Leaving next week coast to coast on Amtrak.

Any guideline suggestions, including when and amounts, for tipping room attendants, dining room servers and porters? Most, but not all, meals are included in the fare.

We've traveled extensively, including internationally, but a long, long time since using domestic trains for other than commuter type travel.

Spur of the moment decision (just committed yesterday), so little planning time. One of the privileges of being old ducks.

For the dining car servers, I'd use the same standard you'd use in any restaurant. As to sleeping car attendants, you might get lots of different opinions on this but I usually figure about $15/night, with adjustments if you're on board for 24 hrs or more (and depending on size of the room, number of people, etc.)

When I took a round-trip on AmTrack between Seattle and Chicago our porters spent much more energy finding places to hide than providing service. They didn't earn a tip, and they didn't get one from me.

That was my experience as well, when we traveled from LA to San Antonio. We were in a 1st class sleeping car--what a joke.

The ONLY time we saw our porter was when we got off the train--I left him standing there empty handed.

The dining car servers were fabulous, and I tipped them the same as I would have any waitperson who did a good job.

I've taken the train varying distances and while there's no set rule... I tip the dining room server 15% give or take based on the price of the meal (even though the meals come with the sleeper car fare).

The sleeping car attendant varies for me depending on distance, quality of service and what bills I actually have on hand. I've generally been quite happy with them.

I think I gave $10 for New York--> New Orleans (24-hour) and New York--> Chicago (18-hour), and $20 for Chicago--> San Francisco (2 days +). Make sure to have plenty of $1 bills for tipping the dining car attendants.

Have fun; I'm jealous!

DAN