Amtrak’s excellent new promotion: free booze

While the major airlines battle with low-cost carriers for passengers, a whole other industry is struggling for backsides on seats, the railways industry. In the United States, the national railway is called Amtrak, and in a recent bid to lure more long-haul passengers to choose the option of cruising the rails instead of the open blue skies, they’ve teamed up with GrandLuxe, a private company to soup up their cabins.

With cross country routes now sporting cabins with mahogany paneling and three-course meals, a new incentive has been launched to keep the upper class attracted to the travel option. Keep them drunk.

Amtrak has a guest rewards program much like an airline, and for bookings between November and January, passengers will receive a $100 voucher for alcohol. This quite a generous offer, considering a glass of wine would usually cost $6 and a decent single malt whiskey is $7.

GrandLuxe describes the offer as an attempt to revive the old-fashioned fantasy of cross-country rail travel and get people onboard to enjoy the experience of travel itself instead of rushing between destinations.

There are always watchdogs for these kinds of things though, and typically, a conservative group has voiced concern whether any passengers actually need $100 worth of booze. Well, MADD has been reproaching the use of alcohol for a while now, but one wonders what the big deal is if they’re on a train and not behind the wheel of a car.

Some concern has been raised about drunk driving after the ride itself, but so far no legs of the journey have suspended any service.

www.amtrak.com