Rooms Left At This Price vs. Rooms Left, Period

[Anderson]

One thing that's really driving me a little crazy about amtrak.com right now is that the site doesn't list how many seats are left on a train in total vs. "at this price". As much work as I do with this stuff, I don't have the buckets memorized between certain stops, and while I'd jump under some cases if I knew something was at high bucket, I've also been frozen out more than once because "this price" was high bucket (which I didn't realize).

It would be nice if Amtrak would indicate how many rooms were left, period (in addition to at the given price).

 

[Ryan]

While it would be nice, it is an improvement over the old site.

 

[Anderson]

I think they straightened out the pricing issues from the initial rollout, and it's nice to be able to buy an unrestricted ticket rather than being "stuck with the special"...but with the T&C shifts, I'm calling it a mixed bag. Also, I want to say that the old site just listed by "rooms left", not by "left at this price".

 

[SarahZ]

I've been using the old trick of putting in 8 people (the max) to see if there are 8 roomettes left. Then I have at least a ballpark idea if the train is nearly sold out or if I still have some wiggle room.

 

[Dovecote]

One thing that's really driving me a little crazy about amtrak.com right now is that the site doesn't list how many seats are left on a train in total vs. "at this price". As much work as I do with this stuff, I don't have the buckets memorized between certain stops, and while I'd jump under some cases if I knew something was at high bucket, I've also been frozen out more than once because "this price" was high bucket (which I didn't realize).

It would be nice if Amtrak would indicate how many rooms were left, period (in addition to at the given price).

I totally agree with your comments and find AmSnag as a good resource to view the various buckets. Preparing a 15-20 day itinerary usually reveals multiple buckets.

 

[Anderson]

Yes, but is Amsnag even still up? Last time I tried it, it wasn't working (or I had a bad link).

 

[Railroad Bill]

Yes, but is Amsnag even still up? Last time I tried it, it wasn't working (or I had a bad link).

As of 1 minute ago, Amsnag was working perfectly for me.

 

[Anderson]

Huh.

Also, I found out part of the issue when I boarded: The 12 sleeper was bad-ordered, which would partly account for the surprise disappearance.

 

[gmushial]

One thing that's really driving me a little crazy about amtrak.com right now is that the site doesn't list how many seats are left on a train in total vs. "at this price". As much work as I do with this stuff, I don't have the buckets memorized between certain stops, and while I'd jump under some cases if I knew something was at high bucket, I've also been frozen out more than once because "this price" was high bucket (which I didn't realize).

It would be nice if Amtrak would indicate how many rooms were left, period (in addition to at the given price).

This could be an example of the old marketing tool/ploy, ie, to make a resource seem more scarce than it might actually be, so that you buy now vs later (ie, get something vs nothing). The other approach to this is like one sees for symphony performances where a map of the seats if given, and of course the best ones go first, leading one to buy now and at least get the 2nd best ones, vs waiting and maybe ending up with the dregs. Amtrak is in a funny position where on one hand they're trying to make nice with their customers and fill as many seats as possible, and at the same time making congress happy by making as much as possible.