Express Deals ... price rise

[caravanman]

Hi,

I noticed today that the current batch of VIA Express Deals show a price rise over offers earlier in the year. Example, a single sleeper Toronto to Vancouver could be found for around $515 Cad last time I checked, today they are asking over $800 Cad. I notice that upper and lower berths are also increased in price, although Express Deals for coach remain the same at $197. Anyone know if these are permanent price increases, or is it a peak season only rise?

Ed

 

[Guest]

It's yield management. Express Deals are short term tactics to get bums into seats (or berths) in a way that is intended to optimize overall yield. The intention is to sell as much space as possible, while maximizing the overall revenue per passenger/km. That being the case, no pricing offer is necessarily permanent.

The Express Deals also provide a mechanism to offer discounts to domestic travelers, insofar as the rack rate on the Canadian is determined by what the international tourism market will bear. That is what was implied by the answer to a question to the Via CEO at the annual public meeting in Winnipeg last spring, when it was stated both that the outlook European tourism is down, given the state of the economy across the pond, and that Via has a program incentives to encourage Canadians to use the train. Of course Express Deals are not restricted to Canadians, but that would appear to be what he was talking about, so locals would seem to be the principal target.

The fact that the Canadian is ridden by global tourists is certainly not lost on the politicians in Western Canada. There has been quite a discussion over the last couple of days on the Yahoo Canadian Passenger rail Group regarding the comments made by a Conservative backbencher from Edmonton, who recently rode the Canadian and questioned on his blog why the Canadian taxpayer should be heavily subsidizing a travel experience for foreign tourists.

 

[manderson]

Express Deal sleeper prices rose for a couple of months at the first of the year, then came back down again around early March. I can't remember if they were higher or lower than the current batch.

 

[yarrow]

Hi,

I noticed today that the current batch of VIA Express Deals show a price rise over offers earlier in the year. Example, a single sleeper Toronto to Vancouver could be found for around $515 Cad last time I checked, today they are asking over $800 Cad. I notice that upper and lower berths are also increased in price, although Express Deals for coach remain the same at $197. Anyone know if these are permanent price increases, or is it a peak season only rise?

Ed

i noticed the price increase on the express deals too. hopefully they will come back down in the winter though with only 2 departues a week there will be 1/3 less possible spots