Sale on LD trips starting next week.

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Two questions:

Has Amtrak ever had a sale on sleeper accomodations?

And has Amtrak ever had a LD rail fare sale that could still be applied if someone upgraded to a sleeper?

I've never seen this before.
 
river said:
Two questions:

Has Amtrak ever had a sale on sleeper accomodations?

And has Amtrak ever had a LD rail fare sale that could still be applied if someone upgraded to a sleeper?

I've never seen this before.
Click to expand...
Several years ago, Amtrak had a sale on sleeping car accommodation charges for AAA members. It was 25% off, if I remember correctly. However, sales that include accommodation charges are rare.
 
PRR 60 said:
river said:
Two questions:

Has Amtrak ever had a sale on sleeper accomodations?

And has Amtrak ever had a LD rail fare sale that could still be applied if someone upgraded to a sleeper?

I've never seen this before.
Click to expand...
Several years ago, Amtrak had a sale on sleeping car accommodation charges for AAA members. It was 25% off, if I remember correctly. However, sales that include accommodation charges are rare.
Click to expand...
I would LOVE a AAA sale of any kind on sleepers.
 
Boo, it won't include accommodations you think? I was holding off buying my tickets to Chicago in Feb until the sale kicked in. I always get a Roomette.
 
PRR 60 said:
river said:
Two questions:

Has Amtrak ever had a sale on sleeper accomodations?

And has Amtrak ever had a LD rail fare sale that could still be applied if someone upgraded to a sleeper?

I've never seen this before.
Click to expand...
Several years ago, Amtrak had a sale on sleeping car accommodation charges for AAA members. It was 25% off, if I remember correctly. However, sales that include accommodation charges are rare.
Click to expand...
And when you think about, it is sort of odd that the discount was for AAA members. AAA does a lot of advocacy work for automobile travel. I mean, (I know Congress would take a dim view of this) wouldn't it make more sense to give the 25% discount to NARP members?
 
Can't imagine Amtrak offering a discount on sleepers, when the current inventory sells out so often, on many routes.

Why "give it away, when people are willing to pay for it?"

I CAN SEE them getting even better at yield mgmt, and offering last minute deeper discounts on sleepers, as (well almost, not counting on-board upgrades which are so easy to get.....) the date of each departure nears and the number of open sleepers is still X.
 
rrdude said:
Can't imagine Amtrak offering a discount on sleepers, when the current inventory sells out so often, on many routes.

Why "give it away, when people are willing to pay for it?"

I CAN SEE them getting even better at yield mgmt, and offering last minute deeper discounts on sleepers, as (well almost, not counting on-board upgrades which are so easy to get.....) the date of each departure nears and the number of open sleepers is still X.
Click to expand...
I agree. It would certainly be nice to have a sleeper sale, but my money is on the 'Coach Only - No Upgrades' option for the sale.

I can see the yield management indeed improving, once the e-Ticket system has been rolled out and the inevitable bugs smoothed. Julie will know in near real-time the inventory of every train, as well as its status and all sorts of other information, and this can be used to do those pesky on-board upgrades as well as last-minute sales. Might even be able to improve on those pesky issues with the LSA, as the company could theoretically track the time and quantity of sales to paying customers (read: Coach Passengers) for following up on the complaints about being locked out from the diner. :ph34r:
 
Sleeper to Chicago in Mid-February, mid-week? I can't imagine a large demand for that one.
 
Hmm...now that's a sale for Midwest corridor trains, not LDTs. So it appears that multiple winter promotions could be hitting soon.

There's usually a NEC promo right after the holidays as well. Lots of low bucket availability throughout the winter on the Regionals, even on the weekends, so I'm sure they're looking to fill seats. Last year's buy 2 Regional/3 Acela, get one free, is a recurring favorite. (Though I'd personally prefer a tier qualifying point bonus myself...)
 
I could see a sale on trains coming from Florida in January and/or to Florida in April or so. Likewise, Amtrak could probably stand to do some publicity north on the Auto Train in the fall (frankly, up to and including special sales where a shuttle is run to/from WAS and ORL on specified dates). The big mess there is that they have a huge amount of traffic one way and very little traffic the other way.
 
Not a sale, really, but I had Amtrak call me and offer me a Roomette for $100 on my trip to LAX from ABQ about 5 years ago...

Anyone know if the marketing talked about in this old thread is still being used at all?
 
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I caught a price drop last Friday on roomette pricing on both Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle traveling in March. When I checked Monday, the price was back to previous so it only lasted a short time. I had been tracking the price for about a month and this was the first change I had seen. Fortunately, I had made up my mind on my travel dates in March and went ahead and booked it Friday when I saw the price drop. No change on the other LD routes I had been tracking. Does that normally happen with Amtrak?

Regards,

Jeff
 
I saw the same post advertising the long distance fare sale coming this week. I don't know if this is what they meant, but there do seem to be more of the signature long distance routes on the weekly fare sale page on amtrak.com. For instance, *almost* the entire stretch of the Empire Builder is on sale for select near-departure dates, as well as almost the entire Lake Shore Limited (to MA) line. IF this is what they were trying to build excitement for, it is a little underwhelming, but I could see how you could make the claim - as there does appear to be more availability on these routes than usual.
 
NEC is repeating last year's Great Escape promo starting tomorrow (1/4). Perhaps we'll get news on a LD sale soon.
 
The sale appears to be posted this morning. 20% off regular fares, for travel booked through the end of March. Need to book by Jan 23 for travel starting after Jan 17.

tab_orange_termsConditions.gif


  • Valid for sale January 5 - 23, 2012.
  • Valid for travel January 17 - March 29, 2012.
  • Blackout dates: February 17 and 20, 2012.
  • Valid for discounted one-way coach rail fares based on the regular (full) adult rail fare.
  • Advance ticket purchase is required a minimum of three days prior to travel.
  • Valid for coach seats only; no upgrades permitted.
  • Valid on the following trains only: Silver Star, Silver Meteor,Palmetto, Crescent, Cardinal, Capitol Limited, Lake Shore Limited,Sunset Limited, Texas Eagle, Southwest Chief, California Zephyr,Empire Builder, City of New Orleans, Coast Starlight and Auto Train.
  • Seating is limited; seats may not be available on all trains at all times.
  • Up to two children ages 2 - 15 may accompany each adult at half the regular (full) adult rail fare.
  • Fares are non-refundable once ticketed; exchanges are permitted within ticket validity period.
  • Not valid for onboard ticket purchase.
  • In addition to the discount restrictions, this offer is also subject to any restrictions, blackouts and refund rules that apply to the type of fare purchased.
  • Not combinable with any other discount offer.
  • Fares, routes and schedules are subject to change without notice.
  • Once travel has begun, no changes to the itinerary are permitted.
  • Other restrictions may apply.

I know that it is standard practice, but I don't understand why AMTRAK won't let you upgrade your coach ticket to a sleeper. They aren't discounting the sleeper price, and the relative cost of the rail fare is small, especially when discounted, compared to the cost of a roommette or bedroom. I would have booked the CS portion of my trip for a paid cash ticket if they would have allowed me to upgrade to sleeper accommodations.
 
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That's honestly not that great at all - you save 20%, but in exchange your ticket is non-refundable and you can't upgrade to a sleeper (and the discount is not stackable). If I were booking for that time period, I'd probably opt for full fare even if traveling coach (I'd at least want the possibility of an on-board upgrade, not to mention the refundable ticket). If you use AAA, NARP, senior discount or the like you get at least 10% off anyway - and without the strings attached. Now, if it were 50% off it might be worth it...
 
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