AAA Discounts

[Louis]

OK, I ran a sample run on the Amtrak site for sometime in August 09, round trip in a bedroom from New York to LA and I came up with a cost of $3338 as the accommodation fare (excluding rail rare) for the bedroom. At 6 nights that comes out to $556 a night.

Well if you can get low bucket, the entire trip can be had for $1,920 not including rail fare. That's only $320 per night.

Alan, I wouldn't dispute what you've said, but figures I got from Amtrak were exactly what I posted. Perhaps if one could afford to keep checking or trying different dates or routes, the price could come down, but even $320 a night is a lot more than I've ever spent for hotels including conventions as I indicated in my OP.

Now, if you asked me if I thought $320 per night for an Amtrak bedroom was a decent price, my answer would be yes! Why? Because, along with other factors, Amtrak gives me something that no Hotel could ever give... a scenic view of our country that can never be enjoyed elsewhere! :wub:

I priced the round trip New York to Los Angeles with connection in Chicago (NYP-CHI-LAX) departing on the Lake Shore Limited (#49) Tuesday August 18th and returning on the Southwest Chief (#4) Tuesday August 25th. The roomette accommodation cost for the entire trip was $1328.00 or $221.33 for each of the 6 nights which encompass the trip.

Since you can book 2 people into a roomette and the meals are included I decided to calculate the meal cost that the accommodation charge represents. So, assuming a per-meal average cost of $12.00 and roughly 16 meals served during the trip the price per night for meals would be $32.00.

Removing the $32.00 of meals from the room cost of $221.33 leaves a per night "room-without-meals" cost of $189.33.

I had fun doing the calculations and I admit that travel during weekdays is priced lower on long distance overnight routes than on weekends. However, I am in full agreement that having the "scenic view of our country that can never be enjoyed elsewhere" combined with the comfort and privacy of a room is, to me, worth the added expense.

 

[wayman]

Also remember that accomodations on Amtrak generally speaking, run higher per night that hotels do!

But few hotels provide free meals (aside from minimal breakfasts) to all guests. And no hotel provides the convenience of moving you 400 miles closer to your destination while you sleep!

 

[_Ned]

Also remember that accomodations on Amtrak generally speaking, run higher per night that hotels do!

But few hotels provide free meals (aside from minimal breakfasts) to all guests. And no hotel provides the convenience of moving you 400 miles closer to your destination while you sleep!

The train meals are not free, they are included in the price of your accommodaiton.

And, there are many all-inclusive hotels that include all your meals AND BOOZE in the price of your accommodaiton, and some even have an ocean view and a snow white sandy beach to relax on.

Apples and Oranges

 

[sky12065]

I priced the round trip New York to Los Angeles with connection in Chicago (NYP-CHI-LAX) departing on the Lake Shore Limited (#49) Tuesday August 18th and returning on the Southwest Chief (#4) Tuesday August 25th. The roomette accommodation cost for the entire trip was $1328.00 or $221.33 for each of the 6 nights which encompass the trip.
Since you can book 2 people into a roomette and the meals are included I decided to calculate the meal cost that the accommodation charge represents. So, assuming a per-meal average cost of $12.00 and roughly 16 meals served during the trip the price per night for meals would be $32.00.

Removing the $32.00 of meals from the room cost of $221.33 leaves a per night "room-without-meals" cost of $189.33.

I had fun doing the calculations and I admit that travel during weekdays is priced lower on long distance overnight routes than on weekends. However, I am in full agreement that having the "scenic view of our country that can never be enjoyed elsewhere" combined with the comfort and privacy of a room is, to me, worth the added expense.

I don't know if you did the calculations for the purpose of comparisons to the nightly cost of a hotel, but if you did you should have used an Amtrak bedroom instead of a roomette. The reason I say this is because the bedroom is the closest accomodation Amtrak has that can be compared to a hotel room. :unsure: {smilie is comparing LoL}

 

[sky12065]

Also remember that accomodations on Amtrak generally speaking, run higher per night that hotels do!

But few hotels provide free meals (aside from minimal breakfasts) to all guests. And no hotel provides the convenience of moving you 400 miles closer to your destination while you sleep!

Presuming you may have missed it, your point about "moving while sleeping" was already made by Alan and answered in post #10.

 

[daveyb99]

OK, I ran a sample run on the Amtrak site for sometime in August 09, round trip in a bedroom from New York to LA and I came up with a cost of $3338 as the accomodation fare (excluding rail rare) for the bedroom. At 6 nights that comes out to $556 a night.

OK, so you get the 10% AAA discount on your booking. That would be -$333.80, making the fare $3004.20

Does that make any difference what-so-ever on your decision to purchase?

 

[sky12065]

OK, I ran a sample run on the Amtrak site for sometime in August 09, round trip in a bedroom from New York to LA and I came up with a cost of $3338 as the accomodation fare (excluding rail rare) for the bedroom. At 6 nights that comes out to $556 a night.

OK, so you get the 10% AAA discount on your booking. That would be -$333.80, making the fare $3004.20

Does that make any difference what-so-ever on your decision to purchase?

No because a AAA discount is on the "Rail Fare" only and the trips rail fare was not included when I did my calculations. You can see that info included in parens in what you quoted above.

Even if the discount was applicable on the accomodations, your figure above would come out to 6 nights at $500.70 per night and that would still be pretty pricy and still too high for me; but... "If I were a rich man, Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum." then I would say yes!

 

[Guest_ScottC4746_*]

Amtrak has a series of discounts like AAA, AARP, etc. In my opinion, they should apply to accomodations, even if they have to gross up the overall price to all. Hotels offer AAA discounts....

That's funny...when I booked my Sunset Ltd train in June I got a discount on my Roomete. Just remember, you must book three days prior and just like any discount program, subject to availablity. If it is peak time like trying to rail into New Orleans for Mardi Gras...probably not going to get your discount.

 

[jmbgeg]

Amtrak has a series of discounts like AAA, AARP, etc. In my opinion, they should apply to accomodations, even if they have to gross up the overall price to all. Hotels offer AAA discounts....

That's funny...when I booked my Sunset Ltd train in June I got a discount on my Roomete. Just remember, you must book three days prior and just like any discount program, subject to availablity. If it is peak time like trying to rail into New Orleans for Mardi Gras...probably not going to get your discount.

I think that upon closer examination you would find that you only got a AAA discount on the rail fare portion of the total rail fare + accomodation price, but if they discounted the accomodation too, it was contrary to their policy.

It has been pointed out that if AAA members and other groups eligible for discounts received a discount on the accomodations too and not just rail fares, the aggregate amount of those discounts would have to be passed through to other non-discounted passengers. Some think that is not fair. Do you not think that when hotels grant AAA, senior, military and government discounts, the cost of the discounts is calculated into and passed through in the overall fare calculation for all? Same would apply here. For those who don't have AAA cards or qualify for any of the other Amtrak discounts, you might find that if you do any volume of traveling at all, even if you don't drive a car and need AAA for that reason, you would recover the cost of a basic AAA membership through hotel discounts every year (unless you use Priceline or or similar tools that don't recognize AAA).

As for the fact that meals are included in the accomodation price for a sleeper but not commonly for a hotel room that offers a AAA discount, analyze it this way. Say that I pay $890 for a deluxe room Spokane to Chicago one way. On that trip there would be two breakfasts (say at a value of $9.00 each per the Amtrak menu), two lunches at $9.00 and one dinner at $19.00; for a total meal value of $55 out of an $890. A 10% discount on the accomodation net of meals would be $84.50, which in turn would be approximately 9% of the total accomodation price. If allowing a discount on the meal component is problematic, make the discount 10% on the rail fare and 9% (or even 5%) on the accomodation.

Bottom line, my suggestion is unlikely to materialize, so all of the analysis is simply hypothetical. Those of us they buy sleepers would probably not be be likely to buy sleepers more often with the discount, but then again, the same applies to the discounts on the base rail fare already, doesn't it?

 

[ScottC4746]

Amtrak has a series of discounts like AAA, AARP, etc. In my opinion, they should apply to accomodations, even if they have to gross up the overall price to all. Hotels offer AAA discounts....

That's funny...when I booked my Sunset Ltd train in June I got a discount on my Roomete. Just remember, you must book three days prior and just like any discount program, subject to availablity. If it is peak time like trying to rail into New Orleans for Mardi Gras...probably not going to get your discount.

I think that upon closer examination you would find that you only got a AAA discount on the rail fare portion of the total rail fare + accomodation price, but if they discounted the accomodation too, it was contrary to their policy.

It has been pointed out that if AAA members and other groups eligible for discounts received a discount on the accomodations too and not just rail fares, the aggregate amount of those discounts would have to be passed through to other non-discounted passengers. Some think that is not fair. Do you not think that when hotels grant AAA, senior, military and government discounts, the cost of the discounts is calculated into and passed through in the overall fare calculation for all? Same would apply here. For those who don't have AAA cards or qualify for any of the other Amtrak discounts, you might find that if you do any volume of traveling at all, even if you don't drive a car and need AAA for that reason, you would recover the cost of a basic AAA membership through hotel discounts every year (unless you use Priceline or or similar tools that don't recognize AAA).

As for the fact that meals are included in the accomodation price for a sleeper but not commonly for a hotel room that offers a AAA discount, analyze it this way. Say that I pay $890 for a deluxe room Spokane to Chicago one way. On that trip there would be two breakfasts (say at a value of $9.00 each per the Amtrak menu), two lunches at $9.00 and one dinner at $19.00; for a total meal value of $55 out of an $890. A 10% discount on the accomodation net of meals would be $84.50, which in turn would be approximately 9% of the total accomodation price. If allowing a discount on the meal component is problematic, make the discount 10% on the rail fare and 9% (or even 5%) on the accomodation.

Bottom line, my suggestion is unlikely to materialize, so all of the analysis is simply hypothetical. Those of us they buy sleepers would probably not be be likely to buy sleepers more often with the discount, but then again, the same applies to the discounts on the base rail fare already, doesn't it?

Oh I see now. True. Well one place to get an AAA discount is Supercuts, ONLY if you get a Supercut III, the less expensive services get no discount.