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Edgar Woodhead

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Does anyone know if it is possible to get the low amsnag fares for more than on person. First time user, so don't really understand how it works
 
You can't actually book your travel on the amsnag website. It merely informs you of what the current fares are for various days, giving you an idea of which days have the lowest buckets available. Once you figure out the day you want, then you need to go the regular Amtrak site at www.amtrak.com, or telephone an Amtrak agent at 1-800-USA-RAIL, or use one of the various apps on IOS or Android devices to book your actual tickets.
 
When you telephone the Amtrak agent with the travel dates that you want and state there will be two (or more?) people occupying your sleeping compartment, the agent will automatically bring up the correct fare on their system. This "glitch" in the Internet website ticketing has been discussed for several weeks now on other threads on this website, but so far the powers in control of programming the Amtrak internet website for ticketing haven't seemed to have corrected THEIR problem.

So, it is best to call an agent and not ticket online, if you have more than one passenger traveling in a sleeping accommodation -- at least for the foreseeable future.
 
So if I do this, will the price be the same as amsnag displays
 
[SIZE=medium]If we imagine that I want to go from Chicago to Los Angeles on Tues 18 Feb…[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]The Amtrak fares currently show the following prices and options:[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Southwest Chief Train: Value seat $135, Value $169 Flexible $331, and Roomette is priced at $505.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]The Roomette total on this day is made up as follows: $169 for the train journey, plus $336 for the Roomette.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]If you add another adult to the booking, the roomette price changes to $674… This is made up of two adult train journey fees of $169 x 2 = $338 plus the Roomette charge which remains the same for one or two persons. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Just to make matters a little complicated… A railpass will always cover the train journey element of a roomette booking, you just need to pay the difference of the Roomette charge. So if you happened to have a railpass and wanted to upgrade to a roomette on the above train example, you would pay the $336 plus use one segment off your railpass.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]It can be rather awkward for first time users, but we on AU will always try to assist![/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Ed :cool: [/SIZE]
 
Thanks so much I now understand!

So why are the amsnag prices , the bucket prices, so low
 
Let me investigate...

Tue 02/18/14 Details 421 Texas Eagle $135.00 $712.00 SO $1359.00 NA - - Details 3 Southwest Chief $135.00 $336.00 $1333.00 $688.00 NA - - Details 21 Texas Eagle $135.00 $343.00 SO SO NA - - - - 1 Sunset Limited - - $252.00 SO $399.00 NA
There is a slight error now in the amsnag prices. The way it must be read is that the roomette price shown is just for the roomette element only, which corresponds to the Amtrak site, You MUST ADD the travel element to the roomette cost, so above you add $336 to $135 to get your fare... BUT WAIT! Because the $135 is a special offer coach only price, it is not correct to add this to the roomette price, you must add the $169 regular low bucket coach fare to get the proper price.

To be fair to Amsnag, these special offer prices are a recent thing, and Amsnag is still a great tool.

Cheers,

Ed :cool:
 
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Also, if I were to use amsnag to book a roomette for one person:

1.) Would it be possible to add a second person the the roomette father payment, if so how?

2.) how much would it cost for the second person? Would it be a coach class fare added on?
 
Again, Amsnag can not be used to book a reservation. It's for information only. (In fact it was started by one of the members of this forum.) Only Amtrak can make a reservation.

To add a second person to the reservation, you would need to contact Amtrak and an agent can add them to your room. They would only be charged the lowest rail fare (bucket), there would not be any additional accommodation charge.
 
Please have a further look at my modified post... You would just have to pay the seperate basic fare for the second person... You would probably have to phone to do that and speak to an Agent.

PS The data on Amsnag comes from Amtrak, so it is just a different way of looking at the same thing... and you can only book on line via Amtrak, or over the phone to Amtrak, or at a ticket counter in America...

Ed :cool:
 
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So Iam going from washington to Chicago, August 23rd, and looking on amsnag, then clicking on the link to amtrak, the roomette price is $276 (one person). If I were to ring up amtrak after booking this, and ask for a second person to come in that room, how much would they charge me ( coach class is $94)
 
So it is cheaper to use amsnag to find the bucket prices, then book a roomette for one person on amtrak, then ring up amtrak and get charged coach class for a second person, then to just go on the amtrak website , and book a roomette for 2 people
 
No.

Amsnag only displays the currently available prices from Amtrak. It is merely a tool for searching Amtrak price and availability over multiple days.

If you are locked into a date of travel, Amsnag provides nothing to you. Just call Amtrak and book the tickets.
 
But if I were to book a roomette for 2 people on amtrak for the was to chi route it would cost $881

However if I use amtrak via amsnag, the price is $370 for 1 person, ring amtrak add a second person for $94 (coach class) =$464
 
Lets put it in a simple way since the message doesn't appear to be getting through. Amsnag is a site developed and owned by one of our forum members. It is not a business offering anything for sale. Amsnag is simply a fare watch/price watch utility site that is used to check and compare Amtrak ticket prices in a period of up to one month. The site owner allows us to use it out of his generosity. You can check fares on the Amtrak website too (when it is working correctly) but only for a single train trip. You purchase your tickets via www.Amtrak.com, at many larger stations or by phone.

We often use Amsnag and have found that prices in a given month can vary widely by date. We just switch our travel dates to get the best fares whenever possible. Say if you plan on leaving on a Tuesday the fare could be $350 in a bedroom. That same accommodation could be priced at $250 one day later as the train isn't nearly as full.
 
Instead of booking it online for 1 person and then calling Amtrak to add a 2nd person to get fare $A, you could just phone Amtrak and make a reservation for 2 people - and get fare $A! Also The fare you see on Amsnag is current as of the latest update. If between the time you see the fare on Amsnag and when you book, say 5 rooms are sold, the price for the room may have risen. Amtrak would have the current fare available.
 
I realise amsnag is not a buissness, but doesn't it display the bucket fares that are otherwise very hard to find on the amtrak site, and then allow you to actually book the bucket fare on the amtrak site, if you click on the date.
 
There is nothing much more I can add to help you, you have been given the best information and help available. The Amtrak.com site has the same information as Amsnag, you won't get a lower price clicking through via Amsnag. The only suggestion I have is to check that on Amtrak, when you try to look at Roomette prices, make sure you don't hit the "change" button, as that will give prices instead for bedrooms!

I wish you all the best, just book on Amtrak. com.

I assume that you are in the UK, I have seen this :


www.amtraktraintickets.co.uk/amtrak-uk‎


Amtrak UK Amtrak - Now available by freephone in the UK 0800 033 7810 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0800 033 7810 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting Whatever it is that you need to know about Amtrak, we can help. Based in Norwich ...

I must state that I have NO KNOWLEDGE of this service, but you may care to try them. My own fear of "middle men" makes me deal direct with USA...

Let us know what you decide. You can even phone to america and speak to an agent and just ask the fares...

Ed :cool:
 
I was led to believe that amsnag showed the low bucket fares that were not availibale to view on the Amtrak website, not the same price fares.
 
That is incorrect.

You can use amsnag to see what the low bucket fare is for a particular journey by searching a wide number of dates at once.

But for a particular date, it only shows what the Amtrak website displays, which is the current price of the room/seat.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
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