Super High Buckets on CL out of PGH

[Bboy]

I was looking at random dates using Monday as a departure for the CL into Washington from PGH. I've never seen it at 94 one way, and it seems to be any random date I was putting in.

Also, PGH-CHI was at 160 for some dates one way, which seems really expensive as well. Usually I get it for 74, as low as 60 and as high as 120 or so.

Is the CL running with one less coach? The reason I ask is sleeper prices seem stable.

 

[the_traveler]

Part of the reason may be that the Amtrak Guest Rewards (AGR) redemption rates recently rose on April 1, and if you booked before April 1 you could redeem for the lower AGR rate! (Remember you can book up to 11 months in advance.)

 

[gatelouse]

The coaches have been selling out lately--or getting mighty close. I think Amtrak's been seeing spikes in demand and is experimenting with higher coach fares. Let's see if they hold.

Even with 3 coach cars, ~200 seats is not a lot of capacity to work with. Add high gas prices, increased sleeper prices, and summer break just around the corner...and you get increased demand for coach seats.

 

[PRR 60]

I was looking at random dates using Monday as a departure for the CL into Washington from PGH. I've never seen it at 94 one way, and it seems to be any random date I was putting in.

Also, PGH-CHI was at 160 for some dates one way, which seems really expensive as well. Usually I get it for 74, as low as 60 and as high as 120 or so.

Is the CL running with one less coach? The reason I ask is sleeper prices seem stable.

Checking Amsnag for the month of June, there are ten days in the month with coach PGH-CHI at $64, and another ten days at $80. In May, there are five days with seats in the $64 bucket. July and August are wide open for low buckets. It might be that the specific days you checked were high, or maybe you are booking too far in advance.

There is a relatively new Amtrak practice of severely restricting or even not offering low bucket fares on some trains until closer in to the departure date. I also checked #29 PGH-CHI for the months of September and October. In those months, there are no low bucket fares available, but almost all days are at the $80 bucket. Considering that there is ample availability of low bucket seats booking a month or two out, and lots of low buckets over the summer months, but then zero availability in the fall, that suggests that Amtrak has blocked the low bucket for bookings five months in advance. It kind of flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that Amtrak fares never come down.

 

[gatelouse]

Airlines do this all the time--booking 5+ months out rarely gets you a great fare. The sweet-spot tends to be about 3

months, followed by fairly last minute deals when yield management guesses wrong. Amtrak has started to adopt these practices. I've seen wild upward and downward fluctuations that suggest that they're still refining their approach.

I do remember the days when one could book peak Thanksgiving sleeper travel at low bucket. Those days are long gone!

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

The coaches have been selling out lately--or getting mighty close. I think Amtrak's been seeing spikes in demand and is experimenting with higher coach fares. Let's see if they hold.

Even with 3 coach cars, ~200 seats is not a lot of capacity to work with. Add high gas prices, increased sleeper prices, and summer break just around the corner...and you get increased demand for coach seats.

Well, I would say that around 100 sleeper berthes is even harder to work with, considering spiking demand for Sleepers.

 

[Rob3E]

I priced the CL out of Cleveland to DC a couple of weeks ago for a trip in early June and got a price of $63, I think. Priced that same trip today for $79, so there has been a bump. Checking for later in the summer and it's still $63.

 

[Oldsmoboi]

I get $307 rt in a roomette all the time on the CL from Pittsburgh to Chicago. At $94 in coach each way, it's just time to step up to a roomette.

 

[Bradley Bitzer]

I am the OP here (was on my iPhone at work, and it wouldnt let me log in to save my life....grr...)

I've been playing around with pricing, and it seems to be back down to where it normally is...leaving me to seem like the little boy who cried High Bucket. I'm just going to assume that when I was plugging and chugging from my iPhone (we were really slow at work,) something was off.

Carry on

 

[gatelouse]

But you raised a fair point--low bucket fares are getting more challenging to find, especially for sleepers and anticipated high-demand days. Check out coach fares for holiday Auto Train travel in peak directions. There are blocks of dates where coach fares are in mid- to high-buckets right now.

Almost wants to make you jump and shout when you get a low bucket sleeper these days!