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Hi there, relatively new rider here.

Took our first Amtrak round trip from MSP to CHI in October ‘21 and have been itching to get on another train ever since.

I’m hoping to plan a trip where we take the CZ W/B from CHI all the way to Emeryville in a roomette but I’m having a hard time determine when the best time is to find the lowest fair. Timing in flexible, don’t have a preference on when we do the trip just know the route I’d like to take. Can anyone give some pointers on times of year where travel on the CZ is usually cheaper and how far out from travel I should look to find the best fare?
 
infectiouswolf said:
Hi there, relatively new rider here.

Took our first Amtrak round trip from MSP to CHI in October ‘21 and have been itching to get on another train ever since.

I’m hoping to plan a trip where we take the CZ W/B from CHI all the way to Emeryville in a roomette but I’m having a hard time determine when the best time is to find the lowest fair. Timing in flexible, don’t have a preference on when we do the trip just know the route I’d like to take. Can anyone give some pointers on times of year where travel on the CZ is usually cheaper and how far out from travel I should look to find the best fare?
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Due to high demand (especially on CZ), it is very hard to get a low bucket fare now.

Ironically, the most consistent way of finding the cheapest fare is to book at the ‘last minute.’ Between 1 day and 4 weeks till departure, unsold space will usually try to get sold at one of the cheapest prices. I realize this is not the best because people want to secure travel plans in advance. (This is easier to do during peak travel season, like summer and around winter holidays when extra sleepers are running, thus excess capacity can occur more likely).

If your okay with paying the ‘middle bucket’ price you can book 4-6 months out.

For reference the lowest price possible end to end (in a roomette) is $602 for one person. The highest is $1453.

In either case, railforless.com is a good resource to find fares across various dates.
 
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trimetbusfan said:
Due to high demand (especially on CZ), it is very hard to get a low bucket fare now.

Ironically, the most consistent way of finding the cheapest fare is to book at the ‘last minute.’ Between 1 day and 4 weeks till departure, unsold space will usually try to get sold at one of the cheapest prices. I realize this is not the best because people want to secure travel plans in advance. (This is easier to do during peak travel season, like summer and around winter holidays when extra sleepers are running, thus excess capacity can occur more likely).

If your okay with paying the ‘middle bucket’ price you can book 4-6 months out.

For reference the lowest price possible end to end (in a roomette) is $602 for one person. The highest is $1453.

In either case, railforless.com is a good resource to find fares across various dates.
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Thank you so much! Super helpful and succinct.

I was able to find the thread about fare buckets and that I have already saved to reference when searching.

I will check out railforless, thanks for the tip!

A few more questions that just popped into my head:

How many meals do they serve along the route?

Are there any particular days of the week to schedule departure on that people have had better luck finding good pricing on?
 
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infectiouswolf said:
…

A few more questions that just popped into my head:

How many meals do they serve along the route?
…
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According to California Zephyr Train | Amtrak
“
Eastbound: Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast
Westbound: Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch”

Although it seemed I found error in their timeline before that we did get a last lunch coming into Chicago eastbound, (unless it has been long enough I have forgotten?)

There is also this: Amtrak Traditional Dining
“

Meal Times​

Breakfast: Available 6:30 - 9:30 am
Lunch: Available 11:30 am - 2:30 pm
Dinner: Available: 5:00 - 9:00 pm
Final seatings at 9:30 am, 2:30 pm, 9:00 pm respectively. A ‘last call’ is made 15 minutes before period ends. Exceptions may apply based on train schedule or in the event of a delay.”
 
UserNameRequired said:
According to California Zephyr Train | Amtrak
“
Eastbound: Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast
Westbound: Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch”
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I must’ve missed that page in my research, thanks!

I had found the timetables but wasn’t sure at what point they decide to offer or not a meal when departure or arrive occurs during a meal time.
 
jiml said:
Particularly at 4 am.
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Yeah, not many choices at that time of the day. The train route was closed meaning that driving was iffy seeing as going east takes the same route over Soldiers Summit. Nothing happening at the Airport at that Time. You are not quite 1000 miles from nowhere but just about.
 
Asher said:
Yeah, not many choices at that time of the day. The train route was closed meaning that driving was iffy seeing as going east takes the same route over Soldiers Summit. Nothing happening at the Airport at that Time. You are not quite 1000 miles from nowhere but just about.
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From Salt Lake City if I had to drive to locations on the Zephyr route in Colorado, I would not go to Soldier Summit. I would go South on I-15, and cut across on 50 to I-70. If I wanted to drive beyond Denver I would go North and get I-80 at Ogden.
 
Devil's Advocate said:
I've had good experiences on trains in Asia and Europe. The problem is Amtrak failing to meet basic service standards, not train travel.
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Outside the NE corridor, train travel is Amtrak's biggest problem - getting from point A to point B in a timely fashion,not service on board. Amtrak has OK OBS far more often than it arrives on time.
 
infectiouswolf said:
…
I had found the timetables but wasn’t sure at what point they decide to offer or not a meal when departure or arrive occurs during a meal time.
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I have read on our forum that generically if a train departs or arrives at its endpoints right during the mealtimes above, plan on no provided meal. This would be endpoints though if you board or get off at an intermediate stop it is likely you can get a meal.
 
jis said:
From Salt Lake City if I had to drive to locations on the Zephyr route in Colorado, I would not go to Soldier Summit. I would go South on I-15, and cut across on 50 to I-70. If I wanted to drive beyond Denver I would go North and get I-80 at Ogden.
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Yeah, the Soldiers Summit route was before the 70 was built. I was trying to point out Salt Lake City at 4:00 in the morning doesn’t leave many choices.
 
SFTrainGeek said:
Hello All, I'm getting ready to take CZ on Thursday 9/7, have there been any recent issues with completing the route or with dropping sleeper cars? I'm in car 632.
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From what I’ve heard, they are dropping the 540 car during the off season this time instead of the 532.
 
SFTrainGeek said:
Interesting that I paid $2969 for a room on CZ RIC-CHI about 6 weeks ago and the family room as of today is $2468. Is that usual? I would switch, but I don't want to be on the lower deck.

View attachment 33754
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I assume the $2969 you paid was for a full bedroom as it seems exceedingly high for roomette. So you have to ask yourself is moving downstairs so 'bad' to willingly waste $500.

If you had a bedroom, you would lose the private shower, sink and toilet, all, in room. Roomettes have none of those and for 2 passengers, most find it cramped. Compare that to going down the hallway to shared facilities that are usually acceptably clean. What choices are you willing to make for $500? And certainly if you paid that much for a roomette, I would be out of there to the family room in a heartbeat. I've moved to the family room from roomette twice In the past 15 years or so and saved a good chunk of money as a result each time.

And if you happen upon a better price/accomodation that you prefer between now and departure, I am reasonably sure the Amtrak computer will make the change without any problems.
 
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It looks like someone else snagged the family bedroom at the low price before you tried. It's gone now.

The low price shown rarely lasts more than 2-5 hours before someone else grabs it. In all probability, it was someone's cancellation and there's always somebody looking for a super bargain.

Call it a lesson in making speedy choices and acting upon them ASAP.
 
trimetbusfan said:
From what I’ve heard, they are dropping the 540 car during the off season this time instead of the 532.
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But remember there will be very little gain in sleeper availability as the on board crew will take rooms along with the conductors who usually are in the lower level of dorm car except at night when sometimes in the dinner. For the photo or video fans when the dorm car is not next to baggage car you can film over the top of baggage car through the door window as if on the old dorm cars of the 50-60s. I once filmed over the baggage car going thru the cascades on Starlight going north.
 
amtrakp42 said:
But remember there will be very little gain in sleeper availability as the on board crew will take rooms along with the conductors who usually are in the lower level of dorm car except at night when sometimes in the dinner. For the photo or video fans when the dorm car is not next to baggage car you can film over the top of baggage car through the door window as if on the old dorm cars of the 50-60s. I once filmed over the baggage car going thru the cascades on Starlight going north.
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Conductors don’t use rooms
 
amtrakp42 said:
But remember there will be very little gain in sleeper availability as the on board crew will take rooms along with the conductors who usually are in the lower level of dorm car except at night when sometimes in the dinner. For the photo or video fans when the dorm car is not next to baggage car you can film over the top of baggage car through the door window as if on the old dorm cars of the 50-60s. I once filmed over the baggage car going thru the cascades on Starlight going north.
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I have seen several times the SCA takes roomette #10 in their assigned sleeper for customer service and a few times with a bag of used linens.

I have also had a roomette in the dorm that the SCA from the first sleeper took care of for revenue passengers (there were only 3 of us). Did sit with the conductors downstairs for awhile chatting. The lower level had 2 diner style tables and where the counter would be was a large open area with a few boxes of extra supplies like cups and napkins. As well as some OBS crew bags. The dorm is great as it is quiet and very little foot traffic except during shift change. I boarded at the first sleeper at Emeryville and walked forward but the conductors let me detrain at my final stop at Fort Morgan, CO from the dorm. Which was only a 15' walk to my car.
 
amtrakp42 said:
But remember there will be very little gain in sleeper availability as the on board crew will take rooms along with the conductors who usually are in the lower level of dorm car except at night when sometimes in the dinner. For the photo or video fans when the dorm car is not next to baggage car you can film over the top of baggage car through the door window as if on the old dorm cars of the 50-60s. I once filmed over the baggage car going thru the cascades on Starlight going north.
Click to expand...
Well the 40 car is the dorm, so if they pull that, then the crew will have to share the 32 car for their accommodations. Standard sleepers don’t have crew tables downstairs so the conductors will likely have to use the dining car or lounge car as their ‘office’ like they do on other trains that don’t use a dorm car.
 
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