Best time to call to get space due to recently canceled reservation?

[railpost]

Several years ago I was told that sometime in the early morning hours is when cancelled for or unclaimed ticket reservations are expunged from the system so it you call Amtrak between around 5 and 6 am you have the best chance of getting a reservation or even a reasonably priced ticket that had been listed sold out during the previous day or week.

For example would the best time to call to get ticket if you are in the Central time zone (Chicago) be between 5 and 6 am?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Cancelled tickets go into inventory the moment you cancelled them.

The unclaimed space on a enroute train. Don't know if they show up at all.

Unpaid reserved spaces. Can you even do this anymore? The time they return to inventory is unknown to me.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

Cancelled tickets go into inventory the moment you cancelled them.

Do they still go in, under their original price, or are they now re-priced to the current level?

 

[KmH]

As far as I know they've always become available again at whatever the current bucket price is, not the bucket price when the reservation was 1st made.

 

[crabby_appleton1950]

Several years ago I was told that sometime in the early morning hours is when cancelled for or unclaimed ticket reservations are expunged from the system so it you call Amtrak between around 5 and 6 am you have the best chance of getting a reservation or even a reasonably priced ticket that had been listed sold out during the previous day or week.

For example would the best time to call to get ticket if you are in the Central time zone (Chicago) be between 5 and 6 am?

Thanks in advance.

Quote: "... if you call Amtrak between around 5 and 6 am"

Which time zone?

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

For example would the best time to call to get ticket if you are in the Central time zone (Chicago) be between 5 and 6 am?

Thanks in advance.

Quote: "... if you call Amtrak between around 5 and 6 am"Which time zone?

What is Central, Alex?

 

[crabby_appleton1950]

For example would the best time to call to get ticket if you are in the Central time zone (Chicago) be between 5 and 6 am?

Thanks in advance.

Quote: "... if you call Amtrak between around 5 and 6 am"Which time zone?

What is Central, Alex?

Oops. Missed that.

 

[Thirdrail7]

Batch runs just after midnight, EST or EDT. It usually takes up to an hour, so I'd start around 12:30am.

 

[PaulM]

Batch runs just after midnight, EST or EDT. It usually takes up to an hour, so I'd start around 12:30am.

I don't understand this. Obviously, sales goes out of inventory immediately, not batched once a day, otherwise there would be a lot of overbooking. So are cancellations handled differently?

 

[the_traveler]

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think the batch processing mentioned is if someone calls up and says "I want to cancel my trip" or if you hit the "Cancel trip" button online. It is for those reservations that are made by phone and not yet paid - a 3-7 day hold. Those go back in inventory overnight after the time limit has expired.

 

[PaulM]

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think the batch processing mentioned is if someone calls up and says "I want to cancel my trip" or if you hit the "Cancel trip" button online. It is for those reservations that are made by phone and not yet paid - a 3-7 day hold. Those go back in inventory overnight after the time limit has expired.

Makes sense.

 

[2sk21]

Instead of calling constantly you can also consider putting yourself on a waiting list. For my upcoming trip, I wanted to upgrade from a roomette to a bedroom. It was not available when I called so I asked to be put myself on the waiting list. They called me a few days later and offered the upgrade which I accepted. So it would appear that the waiting list system seems to work well.