amtrak

My question is how much do you tip the porter who help you with your room, meals, etc. We are taking a trip to seattle in the near future.

Interesting question.
I've never gotten a sleeper on Amtrak, and I'm might be getting a few in the years to come.

I did an internet search.

One person said that no one uses the term "porter" anymore. The modern term is "train attendant".

Some people say $5 a day per person for the sleeper attendant. Others went as high as $20 per day.
$20 seems really high to me. It might depend upon whether they help with luggage and other things.

One person said he only tipped at the end. The only issue I'd worry about that is that the people may change enroute.

Another interesting point is the meal. Meals come with a sleeper. One person said they tip $3 per dinner, and $2 per person on lunch and breakfast.

There was a reference to not tipping because the annual pay for Amtrak employees is pretty good.

One other thought: you can always ask. I've done this often. I've found that they'll usually give you a small number. I'd probably ask something like, "I assume I'm suppose to tip you. I'm wondering how much. Is $5 typical?"

Here's info pasted from my favorite link found:

Amtrak People
Service and Train Crews: The Amtrak personnel are divided into Service Crew and Train Crew.

The service crew includes Car Attendants (not called "porters" please), Snack Bar Attendant, Lead Service Attendant (LSA; head waiter in dining car, and in charge of all service crew members), Dining Car Chefs, and Dining Car Attendants (waiters). Service crew members generally ride the train from origin to destination.

Operating crew includes the Conductor, Assistant Conductors, and the engine crew. Train crew will change about every 6-8 hours on long distance routes. With very few exceptions all crew members are Amtrak employees. The Conductor is in overall charge of the train.


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Tipping
General Guidelines: Tipping is NOT required, but is considered correct for the service crew personnel on the train. Recommendations: Snack bar attendant: roughly 10%. Dining car: 15% of menu prices (sleeping car passengers may want to note this when ordering their meals). Coaches: the consensus is that in most cases tips are not necessary, but if special service is given, the guidelines for a sleeping car attendant apply. Sleepers: See the next section. Operating crew is never to be tipped.

Tipping a Sleeping Car Attendant: The sleeping car attendant that will greet you when you board the train will be with you throughout your journey and will be changing your room configuration at least twice a day, and performing other services, so it behooves you to get on their best side -- and they on yours. Here are your options for tipping a Sleeping Car Attendant:

Some people recommend tipping the attendant at the first opportunity -- say $20 for what will be a 2 night trip. The idea here is to "pay" for a good level of service up front, to possibly give you a leg up on other passengers, so to speak.

Others say one should wait until the trip is over and tip according to the level of service provided -- if for example you hardly ever saw the attendant and they did nothing much for you beyond the absolute minimum, then no tip or a very small one is appropriate.

Others suggest tipping the attendant in the morning if the service over the past day or part of day has been satisfactory or better. $5-$10 is appropriate.

Others (yes. there are some) suggest that Amtrak Sleeping Car attendants are not at all badly paid for their hours of service and thus should not needed to be tipped at all.

You could pick any of the options above and not be "wrong".

Personally, we believe tipping is appropriate, and don't recommend the fourth option. We go with the second one -- tip at the end according to level of service. For reasonable service for (say) 2 nights for a couple in a Roomette, we would tip $20. This is probably the most popular option of those above -- though many people just never even think of tipping the attendant.

We also go out of our way to be friendly to the attendants and helpful to them in whatever way we can -- basically to treat them well. Our experience has been that a big smile and friendly greeting gets one that little extra without any need to promise compensation up front.

Thank you tennis_bum for great information to my question. As this is our first train adventure, we just didn't have any idea what to do.

I'm curious if the same train train attendants work the entire trip.
You also never said where you were starting from. Obviously, a NY to Seattle trip would mean more tipping than a SF to Seattle trip.

Although I don't know anything about this Amtrak tipping stuff, I just want to make sure that people know that if they are members of the Auto Club (AAA) and go through Auto Club Travel (I think), then I think that there is a 10% Discount on Amtrak fares.

Please check this out with the Auto Club website.

RecVPPlayer

we are starting in Milwaukee, Wi, going to seattle. we got our amtrak tickets with room with our frontier miles. We will ask our car attendant if he/she will be going the whole way and tip accordingly.

I went from NYC to Albany through Ohio and Chicago to Memphis once...

You can use the AAA discount right on the Amtrak website (if it's available).

Well, I have taken a couple trips on Amtrak
in the last 5 years.

One was LA to San Francisco (Oakland really).

One was LA to Seattle.

The LA to SF was a day trip and I did not tip until the end. The attendant was only seen in the beginning and the end. He was unfriendly until I tipped him $20 at the end.

The LA to Seattle trip I tipped $20 up front
and $20 at the end and saw that it made a big difference.

The restaurant meals were included in the trip.
I left the tip in cash on the table and they seemed happy with it. LOL

I think it was 20%.

I did not leave the snack car attendant a tip and never saw anyone else doing so either.

BTW, our room for each trip I think they call
it a Family Room or something like that,
was at the rear of a car, stretching across the entire car, so we had windows on both sides.

Hope you have a great trip!!!