  by kitchin
 
Googling '"silver starvation" amtrak', 7,980 results. That's not very many actually.
Last edited by kitchin on Sat Nov 27, 2021 3:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #1585682  by Railjunkie
 
Gilbert B Norman wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 8:00 am From Hampton Inn - Castleton, Indianapolis----

Well, today is Friday November 26; the "day after Thanx.....and "the tension mounts".

Now of course if the concerns over this "South African variant" that I only learned of this AM on the Breakfast Room's TV, prove to have foundation, who's going to want to travel anywhere by any mode?
For all whom hold on to the hope that this is going away its not, its endemic just like the flu and the common cold. The Rona is an RNA virus it will continue to "select for" and make changes ie mutate until it finds it happy medium. It does not want to kill us all then it would end up killing itself. This last variant may or may not become dominant it has something like 35 mutations which from what Ive heard is quite a few in a single jump and could be quite fragile. Remember all the other new and improved variants of the Greek alphabet like Alpha Gama and Moo.

For those of you over 65 I would hope you have had your jabs and a booster and for the rest of us the two jabs. I'm for the jabs but I BELIEVE IT SHOULD BE YOUR CHOICE IN DOING SO. If your worried about getting sick stay home, if not take advantage of the sale. Book a room take tour of the country live your life and have some fun. We all need to do ourselves a favor, stay away from mainstream and social media, they are the kings of panic.

Just some ramblings of person who makes big stuff stop and go. To the Mods feel free to delete at your leisure.
 #1585695  by Pensyfan19
 
Amtrak just pulled a Buy One Get One Free! (Buy one ticket, bring a friend for free). Cool, but underwhelming for us railfans.
 #1585696  by J.D. Lang
 
I have a couple of guest rewards coupons for buy one and take a friend for free so it's nothing new for some of us. Of course it only applies to coach fares.
 #1586195  by John_Perkowski
 
A 25% off “sale”.

Someone needs to tell the marketing department that Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions need to be big things, like half off on sleepers.

Oh well, another year of bean counter railroading.