Cardinal pricing and availability oddity

[FreeskierInVT]

For my upcoming trip on the Cardinal, there was no sleeper availability when I booked for the overnight section, and I booked a business class seat from Chicago to Charleston, WV, where a low bucket sleeper opened up for the rest of the trip to New York.

I was looking last night to see if a sleeper opened up for the whole ride, and sure enough, a high bucket sleeper was available from CHI-NYP. Curious if there would be a price difference if I changed from coach/BC to a roomette at an intermediate stop, I plugged in the first stop of Dyer, IN, and there was a considerable difference in pricing for the roomette, totaling $168. Based on the pricing bucket chart that has been floating around the forum, it appears there was a two bucket difference for the roomette CHI-NYP (bucket 5) and DYE-NYP (bucket 3), but why would this be the case? I can't imagine anyone would book a roomette for the hour ride from Chicago to Dyer, which would have explained the bucket difference.

I looked up four other Cardinal departures in August, and all four days have the same difference in buckets going out of Dyer versus Chicago:
8/20: CHI-NYP $503, DYE-NYP $384
8/27: CHI-NYP $586, DYE-NYP $443
8/29: CHI-NYP $667, DYE-NYP $499
8/31: CHI-NYP $344, DYE-NYP $273

To add another element of strangeness, when I called to modify my existing reservation (CHI-CHW in coach, CHW-NYP in a roomette) to the roomette from DYE to NYP, I was told there was no availability and the website was incorrect. Having seen the thread about room availability oddities on the Empire Builder I figured this was another case where the system shows one last room available where it actually wasn't.

However, I tried booking the roomette online as a new reservation, and it went through. Now with two sleeper tickets in hand, one for DYE-NYP and CHW-NYP, I called AGR and they were able to refund my points for the CHI-CHW-NYP segment without any cancellation fee, but couldn't explain the oddity and why the previous agent wasn't able to pull up any availability. The agent did confirm this was the last available room on the train.

Anyone have a guess as to what might explain the pricing difference and availability weirdness?

 

[niemi24s]

Nothing weird or odd about it at all.

". . . it appears there was a two bucket difference for the roomette CHI-NYP (bucket 5) and DYE-NYP (bucket 3). . .

Appearances can be deceiving. While the fare difference of $168 you saw for one adult in a Roomette is between the high bucket for CHI to NYP ($677) and DYE to NYP, it's actually between the high bucket fares for both route segments. The high bucket for DYE to NYP is $499. Bucket 3 from DYE to NYP is really only $384 for one adult in a Roomette.

But if part of your puzzlement is why you can save $159 by getting a $10 coach ticket from CHI to DYE and then a $169 cheaper Roomette fare for the remainder of the trip to NYP - don't really know. Have heard that other trains have similar fare peculiarities. Don't think anybody really knows the "why" behind any of them.

But perhaps even more peculiar is the difference made by the direction of travel:

• The Eastbound Cardinal high bucket Roomette fare is $169 less when taken from its first stop, DYE, but

• The Westbound Cardinal high bucket Roomette fare is only $37 less when taken from its first stop, NWK!

 

[Ryan]

Rooms to/from DYE have always been significantly cheaper.

 

[JP1822]

There's some oddities going on with Amtrak's reservation system and no one has had a good answer for it. I actually wanted to book Chicago to Albuquerque in a roomette (as bedrooms were booked up) recently, and then as we stopped at Albuquerque, switch rooms and move to a bedroom booking from Albuquerque to LA. Same day switch shall we say. Used to do this regularly in order to get a through "sleeper class" ticket on the CA Zephyr. The online system said bedrooms were available, but the agent kept telling me he couldn't get the booking to go through - "the switch" for me at Albuquerque. The complication seemed to be that I was making "the switch" on the same day for the same train. The system wouldn't take it. So I just kept my roomette and Amtrak lost the potential bump up in revenue (upsell). I even suggested that they create a new reservation, since Amtrak changed how it prices and "views" a through fare. That wouldn't take either. I also don't think that the reservation system is showing that you can book a sleeper perhaps "all the way," its just that you'll have to change rooms while enroute. This used to be a no-brainer too, that has become more complicated. VIA Rail would be dead in the water if its system couldn't do this. Often times VIA would call me back and say "you can stay in the room that you board in, as we have since added cars to the consist."

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

Nothing weird or odd about it at all.

But perhaps even more peculiar is the difference made by the direction of travel:

• The Eastbound Cardinal high bucket Roomette fare is $169 less when taken from its first stop, DYE, but

• The Westbound Cardinal high bucket Roomette fare is only $37 less when taken from its first stop, NWK!

Well if it's based on demand, one way is Newark, NJ and one is Dyer, IN. I'm thinking Newark would have way more demand. Other than people who are trying to game the system, how many people are really going to start a trip out of Dyer as opposed to Chicago? By contrast, you have many more New Jersey people who could prefer Newark vs. New York. Of course we're talking about one car and a few rooms.