Canada coast to coast dream trip

[fdaley]

Just if Amtrak could do the same and make their long-distance trains special again. Maybe in another lifetime..

There was a period roughly 10 to 20 years ago when I thought Amtrak was really trying to do this with the Coast Starlight. The Pacific parlor car was a big part of it, but the whole train seemed to be held to a higher standard of on-board service. It wasn't in the same league as the Canadian, but within the context of Amtrak, the Starlight definitely had a bit of a mystique. I didn't see much evidence of this on my last ride on it in 2019, though.

 

[zephyr17]

There was a period roughly 10 to 20 years ago when I thought Amtrak was really trying to do this with the Coast Starlight. The Pacific parlor car was a big part of it, but the whole train seemed to be held to a higher standard of on-board service. It wasn't in the same league as the Canadian, but within the context of Amtrak, the Starlight definitely had a bit of a mystique. I didn't see much evidence of this on my last ride on it in 2019, though.

That was when Amtrak West was a separate business line run by Brian Rosenwald. They were emphasizing customer service excellence, especially on Amtrak West's only LD train, the Starlight.

Unfortunately, they reorganized a long time ago, Amtrak West was reorganized out of existence. Brian Rosenwald was ultimately forced out, and the Starlight gradually devolved back to being a regular, mediocre, Amtrak LD. The final blow was Anderson pulling the PPC as one of his first acts.

 

[Brian Battuello]

Speaking of the Canadian, when I booked my trips around 2008 and 2011, VIA rail had a special deal section that listed last minute (i.e. next six weeks or so) specials on both regional trains and all classes of service on the Canadian. I've looked around and haven't found anything like it. They have the 25% off Tuesdays but I think it is only 10% off sleeper IIRC, which isn't much of a bargain. Does anyone know if they are still offering any larger discounts off season?

 

[zephyr17]

Speaking of the Canadian, when I booked my trips around 2008 and 2011, VIA rail had a special deal section that listed last minute (i.e. next six weeks or so) specials on both regional trains and all classes of service on the Canadian. I've looked around and haven't found anything like it. They have the 25% off Tuesdays but I think it is only 10% off sleeper IIRC, which isn't much of a bargain. Does anyone know if they are still offering any larger discounts off season?

The Sleeper Plus sale page, which is what you are referring to, was essentially a "distressed inventory" sale for select departures, accommodations, and segments, and inventory was released to it, as you point out, about 6 to 8 weeks out.. It got you about 40% off of the undiscounted fare for the fare season it was offered in.

While any accommodation could show up on it, the ones that showed most often were berths.

I doubt it will come back this year. It might at the end of summer. That is just a guess.

VIA's overall pricing, aside from the Sleeper Plus and Discount Tuesday distressed inventory sales, is much simpler and easier to parse than Amtrak's yield management "bucket" system.

There are two fare classes non-discount and discount. Discounted fares have some some not very onerous restrictions and inventory allocated to "discount" is limited.

There are three fare seasons, peak, shoulder, and off peak. I know off peak starts on November 1 because I usually take it in the Fall. Shoulder starts about mid September. Not sure of the spring dates. March is still "off peak" though, my fare for my recent trip was clearly based on off peak.

Shoulder season fares are not that far off of peak fare. Maybe like 10% lower at most, maybe not even that much. Off peak is a LOT lower, like 25%.

An off peak discount fare is like 35% lower than a peak undiscounted fare.

The best deal is to be had by riding it once a year, the full route, in a room. It will cost more than the $1000 CAD that puts you in the "Privilege" elite tier of VIA's Preference frequent traveler program. Privilege level gets you a 50% off (undiscounted) coupon for Sleeper Plus. The only catch is there has to be "discount" inventory available for the departure you want.

I just did a round trip Vancouver-Toronto-Vancouver using that coupon for a price that I could not have gotten near on Amtrak these days for an equivalent length trip (8 nights).

 

[Marbleski]

The Sleeper Plus sale page, which is what you are referring to, was essentially a "distressed inventory" sale for select departures, accommodations, and segments, and inventory was released to it, as you point out, about 6 to 8 weeks out.. It got you about 40% off of the undiscounted fare for the fare season it was offered in.

While any accommodation could show up on it, the ones that showed most often were berths.

I doubt it will come back this year. It might at the end of summer. That is just a guess.

VIA's overall pricing, aside from the Sleeper Plus and Discount Tuesday distressed inventory sales, is much simpler and easier to parse than Amtrak's yield management "bucket" system.

There are two fare classes non-discount and discount. Discounted fares have some some not very onerous restrictions and inventory allocated to "discount" is limited.

There are three fare seasons, peak, shoulder, and off peak. I know off peak starts on November 1 because I usually take it in the Fall. Shoulder starts about mid September. Not sure of the spring dates. March is still "off peak" though, my fare for my recent trip was clearly based on off peak.

Shoulder season fares are not that far off of peak fare. Maybe like 10% lower at most, maybe not even that much. Off peak is a LOT lower, like 25%.

An off peak discount fare is like 35% lower than a peak undiscounted fare.

The best deal is to be had by riding it once a year, the full route, in a room. It will cost more than the $1000 CAD that puts you in the "Privilege" elite tier of VIA's Preference frequent traveler program. Privilege level gets you a 50% off (undiscounted) coupon for Sleeper Plus. The only catch is there has to be "discount" inventory available for the departure you want.

I just did a round trip Vancouver-Toronto-Vancouver using that coupon for a price that I could not have gotten near on Amtrak these days for an equivalent length trip (8 nights).

I looked up my points total and I have 975 points.

Is there any perks at this level?

 

[zephyr17]

I looked up my points total and I have 975 points.

Is there any perks at this level?

It is a $1000 CAD spend in a year (April 1 to March 31 is the qualifying period) that gets you Privilege and the coupon.

It sounds like you spent $975 CAD at some point, since the points earn at the basic level is $1 = 1 point.

If you had status, they extended the status through COVID. My last trip before March was November 2019, so the coupon I used was earned then.

It is a hard cutoff, so a $975 spend doesn't get you there, but was just $25 short.

 

[Marbleski]

It is a $1000 CAD spend in a year (April 1 to March 31 is the qualifying period) that gets you Privilege and the coupon.

It sounds like you spent $975 CAD at some point, since the points earn at the basic level is $1 = 1 point.

If you had status, they extended the status through COVID. My last trip before March was November 2019, so the coupon I used was earned then.

It is a hard cutoff, so a $975 spend doesn't get you there, but was just $25 short.

My bad. I missed a digit when I looked up my profile and found the points.

I actually have 1975 points. Eyesight is not too good at reading the print on my small phone screen lol.

I had points for signing up in 2016 and taking the Ocean.

My latest two trips in Feb were Halifax Ottawa return in a room on the Ocean. I guess my return fare was less than 1000.

I may be just short again after this trip.

 

[zephyr17]

Were the trips this last February, 2022? Then they were before the end of the 21/22 qualifying year on March 31st, so they will not have affected anything yet.

If they were in February 2022, you will almost certainly get Privilege status and the coupons on May 1st. They are dropping the qualification for Privilege this year to $500 because of COVID.

 

[Marbleski]

Were the trips this last February, 2022? Then they were before the end of the 21/22 qualifying year on March 31st, so they will not have affected anything yet.

If they were in February 2022, you will almost certainly get Privilege status and the coupons on May 1st. They are dropping the qualification for Privilege this year to $500 because of COVID.

Excellent news.

Yes the trips were in Feb 2022.

The discount might lead to a fall trip on the Ocean to see my son in Ottawa. Lol

 

[fdaley]

Pre-pandemic, VIA often had a sale in late November for winter departures on the Canadian, with discounts in the range of 40 percent on Sleeper Plus. The inventory available at these discounted prices seemed to vary by departure, depending on how well bookings had gone up to that point.

Another thing to keep in mind is that VIA allows stopovers. So on a couple of our trips, we were able to break the trip in Jasper and continue on the next departure (i.e., three days later) with the same type of accommodation using a through Toronto-Vancouver fare, which was considerably less than paying separate point-to-point fares for each segment. However, at least one year we were not able to do this with the sale fare, as there were no spaces available at the sale price on the trains before or after in the period we were able to travel. And of course, there are only two departures per week from which to choose.

 

[Brian Battuello]

All very good information, thanks very much. I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon. I was lucky to do it with my mother and then with my son. My spouse isn't interested and she won't let me do it with a girlfriend . Anyone that hasn't done it should seriously consider it, perhaps next winter when there might be some sort of sale and/or the covid thing will have resolved itself one way or another.

Anyway, great memories and glad to have the youTube videos to watch!