http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/69409-i-want-to-make-a-reservation-for-a-lower-level-roomette/
towards the end of the recent thread referenced by the above link (I hope I did this correctly) is an explanation of what probably occurred.
So here's what I know from my years of experience as a ticket agent (mind you, I am not in the IT or Yield Management department, so this is solely from personal experience and reading all the documentation I can get my hands on:
Amtrak's pricing for any particular inventory on any particular train on any particular date will be the best available fare at the exact moment in time when the price is requested from the reservation system, no matter which "touch point" you are using, be it Amtrak.com, the Amtrak app, the QuikTrak Kiosk, RailResSTARS (station agent) or RailRes (call center agent).
Let's take an example:
You are checking inventory on Acela Express 2153 from NYP-WAS. There are 5 seats remaining at the KA bucket, which is $249. You roll the idea around in your head, text your spouse, etc, and add that segment to your cart 3 minutes later. The price is now higher. Why?
I mentioned how 5 seats were remaining at the KA bucket. If a station agent pulls a seat for that same train, 2153 from NYP-BAL, there are now only 4 seats remaining at the KA bucket from NYP-WAS, even though the other passenger was only going as far as BAL.
During the same time-frame, a call center agent in Riverside pulls seats for a small group over the telephone. They want 4 tickets on 2153 from NYP-PHL. Now you have
0 seats remaining at the KA bucket from NYP-WAS, and the fare jumps to the full K fare of $280.
But wait, a passenger who had made a reservation on the Amtrak app from NYP-WAS on 2153 a week ago receives a call that his client can't make it, and cancels through the app, turning his ticket into an eVoucher. He had a KC bucket ticket which cost him $192. At that exact moment in time,
ONE KC bucket fare at $192 (his old ticket) will jump into the available inventory, and it's going to the first person who pulls it. Once that seat is taken, the fare will jump back up to the full K bucket of $280.
On thing to note about this last example: Depending on the fare plan, this may or may not happen. For example if this passenger had booked a minimum of 14 days in advance, and received the special KF bucket ($120), when he canceled, this fare would ONLY show in availability if it was still a minimum of 14 days before departure. His $120 KF ticket would jump back into inventory at the next "regular" bucket, which is KD at $163. When that ticket was "claimed" by a customer or agent, the fare would again jump back up to $280.
As I hope you can see, there are many, many moving parts to this system, all based on what everyone else is doing. Anyone at any time can have an effect on the best available fare, depending on how they exchange or cancel their existing tickets, how they book new reservations.
I would argue that agents have an even bigger effect on inventory pricing. If someone walks up to a ticket window and is unsure or undecided, and has the agent pull one segment just to pick a different time, or a different date, it certainly
MAY have an effect on availability, especially if there are few seats at the buckets the agent is working with.
Another good example here:
You are buying last minute because you don't have the advantage of knowing exactly when you'll be able to make it to PVD. You're catching a train to NYP, and arrive at the station just after Regional 175 departs. You go to the ticket window and purchase a ticket for Regional 177, departing at 6:14p, the next train to NYP. The fare is at the full Y bucket (also known as the Flexible Fare), and costs you $129. A little put off by the price, you pull out your phone at about 5:55p, and check the Amtrak app for pricing. You're shocked to see a ticket at $80. You run back up to the window and demand an explanation on why you were
overcharged, and what good a ticket window is if there's a
surcharge to buy from a ticket agent instead of the app. The agent checks the inventory, sees that there is now, in fact, one seat at the $80 bucket, exchanges your ticket, and provides you with the refund less any applicable refund fee, or gives you an eVoucher of $49 good for a year.
Here's a common explanation:
Train 177 originates at BOS and departs at 5:35p. It makes a station stop at BBY at 5:40p, and another at RTE at 5:50p. Just minutes before you check inventory on the Amtrak app at 5:55p, a couple who missed 177 at BOS ran back to the ticket office to cancel their tickets and exchanged for 179. They had booked the reservation a few days ago, and paid $80 per ticket, and those two seats went back into inventory for 177. One customer, who was purchasing at the QuikTrak in PVD grabbed one of the $80 tickets, and you were lucky enough to grab the other at the ticket window.
And finally, yet
ANOTHER source of pricing changes:
Passengers who make reservations over the phone or at the station and choose to pay at a later time. These reservations, many times long distance sleepers, are assigned a
Hold Limit. The hold limit is a date by which the reservation must be paid for by, in order to keep "Speculative Reservations" from going unpaid. The hold limit date is determined automatically based on how early the reservation is being made. For example, if you are booking 30 days or more in advance, the hold limit is 7 days (which is the maximum hold limit) from the date the reservation was created. Arrow does a "mass purging" of unpaid reservations very early the morning after the hold limit date. This is approximately 3-4am EST, 12-1am PST. All of those unpaid reservations will return back into inventory at this time. While most passengers pay for their reservations at the time of booking, this can certainly effect pricing.
These examples I've outlined are happening every day, around the clock, multiplied by the number of call center agents taking calls, the number of station agents on duty, the number of customers using QuikTrak, Amtrak.com, or the app. Seconds can literally make a difference.
I hope this finally clears up some confusion about Amtrak's reservation system and the bucket system of inventory. This probably should've been a new topic, but whatever...
