Business Class surcharge

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El_Kabong

Train Attendant
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Messages
18
Location
Chicago Area
I'm trying to purchase tickets from Chicago to St. Louis.

The website says the base fare for the trains I want are $24 down and $32 back. If I select two tickets for each leg, I get a total of $48 + $64, or $112.

The wrinkle comes in when I try to make the tickets Business Class. The website says it'll be $20 more per ticket, which is fine. What isn't fine is suddenly the base fare jumps up to $66 per ticket on the way down, and there's a similar bump back. Then there's the $20 per ticket tacked on top of that.

I know how the price buckets work, but why is it I can get two base fare tickets at one price and then the price suddenly jumps for the Business Class fare? I thought the $20 per ticket is supposed to cover that.
 
I've seen and heard about this, but I'm not sure why. The base fare might jump to highest bucket when you selects BC, but not all the time. I'm confused, too. This may be a financial strategy.
 
Yeah, it tends to do this on occasion. It seems that the base railfare for BC seats is sometimes more than for coach seats, resulting in this oddity. I think Amtrak could do a better job of accurately showing the upgrade cost (by accounting for differences in base railfare) - as it stands, it quite frequently surprises people with the higher BC fare as it did to you.

Definitely annoying - I've frequently seen BC seats available and chosen them, only for the railfare to jump all the way from the lowest bucket all the way to the highest bucket! In those cases, I tend to either stick with coach or use AGR - hardly worth paying nearly $200 for an ARB-CHI roundtrip when you can typically get a lot longer trip for that (such as ARB-TOL-WAS - my next trip)..
 
thully, cho cho charlie i never payed more then 14 dollars to upgrade to business class

going from royal oak to chicago or ann arbor
 
Is it possible that the[¡] base fare[\¡] is a discounted special fare and when you go to business class you lose the discount?
 
Is it possible that the[¡] base fare[\¡] is a discounted special fare and when you go to business class you lose the discount?
no rich the business class upgrade is only 14 dollars over the cost of the ticket going to chicago

here is the break down to ann arbor

351 Wolverine (ROY - ARB) Depart: 6:25 am, Tue, May 15, 2012 <br class="clear_both"> Arrive: 7:48 am, Tue, May 15, 2012 <br class="clear_both"> Duration: 1 hr, 23 min <br class="clear_both"> Amenities

  • 1 Senior $15.00
  • Discount - $2.25
  • 1 Business Class Seat $4.50
  • Subtotal $17.25
 
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I cannot understand what wabbit is talking about.
I think Wabbit is talking about a discount, like a Sr Discount.

RRrich is talking about a promotion (a "sale").

From the promotional offers I remember, they are applicable only to coach tickets. BC or Sleeper fares are still based on the regular price.
i will fix it

351 Wolverine (ROY - ARB) Depart: 6:25 am, Tue, May 15, 2012 Arrive: 7:48 am, Tue, May 15, 2012 Duration: 1 hr, 23 minites Amenities

  • 1 Adult $15.00
  • 1 Business Class Seat $4.50
  • Subtotal $19.50
 
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