Best time to buy AutoTrain tickets for a mid-July trip?

[Riverviewer]

I'll be headed from Florida to Pennsylvania and back in mid-July, and I'd like to take the AutoTrain. I'd like to get a roomette or bedroom without paying high bucket for it.

Is there a "best" time to purchase sleeper AutoTrain tickets for travel in July, or should I just go ahead and make my reservations now?

Thanks!

 

[niemi24s]

Use AmSnag... http://biketrain.net/amsnag/amSnag.php ...to search for dates with the lowest fares. For the 1 through 30 July period, AmSnag shows low bucket Roomettes ($149) are available 97% of the time and low bucket Bedrooms ($338) are available 80% of the time for the trip North.

After doing this sort of thing for a few years I've concluded the only rule of thumb concerning Amtrak fares is that there is no rule of thumb - just use AmSnag to find the actual fares. I know of only one sure-fire rule of thumb and it's for carpenters - the best way to keep from hitting your thumb with the hammer is to hold the hammer with both hands. :wacko:

 

[Dovecote]

I use AmSnag as well and specifically signup for the Fare Watch notifier. When the rates are at low bucket I will book the fare. Just recently I booked a northbound trip at low bucket for travel in mid September. The low bucket rates are as follows: Coach $95, Roomette $149, and Vehicle $198.

 

[niemi24s]

The low bucket rates are as follows: Coach $95, Roomette $149, and Vehicle $198.

Minor point, but that $95 Coach fare is the Saver Fare. When a sleeper is booked, the accompanying coach charge will be the Low Bucket Coach fare which is $110 or possibly $136. Auto Train fares don't fit the mold of other LD trains - each of the four accommodations has 6 instead of the normal 5 buckets. Which 5 of the 6 are in play depends on the season and travel direction.

 

[Riverviewer]

Thanks for the help...I've booked my trip at the low bucket fare for each (north/south) leg of the trip.

 

[niemi24s]

You're welcome. AmSnag is a great tool for picking the best (least expensive) travel dates. But if only two or three buckets show up on a 30 day AmSnag search, it's impossible to tell if any are the lowest possible bucket. That can only be known if all five buckets show up. But this shows all the buckets for all the LD trains over their entire route length - thanks to repetitive AmSnag searches:



This'll let you see the "level" of a bucket on a one-day search on the Amtrak website.

 

[Vivikos2]

I am not quite sure about it.

 

[dlagrua]

July is a good time to take the Autotrain as the number of passengers heading to and returning from Florida is far less than in snowbird season. I would agree; just follow the fares on Amsnag to score the most affordable rate.

No one seems to be able to figure out Amtrak's fare bucket system but here is my theory on how it works. Statistical data is maintained relative to each train on the sales history. Using this as a baseline; fares open high (mid to high bucket) and are adjusted to a price that corresponds with the date that which they sell and the rate at which they sell. Say Amtrak historical data shows that for the month of May an average of 100 sleeper tickets are sold. The fares open high and sales are monitored. If in the first period of sales ( hard to determine what this is) the number of tickets being sold occur at a faster rate that what the historical data shows, buckets rise. If sales show a lower rate then the buckets go down only to be readjusted upward if the rate of sales increases. Years back Amtrak used a simple system. Buckets started low and rose as the tickets sold. IMO, today the sales forecast based on a formula that I have outlined determines the fare. Comments, opinions?

 

[ehbowen]

As with everything else, the only thing consistent is the inconsistency. I bought my round-trip sleeper tickets to St. Louis in July 2016, almost as soon as the reservation window opened, and I got low bucket both ways. This was for the last weekend in May...Memorial Day weekend, a time when you'd historically expect high demand (and in fact the sleepers were Sold Out when my friend D. checked them the week before travel). Go figure.

 

[dlagrua]

As with everything else, the only thing consistent is the inconsistency. I bought my round-trip sleeper tickets to St. Louis in July 2016, almost as soon as the reservation window opened, and I got low bucket both ways. This was for the last weekend in May...Memorial Day weekend, a time when you'd historically expect high demand (and in fact the sleepers were Sold Out when my friend D. checked them the week before travel). Go figure.

I can only guess that your ticket purchase occurred on the low side of the curve of statistical sales data for the train.

 

[niemi24s]

I am not quite sure about it.

Are you referring to the chart full of numbers in Post #6?