Amtrak pricing

[Jim]

Did a survey last week and today of prices reported on Amtrak app, checking out theory that booking way in advance saves $$. Booking late this January or random date in April had roomette at $674 for West Palm Beach to Trenton NJ. Booking in June, early November, or early December had roomette at $505. Not much of a savings. In every case the number of available rooms was reported as only 2 or 3.
Today I checked the same thing for December 15 2024 the earliest date available. Again the app reported only two rooms available and a price of $505. How can there be only two rooms available when they've only been available today? Is the app misleading? Is someone booking tons of rooms? After all with 3 sleepers there would be 30 roomettes.

Anyone have insights?

 

[joelkfla]

Did a survey last week and today of prices reported on Amtrak app, checking out theory that booking way in advance saves $$. Booking late this January or random date in April had roomette at $674 for West Palm Beach to Trenton NJ. Booking in June, early November, or early December had roomette at $505. Not much of a savings. In every case the number of available rooms was reported as only 2 or 3.
Today I checked the same thing for December 15 2024 the earliest date available. Again the app reported only two rooms available and a price of $505. How can there be only two rooms available when they've only been available today? Is the app misleading? Is someone booking tons of rooms? After all with 3 sleepers there would be 30 roomettes.

Anyone have insights?

Are you misreading "Rooms available at this price" as available rooms? To get an idea of the number of rooms available, you have to do a test booking for 8 adults and then increase the number of rooms until it won't go any higher. If there are less than 4, it will say Sold Out; if there are more than 8, the number of rooms will stop increasing when you reach 8.

BTW, both Silvers currently carry 2 sleepers, not 3. That might increase in the future.

P.S.: Why not sign up for an account on this board? It's free!

 

[trimetbusfan]

Did a survey last week and today of prices reported on Amtrak app, checking out theory that booking way in advance saves $$. Booking late this January or random date in April had roomette at $674 for West Palm Beach to Trenton NJ. Booking in June, early November, or early December had roomette at $505. Not much of a savings. In every case the number of available rooms was reported as only 2 or 3.
Today I checked the same thing for December 15 2024 the earliest date available. Again the app reported only two rooms available and a price of $505. How can there be only two rooms available when they've only been available today? Is the app misleading? Is someone booking tons of rooms? After all with 3 sleepers there would be 30 roomettes.

Anyone have insights?

It's confusing. "only x rooms available" really means "Only x rooms available at this price"

Looking at this sheet, You can better understand the prices and how they vary. (for the Silver Services, look at the "R" column for the row titled "Silver Star & Met").

https://www.amtraktrains.com/thread...eeper-fares-buckets.77062/page-7#post-1025696
One-way prices (going from the start to the end of the route) vary between $512 and $883. (subtract about $7 from each number to get the price between West Palm Beach and Trenton).

 

[striker71]

Last year my first trip HOU to UTI I paid $166 for one way senior coach. Same trip this year is $269, I think I'd rather fly.