Low Bucket

[davestor]

I'm an interested possible rider, but new to these forums. I've read several referneces to "low bucket rooms." Apparently they are desirable. What does this mean?

 

[DesertRat]

Amtrak has a three or four level pricing system. The bucket is the price level. Goes up or down according to availability and/or demand. Low bucket refers to the lowest price for that seat or accomodation.

 

[AlanB]

Amtrak has 5 price levels for the rooms in the sleeping cars, or buckets. Depending on expected demmand, Amtrak assigns X rooms to each one of the 5 buckets. So getting a low bucket room means that you've managed to secure one of the cheapest rooms on the train, and hence one of the more desirable rooms since we all like to save money.

 

[daveyb99]

"bucket" is just a name. think of each train as having "buckets" in which available reservations are kept. Each represents a different price level onboard. As one is taken, the "bucket" empties.

Here is a detailed listing of AMTRAK codes.

AMTRAK INVENTORY CODES

Here is a help checklist, including a screen shot

SABRE HELP

So, via their reservation system (and a process called revenue management), AMTRAK can adjust just how many tickets they will sell at which level and for how much.

Airlines do the exact same thing, except they have dozens of "buckets". Next time you buy an airline ticket, look at the first letter in the fare code - that is the "bucket".

Airlines use letter ranging from A to Z, and it is a mess to figure out, what with all the advance purchase restrictions, refundable v non, day of week, over Saturday stay, round trip v one way and on-and-on. But these codes are availalbe to check via online resources so one could easily research availability.

AMTRAK is no where near that complicated, but you can not easily decipher which fare level you are getting. (I suggest that should be correct, btw)

Next time you book, use the chart above and ask the reservation agent at what level the fare quoted is, and for that matter, what the other fares are.

 

[the_traveler]

Unlike an airline, on Amtrak each bucket has a certain number of seats or rooms in them. Airlines raise rates on a specific date (such as 21 day advance purchase, 14 day advance purchase, 7 day advance purchase, etc...). On Amtrak, once the set number of seats or rooms are sold, the bucket will rise.

These are not the actual amounts, but say seats 1-40 are low bucket and seats 41-55 are the next bucket, you could buy seat 40 at the low bucket fare, but if your friend wants to buy seat 41, it will be the next higher bucket! And it could rise 8 months out, 5 months out or 2 weeks out. Thus it is possible that the train on the 15th may have a different fare than the ones on the 14th or 16th! It's even possible that tomorrow's train may be lower than the one next April!

On routes that have more than 1 train a day, it's possible that the 7 AM, 10 AM and 3 PM trains may all be in different buckets! That's why we suggest to check different dates and times if you're flexible!