Amtrak’s First Class Lounges: Who’s In and Who’s Out?
I don’t know what made me think of this, but here’s a small but useful Amtrak travel tip—although it’s one you may already know. The Metropolitan Lounges are comfortable and nice places to relax while waiting for your train . . . as long as your ticket says you’re traveling in a sleeping car. Those lounges are available in Chicago, New York, Los Angele, New Orleans and Portland.
But you can also take advantage of the Metropolitan Lounges if you arrive on a train on which you have been a sleeping car passenger. This can be very nice if you’re connecting to a short-haul train even if for that portion of your itinerary you’ll be traveling in coach. I’ve been surprised to discover that a lot of regular Amtrak riders don’t know that.
As a sleeping car passenger, I have often come into Chicago from the East or South traveling as a sleeping cart passenger and found myself with a wait of several hours before catching another Amtrak train, where I’ll be traveling in coach class, for the two-and-a-half hour ride to Galesburg, Illinois, to spend a night with my bother and his wife. It’s nice to be able to wait in a comfortable first class lounge.
However, that does not work in the first class lounge in Washington DC’s Union Station where I was denied entrance because I was traveling in business class from there to New York City on the Acela, not in first class. There were a lot of people in the lounge who were sleeping car passengers waiting to board outbound trains, and I pointed out that four days earlier I had arrived there at Union Station having traveled clear across the country in sleeping cars. Alas, the lady at the reception desk was unmoved.
Then I showed her my tickets for business class travel from New York to Toronto and from Vancouver BC to Seattle. The last ticket in the stack was for sleeping car accommodations from Seattle down to Los Angeles. (I would be aboard VIA Rail between Toronto and Vancouver.) She was wavering and then one of my NARP colleagues, already approved to wait in the lounge, appeared. He realized what was happening and said plaintively that everyone in his small catch of travelers were friends of mine. The lady relented and waved me into the lounge.
By the way, Amtrak is in the process of spending several million dollars creating a new Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago’s Union Station. It’s big … it’s posh … and it’s needed. More to come on that.
Business class passengers now have to pay a fee to use the lounge. $35 no less. As of Oct. 2023. F king Ridiculous.
Very long trip through the Amtrak site to find specific information about Metro Lounges, still looking for hours and other information about the one in LA.
There have been many complaints about the re-design of the site.
I agree Mr Loomis. The new website is awkward to navigate and has become very frustrating to locate information.
My wife and I actually stayed at the NEW LA Amtrak Lounge and it’s Great! We were some of the First Passengers to use the Lounge, it opened the day we were heading back to Ohio in 2013.
Yes, it is a comfortable facility. if I have a long connection in LA, I rotate:(1) people watching in the main hall,(2) checking emails up in the lounge, and (3) a refreshment stop at Ben & Jerry’s.
There’s also a first-class lounge/waiting area at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia – don’t know if it’s called a Metropolitan Lounge or not.
I have used it when I’ve taken a sleeper on a long-distance train to Washington, DC, then Acela to Philadelphia, then Keystone to Lancaster.
What I have forgotten is – was I allowed to use the lounge at 30 Street because of my LD sleeper, or would it have been because I was perhaps using First Class on Acela? (And, frankly I’ve even forgotten if I was in Business Class or First Class on the DC to Philadelphia Acela.)
Strange to say, I have never been in the lounge there. I stopped at the station, but was checking out a couple of hotels and some restaurants nearby for the 4th edition of my book.
Why do I no longer ceased to be amazed by Amtrak’s self-inflicted foibles that belittle its brand and market position? When I recently mentioned to another rail pundit how Amtrak’s VP Marketing had tendered his resignation, his response was classic: “until you mentioned it, I never knew Amtrak even had a marketing VP…”
Given the very limited first class capacity on “Acelas,” despite the corporate crowd the service is marketed to, it would seem logical that many of “Acelas” business class passengers are in that same corporate clientele market; but simply could not obtain first class for that schedule. To render such bureaucratic policies re the lounge that defy its limited market makes Amtrak look pathetic.
Sadly, Amtrak does not even acknowledge the “Northeast Regionals” as serving a multi-segmented market to include first class. Despite Amtrak’s continued denial of aggressively growing competition along the Northeast Corridor by Megabus, Bolt, Peter Pan, and Greyhound, how will Amtrak react to the announcements just this week of Jet Blue entering the New York-Boston air shuttle at $49 fares, as well as Cape Air and Tailwinds to offer seaplane flights from Boston-New York harbors?
When we see how the focus is on the Metropolitan Lounge restrictive policy that defies common sense, what does it take to stimulate Amtrak to react competitively in its only alleged “profitable” corridor–starting with how it treats all of its higher revenue customers?
Just to clarify, the Chicago Metropolitan Lounge DOES allow arriving and departing business class passengers. This has been true since late 2015. Just this past weekend I went to Chicago arriving in business class on the Illinois Zephyr. I got into Union Station mid-morning and went straight to the Metropolitan Lounge. I left my luggage there, used a spacious restroom, and enjoyed a roll and coffee before heading out to explore the city. Late in the afternoon I returned to the lounge, enjoyed another snack, claimed my luggage (with a small tip to the red cap–both cheaper and easier than the lockers), and headed to my hotel. I have also taken advantage of the Metropolitan Lounge when departing in business class, because waiting there is much more pleasant than in the general departure lounge. Business class on the Illinois trains is really quite inexpensive, and between the use of the lounge, free beverages on the train, and the complimentary newspaper, and the extra space of single seats it’s easily worth the extra fare.
According to their website business class passengers are also welcome in the new Metropolitan Lounge in Los Angeles, but I have yet to confirm this. I will be going to California this summer and hope to check this out then.
Chicago Union Station also has a second lounge off the Great Hall that is open to the general public. Those in that lounge are walked directly to their trains by the attendant. The catch is that they charge $20 for access to it. For coach passengers who hate the chaos in the general boarding area, this may be worth it, but it does strike me as overpriced.
Thanks flor the clarification.