Cap Limited Price Reduction FYI

[Sauve850]

I am traveling cross country this summer and the CL is one of my trains. With all the recent changes and hoopla about food issues I just thought to recheck the pricing. I used guest rewards points for this segment. Probably not related to the new announcements for this train but I had used about 17,500 for a bedroom. New price was just over 14,000 points so I called, rebooked at no cost and got 3000+ points back in my account. My date is September 10.

Regardless of the reason for the point differential its worth rechecking if you have booked far in advance.

 

[spinnaker]

I just checked. Price is still $26 more that I paid.

Amtrak is showing currently at $264 but Amtrak is showing $319. So much for Amsnag I guess.

 

[jebr]

Amsnag typically won't automatically calculate in the rail fare portion when it lists the cost of the roomette (though, now that I think about it, the newest version might.)

Thanks for the alert, Sauve850! It looks like the LSL had a significant drop on my travel dates as well, so I was able to rebook to the LSL instead of the CL + NER on the way out to the Gathering for about the same amount of points (slight drop, actually!) It looks like my dates in October haven't changed, so not sure if it's a certain number of months out that's being dropped or if there's some sort of switch around October 1 where they haven't adjusted it yet.

 

[Anderson]

I suspect this has something to do with axing the dining cars. Call it a hunch.

 

[niemi24s]

Please don't be fooled into thinking any fare reductions you may have seen are due to any change in the bucket structure for the CL (due to the change in meals on the CL).

The CL bucket values have NOT changed and any fare changes you see are simply due to a change from one bucket to a different bucket for your date of travel. These are the current bucket values for the CL:



And as of now, this bucket structure remains in effect until the end of the 11 month availability period, 26 Mar 2019.

 

[niemi24s]

So much for Amsnag I guess.

But as AmSnag gets its prices from Amtrak, I suspect you may not be reading your AmSnag query correctly.

Q: What version of AmSnag are you using?

 

[Anderson]

Fair enough...though it would hardly shock me if they were suddenly being hit with some cancellations.

 

[AcrossTheOcean]

Well, it does appear that the trip I booked on the CL a couple months ago for August has dropped a bucket or two. I paid in Dollars for Roomettes. Is there a way to get a refund for the difference in price, or am I SOL? Complete newbie here.

 

[Ryan]

The fact that the price structure hasn’t changed doesn’t mean that Amtrak didn’t lower the prices by making more rooms available in the lower buckets to stimulate demand in reaction to the change.

 

[spinnaker]

So much for Amsnag I guess.

But as AmSnag gets its prices from Amtrak, I suspect you may not be reading your AmSnag query correctly.

Q: What version of AmSnag are you using?

V2.01 Seems the only one I can get to when I log in

This is what my itinerary shows.

Connection 30 Capitol Limited Departing 07/05/18

Roomette O 319.00 04/19/18 22:31:01 77

This is what the 2.02 search shows

DATE1 CONNECTION OPTION PRICE 07/05/18 30 Capitol Limited Roomette 319.00
Amtrak site still shows $264

 

[Lonestar648]

If the current price truly is lower so an Amtrak Agent can see that, they will modify your reservation, but they have to see that on the computer at the time you make the request.

 

[PaulM]

V2.01 Seems the only one I can get to when I log in

Correct. Version 1 of the fare watch program has been retired.

 

[cpotisch]

Well, it does appear that the trip I booked on the CL a couple months ago for August has dropped a bucket or two. I paid in Dollars for Roomettes. Is there a way to get a refund for the difference in price, or am I SOL? Complete newbie here.

Call and "change" your reservation to the current bucket. They most likely will refund the difference as a voucher, but it's entirely possible that you can get a cash refund.

 

[Sauve850]

Whether the bedroom price drop to $311 bucket was a reaction or just normal cancelations I enjoy saving the points. Same thing happened last year on a Silver train from DC to Florida. I had paid for that room and when price dropped I called and received a voucher for $100+.

 

[AcrossTheOcean]

Well, it does appear that the trip I booked on the CL a couple months ago for August has dropped a bucket or two. I paid in Dollars for Roomettes. Is there a way to get a refund for the difference in price, or am I SOL? Complete newbie here.

Call and "change" your reservation to the current bucket. They most likely will refund the difference as a voucher, but it's entirely possible that you can get a cash refund.

Thank you! <3

 

[cpotisch]

Well, it does appear that the trip I booked on the CL a couple months ago for August has dropped a bucket or two. I paid in Dollars for Roomettes. Is there a way to get a refund for the difference in price, or am I SOL? Complete newbie here.

Call and "change" your reservation to the current bucket. They most likely will refund the difference as a voucher, but it's entirely possible that you can get a cash refund.

Thank you! <3

Glad I could help and good luck.

 

[niemi24s]

The fact that the price structure hasn’t changed doesn’t mean that Amtrak didn’t lower the prices by making more rooms available in the lower buckets to stimulate demand in reaction to the change.

That's precisely what I said back in Post #7 - ". . . any fare changes you see are simply due to a change from one bucket to a different bucket for your date of travel." - but without providing a reason for the change. I don't care to get involved with speculating about the "why" for any change.

 

[Ryan]

You specifically mentioned the meal changes on the CL in your post.

 

[niemi24s]

You specifically mentioned the meal changes on the CL in your post.

Of course I did. But in what context did I mention it?

 

[Ryan]

Since you left it out of your quote, I'll just repeat it for you.

Please don't be fooled into thinking any fare reductions you may have seen are due to any change in the bucket structure for the CL (due to the change in meals on the CL).

They don't have to change the bucket structure to lower prices.

If you don't care to comment on the reasons why they would do that, then don't. The power is yours!

 

[niemi24s]

And now that my explanatory post has been hidden, please allow this summary:

• The upcoming changes to the dining options on the CL have not caused any changes (as of now and through 28 March 2019) in either the Coach or Sleeper fare buckets for the CL.

• Because of that fact, any recent change seen in sleeper fares is the result of normal shifts among the previously established fare buckets as shown in Post #5.

 

[Ryan]

And as I already explained to you, we don’t know that for a fact. Amtrak could have made more rooms available in the lower buckets as a result of the change in dining options.

 

[niemi24s]

Oh, and the same holds true for the LSL whose buckets are shown below:



http://www.starrett.com/metrology/product-detail/Test-Indicators/Indicators-and-Gages/Precision-Hand-Tools/Precision-Measuring-Tools/711fsz

 

[Lonestar648]

Could it be that the normal number of reservations per day/week/accommodation for each train has vertically stopped for the time period which would cause the computer to automatically drop a pricing bucket or two or more to generate sales. We see this now with other routes when a train's available inventory is greater than what the logic says it should be.

 

[Ryan]

That's possible as well. From what we know we can say that Amtrak *may* have lowered prices because of the dining changes. There are three possibilities:

1. Amtrak intentionally made more space available in the lower buckets, effectively lowering prices (but leaving the existing structure in place so that they could say "we aren't lowering prices", preventing them from having to process refunds to existing ticket holders).

2. Because of the changed meals, people aren't buying tickets (or have even cancelled tickets), therefore the existing inventory is availably cheaply.

3. Meals haven't had an impact, and just through the normal variation of life the inventory is cheap.

No really way to say. My money is on #1 or #2.