Acela fares drop

[Anderson]

It looks like a new...well, I can't call it a sale since it has an end date in 2025, but the bottom fell out on Acela fares. I'm showing $65 WAS-NYP with an RPA membership/$72 without one (add a few bucks to get full flex). NYP-BOS is showing up at $54 with RPA/$59 without (again, add a few bucks to get flexibility). And this is on almost every train starting 3-4 days out (there are some peak-hour exceptions, but that's about it). On quite a few days, this is undercutting Regional fares by a wide margin (I'll see a $65 Acela next to $150 for Regional BC).

If you've got an Acela ticket booked that's not one of those non-changeable fares, you'll probably want to look at rebooking. And if you've got a Regional ticket, switching is seriously worth considering. As an example, I had a one-way WAS-NYP that I'd booked a few days back at $170 (which didn't seem like a horrid deal - it was still cheaper than the neighboring Regionals' BC). I rebooked it for $70-and-change each way (RPA membership, flexible fare so I can upgrade at 48 hours out), so the round-trip landed like $30 below the original one-way.

 

[B&O476]

I'm seeing regional prices in February as low as $15 BAL-NYP. All prices go back up for March travel.

 

[Anderson]

I'm seeing regional prices in February as low as $15 BAL-NYP. All prices go back up for March travel.

It might "just" be the new bucket system finally fully hitting the Acela, or it could be some sort of winter thing (Jan/Feb are historically lousy months for Amtrak). I guess I'm just stunned at Amtrak doing this on all trains (vs, say, off-peak ones).

 

[MARC Rider]

There seem to be discounted prices on the Northeast Regional, too. I just rebooked a trip my daughter and I are taking to Boston at the end of the month, and both the Regional on the way up and the Acela on the way home are much cheaper than they were when I booked them a few weeks ago. I also booked my tickets BAL-BOS for my ski trip to Maine at the end of February, a BAL-BOS flex business class on the Acela is $125. The return trip will be in March, but even those seem to be less expensive than the fares were this past fall. I mean I paid over $200 for BAL-NYP on the Acela, though that was during the Christmas season.

 

[Anderson]

And it looks like the fares have reverted to "normal" (my WAS-NYP train went from $170 to $65 to $238[!]). Very odd.

 

[dlagrua]

On a recent trip to PHL the ticket prices on the Acela were only $2 higher than on the std regional coach fare, I would guess that the pricing formula is based upon load and specific time periods.