Confused About Pricing

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TrainLoverJoy

Lead Service Attendant
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
Messages
280
Location
Kalamazoo, Mi.
I hate the new reservation screen on amtrak.com....and particularly the math involved.

I am completely confused about the formulas for figuring prices. I checked several random dates, and it seems to be the same. For example: Texas Eagle, April 29. Base value coach price is $169. When asking price for one person with a roomette, it says $629, with one room left at this price. If you ask about 2 people in the same roomette the price should go up $169....but it goes up $292 to $921...with 3 rooms left at this price. What is going on!!!
 
Another thing I hate about the new system is I'll have to make a separate reservation for my connecting train to get to Chicago. When reserving a roomette the system automatically assumes I'll want the premium choice (business class) for my short connecting train from Kalamazoo.....the difference of $23 to $70. No thanks, business class!...a $47 difference for a 2 hour ride is definitely not worth it.
 
TrainLoverJoy said:
Another thing I hate about the new system is I'll have to make a separate reservation for my connecting train to get to Chicago. When reserving a roomette the system automatically assumes I'll want the premium choice (business class) for my short connecting train from Kalamazoo.....the difference of $23 to $70. No thanks, business class!...a $47 difference for a 2 hour ride is definitely not worth it.
Click to expand...
I've noticed that too. It locks in "premium" across the board instead of letting you choose separate classes for separate trains. I had to split up our trip to/from ABQ.
 
That you can fix and do on one reservation:

You can change from BC to coach on your first train by clicking on the arrows that say "change". You'll see it gets $47 cheaper when you do that.

change_leg.png


change_leg_after.png
 
Oh, for crying out loud. I didn't see the stupid "change" thingie.

Thanks!
 
RyanS said:
Bug on the website - the accommodation charge shouldn't change with the number of people. You'll have to call in to get the correct price.
Click to expand...
You say "bug on the website", do you have confirmation of this "bug" from someone at Amtrak? Can you post it, if so?
 
amamba said:
tonys96 said:
RyanS said:
Bug on the website - the accommodation charge shouldn't change with the number of people. You'll have to call in to get the correct price.
Click to expand...
You say "bug on the website", do you have confirmation of this "bug" from someone at Amtrak? Can you post it, if so?
Click to expand...
When you call, you get the price you should.
Click to expand...
That is correct! But to a new rider who books online, how are they supposed to know to call? To them, the price on the site is the price they pay.......they are either overcharged, or it is a rate hike for online purchases. Or the new rider sees the price and it is too high on the site, so he just chooses alternate transport, not knowing he could call to get a better fare......

If this truly was a "bug", why hasn't Amtrak put a notice on the rez page telling pax to call for correct fare?
 
The bug has been fixed. The website now reports the same accommodation charge regardless of the number of people.

Edit:

RyanS said:
I may have spoken too soon - looks like bedrooms are still hosed up.

That makes it even more unlikely that it's a policy decision, why would there be a different policy for bedrooms and roomettes?
Click to expand...
 
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TrainLoverJoy said:
I saw it, but thought it was only for changing to different sleeping rooms! Thanks!
Click to expand...
If you mean different type of sleeping rooms, then that is exactly what it does. Clicking on the little right or left arrows surrounding the word change rotates through the types, including none, in which case radio buttons for selecting upper or lower level coach seat(s) appears. If you select none for all segments, then No Price will appear where the price would normally, and the radio button for selecting premium disappears (makes sense).
 
The current site is flawed. I don't use it to book but just to look. A flawed website?!?!?!? How'd that happen????? :help:

I can not, no matter what I do, book a trip on two trains and mix coach and roomette like I have in the past.
 
But I'm not surprised that even an Amtrak veteran would miss this. First of all, the arrows are awfully small. I missed them at first and expected something to happen when I clicked on "change". But my major complaints are the inconsistency of the display and definition of Saver, Value, Flexible, and Premium.

For a Midwest corridor train or sleeper train, you click on the arrow thingee to get business class or various types of sleeping accommodations as in your example. But with NE Regionals for business class or Acela for first class, you click on a link.

Also, for sleeper trains, when you rotate around to "none", radio buttons for upper and lower level coach seats appear. IMO it would be much more user friendly to just present radio buttons for each possibility in the premium column and do away with the tiny arrows.

Finally, the definitions of Saver, Value, Flexible, and Premium are very obscure; and the flyover pop-up box doesn't help. According to it, value and flexible are identical. Premium makes no mention of sleepers, BC, FC, or whatever else might be included in this designation. Discount programs are not available for saver, but I'm guessing that saver is when there is a special discount. "Additional discounts available" might be more user friendly.

RyanS said:
That you can fix and do on one reservation:

You can change from BC to coach on your first train by clicking on the arrows that say "change". You'll see it gets $47 cheaper when you do that.

change_leg.png


change_leg_after.png
Click to expand...
 
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RyanS said:
That makes it even more unlikely that it's a policy decision, why would there be a different policy for bedrooms and roomettes?
Click to expand...

It's just that we've been conditioned to worship science, in this case computer science. So when it can't calculate fares correctly or enroll medical insurance, the conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork. :)
 
TrainLoverJoy said:
I hate the new reservation screen on amtrak.com....and particularly the math involved.
Click to expand...
I'm not a fan of the new screen (see above). But one thing you can't complain about is the math involved, at least once the bugs have been removed. It just takes figuring out how the interface works. Then you immediately see the total cost of an itinerary, no math involved. Before, you had to add it to the cart before the math was done for you.
 
RyanS said:
The bug has been fixed. The website now reports the same accommodation charge regardless of the number of people.

Edit:

RyanS said:
I may have spoken too soon - looks like bedrooms are still hosed up.

That makes it even more unlikely that it's a policy decision, why would there be a different policy for bedrooms and roomettes?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Family and regular bedrooms are still messed up. I never said it was a policy decision, I just said it was a back-door rate increase, and for bedrooms it still is.
 
RyanS said:
Are we just playing stupid word games again?

Either it's intentional or it's not.

If it's not intentional, it's a bug.

If it's intentional, it's a policy decision.
Click to expand...
Ya know, I got other things to do than argue semantics with you. I got better things to do than argue with you at all!

Bottom line is that if folks overpaid due to this "bug" it is/was a fare increase to those who overpaid. No matter how much you care to apologize for Amtrak and defend this.

If Amtrak does not refund these overpayments, they ripped off some people, and since bedrooms are not fixed yet, they are still ripping off some folks.

I am a huge Amtrak fan....but when they screw up, I am not going to go out of my way to make excuses for the mistakes.

YMMV

Edited to remove non PC word.
 
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Using the term "gypped" is not really such a nice thing to say. It is a racial slur against the Roma people.
 
Here I was thinking we were having an actual discussion over whether this was an intended policy change or not.

I should have known better.

And amamba is right.
 
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Tony, if you're so torqued off about it, maybe you should call Amtrak and ask them about it instead of raging at us. We don't work there.
 
amamba said:
Using the term "gypped" is not really such a nice thing to say. It is a racial slur against the Roma people.
Click to expand...
No slur intended. But I think you know that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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