Was looking at doing a solo trip next year too and noticed the same thing. Coach on the Sunset Limited might be around 150 bucks, then you click over to roomettes and it jumps to a thousand plus. It’s a wild gap.
From what I’ve seen, the roomette price is basically your fare plus what’s left of Amtrak’s limited sleeper inventory, plus meals. And those rooms sell out fast, so the cheap buckets vanish early.
If you’re flexible, checking a bunch of dates is pretty much the only way to spot the lower buckets. They do exist, just not often on popular routes like LA to New Orleans.
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