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printman2000

Engineer
Joined
Nov 9, 2005
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Location
Amarillo, Texas
I booked our June 2008 trip in January 2008. It was two roomettes on the SWC and LSL and coach on 448-449. The total came to $2562.

I just looked up the same trip for next May (just our of curiosity) and chose dates to give me the lowest bucket prices, the total came to $3988.

That is HUGE. It was not just the room charges either.

June 2008 - Rail Fare: $990 and Accomodations: $1572

May 2009 - Rail Fare: $1104 and Accommodations: $2884
 
printman2000 said:
I booked our June 2008 trip in January 2008. It was two roomettes on the SWC and LSL and coach on 448-449. The total came to $2562.
I just looked up the same trip for next May (just our of curiosity) and chose dates to give me the lowest bucket prices, the total came to $3988.

That is HUGE. It was not just the room charges either.

June 2008 - Rail Fare: $990 and Accomodations: $1572

May 2009 - Rail Fare: $1104 and Accommodations: $2884
Click to expand...
Is that RT?
 
i checked a trip for next year and also found it way up. i have known amtrak to price future trips at high bucket until a certain point and then drop them a few months before the departure date. don't know if that is what is going on here. as always, i wish amtrak would be up front with their pricing and increases and just let us know
 
printman2000 said:
Yes, round trip.
Looking at it for 2009, $2500 only gets me to Chicago and back.
Click to expand...
Very interesting. Someone with more on time on their hands than I have just at the moment ought to play with the reservations system and see what date is the threshold.

I suppose we can't rule out yet that that date in May 2009 is just a horribly unlucky day to book that particular trip without trying other days.
 
meatpuff said:
printman2000 said:
Yes, round trip.
Looking at it for 2009, $2500 only gets me to Chicago and back.
Click to expand...
Very interesting. Someone with more on time on their hands than I have just at the moment ought to play with the reservations system and see what date is the threshold.

I suppose we can't rule out yet that that date in May 2009 is just a horribly unlucky day to book that particular trip without trying other days.
Click to expand...
Just a thought, is the date in May hovering right around Memorial Day? Could that be jacking the price up?
 
I was playing around yesterday with Auto Train dates and looking at a trip in EARLY may (away from Memorial Day) was much cheaper than the trip I currently have booked for after Christmas (decided to upgrade to sleepers yesterday, I'm STOKED!).
 
meatpuff said:
I suppose we can't rule out yet that that date in May 2009 is just a horribly unlucky day to book that particular trip without trying other days.
Click to expand...
Well, just as a single point of comparison, I looked to see what PHL-PDX would be for two random dates in April. I'm seeing the exact same $184 and $231 prices I saw for the lower buckets this past spring. (Added: And to make sure it wasn't that fares were going up for dates of travel in May, I tried two random dates in May just now; same $184 and $231 being offered, along with one itinerary at $261, the same third bucket as this past spring. So this route doesn't appear to have changed at all.)

And it's still $54 KNG-LAX on October 10-12 B) (I'm trying to hold out a few more weeks to book that one, as I *finally* applied for the AGR Mastercard on the 28th, and it'd be nice to buy the tickets with it :) )
 
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da40flyer said:
meatpuff said:
printman2000 said:
Yes, round trip.
Looking at it for 2009, $2500 only gets me to Chicago and back.
Click to expand...
Very interesting. Someone with more on time on their hands than I have just at the moment ought to play with the reservations system and see what date is the threshold.

I suppose we can't rule out yet that that date in May 2009 is just a horribly unlucky day to book that particular trip without trying other days.
Click to expand...
Just a thought, is the date in May hovering right around Memorial Day? Could that be jacking the price up?
Click to expand...
I played with the dates to make sure I was getting the lowest bucket.
 
meatpuff said:
printman2000 said:
Yes, round trip.
Looking at it for 2009, $2500 only gets me to Chicago and back.
Click to expand...
Very interesting. Someone with more on time on their hands than I have just at the moment ought to play with the reservations system and see what date is the threshold.

I suppose we can't rule out yet that that date in May 2009 is just a horribly unlucky day to book that particular trip without trying other days.
Click to expand...
What are Season/ Off Season dates?
 
Rail Freak said:
meatpuff said:
printman2000 said:
Yes, round trip.
Looking at it for 2009, $2500 only gets me to Chicago and back.
Click to expand...
Very interesting. Someone with more on time on their hands than I have just at the moment ought to play with the reservations system and see what date is the threshold.

I suppose we can't rule out yet that that date in May 2009 is just a horribly unlucky day to book that particular trip without trying other days.
Click to expand...
What are Season/ Off Season dates?
Click to expand...
I don't know, but even May 31 2009, the furthest date the system will let me book today, is at the same prices as May 2008 was for a Reg/CL/EB trip. So either that's already Season, or we can't see Season prices until later because they're not yet 11 months or less. That latter seems improbable to me.
 
I'm on an Empire Builder trip right now, Indianapolis to the west coast. I just played with booking the same trip next May and the prices are up by $23 - so I recommend you really "play" with the system to see when are the cheapest buckets. By the way, the bucket system for my trip differed by over $2,000 from the cheapest to the most expensive (bedroom).

good luck
 
Rail Freak said:
What are Season/ Off Season dates?
Click to expand...
Don't know the exact dates, but in general you can figure that anything between Memorial Day and Labor Day is the high season.

Prices also get jacked up around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Also, for the holidays trains that usually have unreserved coach tickets go to all reserved, e.g. Pacific Surfliners.

EDIT: As I found out last Labor Day weekend, even reserved coach doesn't mean you're gonna get a seat. My birthday present to my sister last year was a day at the races; Surfliner to Del Mar (Solana Beach stop). Boarded at San Juan Capistrano, and had to stand - as did many others - until Oceanside.
 
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Let me be clear, I did check many, many dates. I found the lowest buckets available for both segments. Here is the breakdown...

Each way costs - Railfare:$552 Accommodations: $758 Total: $1994

Total Round 2009 trip: $3988

This is for two adults and two children with 2 roomettes. The lowest price for rooms on SWC is $220 each. Lowest on LSL is $159.

That means prices, at least for this trip are WAY up.
 
Ed said:
I'm on an Empire Builder trip right now, Indianapolis to the west coast. I just played with booking the same trip next May and the prices are up by $23 - so I recommend you really "play" with the system to see when are the cheapest buckets. By the way, the bucket system for my trip differed by over $2,000 from the cheapest to the most expensive (bedroom).
Click to expand...
I got the $184 and $231 prices to come up for May 1, May 10, and May 31 of 2009, and on May 31 a roomette was only $206. My April 28 2008 trip was at the $231 price (my June 12 return was at a higher bucket, $289), and on my return the low-bucket roomette on-train upgrade I priced but declined to take was also $206. I have no idea if bedrooms have changed; I can only quote you on coach and roomette for the 2008 prices. Memorial Day is May 25 2009, so the $184 coach and $206 roomette on May 31 are in "high season". That's for PHL-PDX, and the itineraries it gives include Reg-to-WAS/CL/EB and Pennsylvanian-PGH/CL/EB, both of which seem to have the same price buckets.

Maybe end-to-end EB tickets haven't changed, but some non-full-distance city-pairs are now more expensive? What city-pair were you looking at?
 
printman2000 said:
I booked our June 2008 trip in January 2008. It was two roomettes on the SWC and LSL and coach on 448-449. The total came to $2562.
I just looked up the same trip for next May (just our of curiosity) and chose dates to give me the lowest bucket prices, the total came to $3988.

That is HUGE. It was not just the room charges either.

June 2008 - Rail Fare: $990 and Accomodations: $1572

May 2009 - Rail Fare: $1104 and Accommodations: $2884
Click to expand...
Just booked one-way LAX-NYP in a bedroom in March (SWC, CL & Regional). Total fare $1026.00. And I stress IN A BEDROOM. How can 2 roomettes come to almost $4000.00 return?
 
In May 07 we took ia trip from Galesburg to Chicago, Seattle, Emeryville,and back to Galesburg. We had sleepers on all trains. I priced the same trip for May 09 and it was about $200.00 higher in '09. I don't have the exact figures in front of me, but I believe the rail fare was cheaper and the bedroom was higher.

In May 08 we took the CONO R/T from CHI to NOL in sleeper class, I checked it for May 09 and it was a little cheaper than this year. I know that I was pricing 10 months out, but I bought my tickets for the trips about 6-7 months out.

I know the rising fuel costs are hurting Amtrak, as well as everyone, but you would think they would raise fares soon.

GregL
 
Get this, if I do the same trip for 1 adult and 1 child with the lowest buckets for one roomette, the one way price is $655. If I made two reservations the same, that would be $1310 each way and $2620 round trip.

For some reason it seems the site is punishing you for having two roomettes. I understand that the second roomette could be a different bucket, but we are talking about a difference of $1368. Something seems screwy.

And since this happens on many days, I doubt it is a bucket issue.
 
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printman2000 said:
Get this, if I do the same trip for 1 adult and 1 child with the lowest buckets for one roomette, the one way price is $655. If I made two reservations the same, that would be $1310 each way and $2620 round trip.
For some reason it seems the site is punishing you for having two roomettes. I understand that the second roomette could be a different bucket, but we are talking about a difference of $1368. Something seems screwy.

And since this happens on many days, I doubt it is a bucket issue.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking this may be some sort of software glitch then. The system say "ah, he wants two roomettes. What do we have available? Ah, here's one... at $200... and a second... at $300. The price for a roomette is $300, and two roomettes is $600. I'll display that price now." It's like it's only got one variable for remembering the price, and if the two roomettes are in different price buckets, it only remembers the higher price and uses that for both. Well, I don't know if that's exactly what's going on, but it's what springs to mind. It definitely shouldn't work that way--sounds like a bug. But I have no idea to whom you'd report that sort of thing....
 
wayman said:
It's like it's only got one variable for remembering the price, and if the two roomettes are in different price buckets, it only remembers the higher price and uses that for both. Well, I don't know if that's exactly what's going on, but it's what springs to mind. It definitely shouldn't work that way--sounds like a bug. But I have no idea to whom you'd report that sort of thing....
Click to expand...
This exact issue was also reported and discussed in another thread:

http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?showtopic=23499
 
When you want two roomettes, talk with an agent (Say "agent" to Julie). A couple of years ago I took my mother from LA to Portland (where we got off for several days) to OAK (all in sleepers) then back to LA in coach. Since neither of us can climb to an upper bunk, I wanted two roomettes. Since she has dementia and also needs dressing assistance, I wanted them to be close to each other. The agent put us opposite each other in the lower level, adjoining one of the bedrooms that he said was unlikely to be booked. That meant I could leave both doors open (curtains closed) so I could hear her if she needed anything at night. It worked really well. In addition, since I had some flexibility in dates, the agent experimented with different dates in order to get the best price.

I have had the same good service at the Martinez and SAC stations.

BTW, there is no better way than rail to travel with elderly parents. It is even better than a car or RV. Everyone wants to help her with everything, including getting upstairs to the lounge, and everyone wants to talk with her.
 
I booked a roomette from Chi-Rno two months ago for $262. The next day the price jumped to $542. A couple of weeks later, I wanted to change to travel all the way to OKJ, but at $542 it was a bit too pricey. I kept checking back and lo and behold, two weeks after that the fares jumped back to $262,all the way to Emeryville and Oakland, so I quickly changed my reservation. You have to keep checking back. As I have found out time and time again, there is no rhyme or reason to Amtraks pricing structure.
 
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