trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
Nice! That’s the second lowest fare I’ve seen on the zephyr since the fare change (with $602 being the lowest).
Fare Buckets - and when do they increase/decrease?
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There's also a Roomette fare of $669 in between those two. This completes the eight Roomette fares of $602, 669, 749, 844, 959, 1095, 1250 and 1455.
Just revised the chart to accommodate eight buckets for all trains and (with a little luck) may have a new chart ready to post in a few days.
Just revised the chart to accommodate eight buckets for all trains and (with a little luck) may have a new chart ready to post in a few days.
I was just checking fares between Cleveland OH and Albuquerque NM for a late January/early February date in order to compare coach vs roomette and 1 vs 2 persons. To my surprise, I found a 1-way fare for 2 people at $323 vs a 1-way fare for 1 person at $170 (same dates and route). I would have expected a $340 fare for 2. Is this just a matter of coach buckets or is there a penalty for only 1 person traveling ticket? The roomette price for 1 person was $1077 vs $1320 for 2 people.
This is the easiest to answer of the two: the reason the additional fare of $243 for the second adult in a Roomette is that the first adult pays for the accommodation (room) charge and once that is paid, the additional fare for the second person in that same Roomette is only the rail (coach) fare. Those rail (coach) fares for each full route are indicated by the > symbol on the fare bucket chart posted elsewhere.
But the reason why the total Coach fare for two adults in Coach is $17 less than twice the fare for one adult is probably known only to whiz-kids at Amtrak. They're the ones who developed the scheme for some trains having three more sleeper buckets than the "normal" five. In addition, many of those trains having eight different sleeper fares also have two different Saver fares! I won't speculate on the reasons for any of this later stuff.
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There's only one thing holding up posting the new fare bucket chart and that's Coach fares for the EB. If this train follows the pattern of other trains having eight buckets for each type of sleeper then it should have a total of nine different fares for Coach (including the Saver fare(s)).
Over the past several months I have seen and recorded only eight different Coach fares: $470, 380, 306, 247, 200, (161) (130) and (105) with the last three billed as Saver fares, all for CHI-SEA. Within the past few weeks, however, I've not seen either the $105 Saver fare offered for CHI-SEA (or the $106 Saver fare offered for CHI-PDX).
Maybe those really low Saver fares were part of a sale which is now over. However, if they're still "on the books" but simply not offered, the ninth fare would be the estimated high bucket of $581. Howsomever, if they actually were sale fares, then to make a total of nine this train would need two additional higher bucket fares of $581 and <gasp> $721!!
I'd rather not post the new chart until this quandary is clarified. Kinda wanna get it right the first time.
Anybody out there got any words of wisdom for me?
Over the past several months I have seen and recorded only eight different Coach fares: $470, 380, 306, 247, 200, (161) (130) and (105) with the last three billed as Saver fares, all for CHI-SEA. Within the past few weeks, however, I've not seen either the $105 Saver fare offered for CHI-SEA (or the $106 Saver fare offered for CHI-PDX).
Maybe those really low Saver fares were part of a sale which is now over. However, if they're still "on the books" but simply not offered, the ninth fare would be the estimated high bucket of $581. Howsomever, if they actually were sale fares, then to make a total of nine this train would need two additional higher bucket fares of $581 and <gasp> $721!!
I'd rather not post the new chart until this quandary is clarified. Kinda wanna get it right the first time.
Anybody out there got any words of wisdom for me?
trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
To be honest, I think that the builder has 3 saver fares and 5 non-saver fares, for a total of 8 different coach fares. I am taking this train soon, so I have been checking the fares for it almost daily. I have been even checking other travel dates that are not mine just to get a baseline for what bucket drops I should be expecting. Not ONCE in have I found a fare over $470 (SEA) or $473 (PDX), even on the busiest, near sold-out trains.
With that, I am almost certain that a $581 or $721 is not a thing. I realize some of the sleeper fares are getting a little outrageous, but I don't understand how the highest coach fare could be higher than the lowest roomette fare. (The highest coach fare is always lower than even the lowest roomette fare, it's indicated on your chart. The only one that's not the case is AutoTrain, which arguably is an exception in many aspects).
I haven't seen that $105/106 fare in a while either, but I also know there was no public-facing special sale going on when those were found. Plus, I even found a $99 Zephyr saver fare, so I don't think this was a special, one-off thing for just the builder. However, you could always circle that one in red until someone finds it again I suppose.
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I have been reading the bucket threads with interest, since it is all new info for me in how to evaluate the pricing to know when is a good time to book. I just literally booked the TE from LA to SAS thanks to the bucket chart info. Although the fares were not listed on the chart, I could see that they were low bucket. VERY frustrated that the amazing price for 1 person in a FB more than doubled for two people —$618 for one, and $1401 for two (for the SL part of the consist). But I was able to get a roommette for $751 for two ($572 price for one person). Can’t quite bring myself to spend double the roommette cost, although the extra room is appealing.
Good, I'll go with that! No reason to expect trains with eight sleeper buckets to follow the same pattern as those with the old-fashioned five sleeper buckets.
The new chart is finished and just needs scanning and posting.
BTW, have you ever seen an EB coach fare for PDX to SEA offered at maybe $382 or $383?
[edit] Here's the new chart:
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trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
It’s $380 from SEA. Probably like $382 from Portland.
So theoretically, traveling from PDX to BOS on EB and LSL, in roomettes, should be possible for a low-bucket fare of $590+$402=$992, or about 27,950 points. So far, the cheapest fares I am seeing (in early-mid-November, before my travel window) are about 60% higher than that. Does this mean they ony lower the fares at the last minute if the train is not full enough?
trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
The odds of finding two trains connecting at the lowest buckets are pretty low.
You could probably get second lowest buckets on both pretty reasonably.
The odds of finding a single train at the lowest bucket can also be pretty low.
The Texas Eagle from Chicago to LA is Amtrak’s longest ride and has the best chance of finding the lowest bucket $623 single roomette.
Up until a few years ago I would do circle trips every year using roomettes. Unfortunately trying to find connecting trains with the lowest or second to lowest bucket is nearly impossible,as another poster pointed out, especially on the Empire Builder and California Zephyr. I will not pay over $1000 for a roomette from CHI to EMY or CHI to SEA or PDX.
Up until a few years ago I would do circle trips every year using roomettes. Unfortunately trying to find connecting trains with the lowest or second to lowest bucket is nearly impossible,as another poster pointed out, especially on the Empire Builder and California Zephyr. I will not pay over $1000 for a roomette from CHI to EMY or CHI to SEA or PDX.
Yes, but unfortunately one must put up with Flex Dining and being pretty much stuck in the room for the first half of the trip.
Better to go Southbound so the anticipation of the Sunset is there. Having ridden every long distance train multiple times since 1990, these days I base my travels solely on price. I still love riding and the Eagle wins out every time. My last two trips on the Zephyr and Eagle were 10 to 11 hours late and I got a $200 voucher for both. Taking Coach from Chicago to Bloomington Normal for $12 and a roomette to LA was $248 with the voucher. Have two trips planned at that price for December and next June.
Planning trip Sept 8-10, Hartford (HFD) to Washington (WAS). On Sat Aug 5 - more than a month out - I checked out availabilities and noted Saver fare on #141 HFD to WAS on the 8 Sep for approx $28 (after senior discount) and return on #140 from WAS to HFD on the 10 Sep ditto approx $28 Saver fare. I came back a day later on Sun Aug 6 to book it - still more than a month out - and lowest fares were $55 for the HFD-WAS leg and $74.70 for WAS-HFD.
Go figure.
Go figure.
Correction: for the record, that new fare on the HFD to WAS leg is $55.80 (not 55.00).
Did they just give you the vouchers or did you have to call the service #?
The chart is very helpful. My bucket list now includes riding every Amtrak train during one or two trips.
Amtrak automatically gave me the vouchers. I was pleased.
Thanks for the kind word!
Your bucket list item sounds like a fun challenge. Seven years ago I churned up this one for my bucket list . . .
. . .but with todays prices I'd have to sell the house!
It was the longest trip found that didn't go over the same track twice. Amazing what an old retired guy can do to fritter away time in the middle of winter!
Remember when they had the 3 zones?
And "Loophole" Trips were real Bargains.( with the Slidell amd Wolf Point trips being the Longest!)
Plus 2 could ride for the Price of 1 in Rooms!!
The Toledo Shuffle. We used to drive seven hours to catch the Capitol Limited in Toledo. From there West it was two zones to the West Coast. That ended in 2016. I took one of the last trips using Zones. LA to Ft. Lauderdale. Coach to El Paso and in El Paso, a zone stop 20,000 points to Ft Lauderdale. Also 100 points was the minimum for any trip.
What were the
What was the'Loophole trip'?
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