Amsnag

[AmtrakBlue]

Amsnag shows the lowest available fares at the time you check Amsnag. They are not necessarily the low bucket fares. And as others have stated, the fare could go up between the time you check Amsnag and actually make your reservation. Or they could even go down.

 

[Edgar]

I see, so the best way is to just simply go on amtrak and book

 

[Edgar Woodhead]

Now all I have to decide is whether to buy a rail pass or not

 

[Edgar Woodhead]

On a rail pass to upgrade from coach to a roomette, you have to pay the roomette only price right ?(as the coach fare is included in the rail pass)

 

[the_traveler]

Correct.

 

[Edgar Woodhead]

In my case ,travelling in coach on individual tickets is the same price as buying a rail pass!

 

[Edgar Woodhead]

If a rail pass price is the same as individual coach tickets, and I wanted to upgrade to a roomette for the 3 overnight journeys Iam taking, would the price for the pass and individual tickets be the same , because for a rail pass you just add the roomette price, and for the individual tickets, you also add the roomette price to upgrade ..?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Actually, you might get a cheaper "rail fare" if you book a roomette, as the rail fare is the lowest bucket and the coach ticket may be at a higher bucket due to demand (nbr of seats available).

 

[AmtrakBlue]

One of the advantages of Amsnag is comparing rates on different dates. If your dates are flexible, then you could see which dates within your travel range is has the lower fares. On Amtrak.com, you have to query each date separately and write down the fares you see to do your comparison.

 

[Edgar Woodhead]

Set dates (well +/- a few days)

 

[Ryan]

If you lay out what your entire proposed trip is, along with date limitations, many of us would be happy to help lay out your options and help pick the most cost effective way of doing the trip.

 

[Edgar Woodhead]

I have looked up all the trains already

Arrive New York 17th August

Segment 1:

Northeast Regional Train 141 (Northeast Regional Trains depart regularly throughout the day)

Thursday 21 August 2014, depart New York Penn Station, NY 09.35

Thursday 21 August 2014, arrive Washington Union Station, DC 13.00

Segment 2:

Capitol Limited Train 29 (departs once daily)

Saturday 23 August 2014, depart Washington Union Station, DC 16.05

Sunday 24 August 2014, arrive Chicago Union Station, IL 08.45

Segment 3:

Southwest Chief Train 3 (departs once daily)

Tuesday 26 August 2014, depart Chicago Union Station, IL 15.00

Wednesday 27 August 2014, arrive Williams Junction Station, AZ 21.33

Segment 4:

Southwest Chief Train 3 (departs once daily)

Thursday 28 August 2014, depart Williams Junction Station, AZ 21.33

Friday 29 August 2014, arrive Los Angeles Union Station, CA 08.15

Segment 5:

Pacific Surfliner Train 566 (various departures throughout the day)

Sunday 31 August 2014, depart Los Angeles Union Station, CA 08.30

Sunday 31 August 2014, arrive San Diego Downtown Station, CA 11.20

Segment 6:

Pacific Surfliner Train 763 (various departures throughout the day)

Tuesday 02 September 2014, depart San Diego Downtown Station, CA 06.05

Tuesday 02 September 2014, arrive Los Angeles Union Station, CA 08.50

Segment 7:

Coast Starlight Train 14 (departs once daily)

Tuesday 02 September 2014, depart Los Angeles Union Station, CA 10.10

Tuesday 02 September 2014, arrive Oakland Jack London Square Station, CA 21.24

Segment 8:

Thruway Bus 6014 (various departures throughout the day)

Tuesday 02 September 2014, depart Oakland Jack London Square Station, CA 21.35

Tuesday 02 September 2014, arrive San Francisco Ferry Bus Terminal, CA 22.00

3 days in San Fran

06th September fly to london

 

[Ryan]

2 people, and you want roomettes wherever available (Washington-Chicago, Chicago-Wms Junction, Wms Junction-LA, LA-Oakland)?

 

[Edgar Woodhead]

4 people

Yes roomettes -but not on the la Oakland route

 

[the_traveler]

Note that with the exception of the Pacific Surfliners between Los Angeles and San Diego and return, all the other trains and buses on your plan are reserved. Thus, even though between New York and Washington (for example where there are many trains) if you are reserved on say the 13:00 train, you can not take the 15:00 train.

 

[zephyr17]

When some of us talk about finding the low bucket generally on Amsnag, it is within a specific period. You can use it to infer the lowest bucket generally offered by using Amsnag to examine a low travel period that is neither too far out or close.

 

[chakk]

I was led to believe that amsnag showed the low bucket fares that were not availibale to view on the Amtrak website, not the same price fares.

Your statement above is not correct. If you go to the Amtrak.com website and chose a date that you want to travel, it will display the lowest currently available fare for that date for each class of service -- coach, roomette, bedroom, family room -- (except for the glitch when booking two or more people into the same room, as mentioned by others in this thread and elsewhere). Then, if you clear your screen and choose the NEXT day, Amtrak will now display the lowest currently available fare for that new date for each class of service. Repeat this tedious process 30 times in a row -- incrementing the date of travel by one each time -- and the amtrak.com website will display the lowest fares for each of those 30 days for each class of service.

Amsnag allows you to do all of that with just ONE input screen. You pick the start date and how many days in a row you wish to see (up to 30 days), and Amsnag will display all of the results at once. The software is essentially doing what is described in the paragraph above, and saving and displaying all of the results at one time. By looking at the differences in these results between days, you may see as many as four different prices for the same class of service, and these differences could be as much as factors of 2 or 3 (or more!), depending on how many coach seats or rooms are currently available on that particular train for that particular date, or other "marketing rules". (For example, Amtrak knows that trains are always crowded around Christmas, so why not just charge the highest prices that the market will bear for those dates, regardless of how far in advance folks purchase their tickets? Spoken like a true disciple of Jay Gould.)

Amsnag is thus useful as a QUICK way to determine what might be the BEST day (based on lowest available fares) to travel in a future 30-day period. I wonder what type of response you would get from an Amtrak telephone agent if you asked them to tell you over the phone what will be the least expensive day to travel in an upcoming 30-day period.

But, as others have said, Amsnag will just provide INFORMATION on available fares. You still must PURCHASE your ticket through the amtrak.com website, over the phone with an Amtrak agent, or some other travel agent for the specific day and class of service that you desire.

 

[Lumeria]

First, I'm happy that Amsnag exists, even sometimes the results are off - especially when Amtrak's rolling out hitherto-unseen types of promotions. It's certainly a great help to see what days to consider with respect to fares.

That said, I just talked with an Amtrak agent about some fares on Amsnag. Amsnag shows the minimum cost from Seattle to Chicago one way as:

Date # Train Coach Roomette Family Rm Bedroom BC/FC*

Sat 01/25/14

- - 8 Empire Builder $139.00 $464.00 SO $802.00 NA
- - 513 Amtrak Cascades $172.00 NA NA NA 18.00

- - 28 Empire Builder - - $354.00 SO $535.00 NA

- - 8 Empire Builder $139.00 $99.00 $201.00 $218.00 NA

- - 28 Empire Builder - - $341.00 SO $514.00 NA

Sun 01/26/14

- - 8 Empire Builder $139.00 $354.00 SO $1053.00 NA

- - 513 Amtrak Cascades $172.00 NA NA NA 18.00

- - 28 Empire Builder - - $243.00 $496.00 $535.00 NA

- - 8 Empire Builder $139.00 $99.00 $201.00 $430.00 NA

- - 28 Empire Builder - - $234.00 $476.00 $514.00 NA

Mon 01/27/14

- - 8 Empire Builder $139.00 $464.00 $496.00 $802.00 NA

- - 513 Amtrak Cascades $172.00 NA NA NA 18.00

- - 28 Empire Builder - - $243.00 $496.00 $535.00 NA

- - Empire Builder $139.00 $99.00 $201.00 $218.00 NA

- - 28 Empire Builder - - $234.00 $476.00 $514.00 NA

Oooh! $139+99=within the budget! It turns out that the $139 is a *coach-only* fare, and adding a room makes the coach portion $174. Ouch, but I get it. The idea of a $99 roomette, however, made the agent laugh aloud. "If we sold them for that, everyone would be buying them!" (Probably true.) She said the absolute minimum for a roomette is $243. That may be with the NARP membership already factored in - I'm not sure. So where is the $99 result coming from? Even if it were calculated as one half of a shared room, the total would still only come to $198.

Too bad. I was all set to make my reservation, but now am going to see what's available in air fares. Pooh. Unless someone knows something more...

 

[zephyr17]

Amsnag is showing the sleeper accomodation charges by segment. Since the itinerary with the $99.00 sleeper is 8 and 28, what you are seeing is $99 roomette on train 8 Seattle-Spokane, then $341 for the roomette on train 28 (Portland section), Spokane-Chicago. The coach/base rail fare is quoted through. It is funny that none of the results show train 8 alone for Seattle-Chicago.

What the agent said about the minimum bucket of $243 sounds about right, and is right in line with what Amtrak charges for sleepers generally. Sleeping accomodations are almost never cheaper than advance purchase airfare, especially traveling alone, and can exceed it by quite a lot. They often aren't any cheaper or much cheaper than full, refundable "Y" fares. You don't take sleepers to save money.

Discounts such as NARP or AAA only apply to the coach/base rail fare, and never the accomodation charge.

I just ran the query for 1/25 on the Amtrak website (Amsnag doesn't work from my workplace), and I get train 8 Seattle Chicago for base rail of $174 and roomette accomodation charge of $464. I get the 8/28 option, too, but the fare is more expensive now, with a total roomette charge of $546 on top of the base rail $174. Seattle-Spokane is still $99, but Spokane-Chicago has now gone up to $447 on 28. 8 and 28 are different inventories and can be and often are in different buckets.

The reason for the difference between the coach fare of $139 and the sleeper rail fare of $174 is the current 20% off Winter Sale for coach fares. Those fares are only valid for coach travel and are not upgradeable. They are 20% off the lowest coach bucket and lo and behold, 80% of 174 is 139.20. An AAA or NARP discount will get you 10% off of that $174, though.

So all the math does work out.

 

[Ryan]

OK, now I've got some time to look at your trip - it's cheaper at the current prices to not use a rail pass.

Here are the fares I got online - I also checked a single in a roomette to ensure that the pricing bug doesn't screw things up (they don't).

 

[AlanB]

I also checked a single in a roomette to ensure that the pricing bug doesn't screw things up (they don't).

Note: It's my understanding that the "pricing bug" only bites when it's the last room left in the current bucket. In other words, if there are 5 rooms in the bucket and 2, 3, 4, or all 5 are still available for sale, everything will price correctly. However, if the other 4 have already been sold leaving only 1 room left at that bucket price when you check fares; then adding the second person will cause the bug to bite you.

 

[Ryan]

Good to know!

Also good is the implication that it's understood when it happens, which is the second step to getting it fixed.

 

[Anderson]

OK, now I've got some time to look at your trip - it's cheaper at the current prices to not use a rail pass.

Here are the fares I got online - I also checked a single in a roomette to ensure that the pricing bug doesn't screw things up (they don't).

Just an observation: Maybe use a 15-day railpass and simply pay cash for the LAX-SAN legs?

 

[Edgar Woodhead]

Thanks for the pricing- why does Chicago to Williams and Williams to lax count as two segments each. I thought they were 1segment for each journey.

 

[Ryan]

Because there is a train and then a bus.

Number of segments only mattered if you were going to use a rail pass.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum