Likelihood of holiday cancellations

[emilesc]

Hello -

I'm really glad I found this group. I just found out I'm getting 2 weeks off from work I'm hoping to travel Amtrak during the holidays (LA to Vancouver) using an internet rail fare because I can't afford anything more than that. All the routes I'm interested in are sold out. What has been your experience in checking every day in case there are cancellations? Is it likely I might have luck during the holidays?

Thanks,

Emile

 

[AlanB]

Emile,

Welcome to our little group.

Now to answer your question. I rather suspect that Amtrak has blocked out the two weeks or so around the Christmas holidays. Those dates normally sell out at normal prices, so there is no reason for them to offer heavily discounted tickets during that period.

Now I know that the date range does extend through the holiday period, but I think that it was just easier for Amtrak to list the whole date range rather than put up an early December range and a seperate January range.

However even if I am wrong in my assumptions above, one of the conditions of a railsale ticket is; There are no refunds. So therefore if Amtrak did sell some railsale tickets for the holiday weeks, no one can cancel. All sales are final.

So unless Amtrak's sales are way down for those weeks and they suddenly decide to release some railsale ticket, I'd say that it's very unlikely that you will get a railsale ticket.

Sorry for the bad news.

 

[emilesc]

Oh well. Thanks for letting me know. I'll have to plan Vancouver for the next 4 day weekend. :->