Sleeper price drops

[ACVitale]

I have been used to paying $300-529 per sleeper roomette on the Silvers the last 6 months or so.

I have a last minute trip that I went to Amsnag to check on the prices.

WHOA! Imagine my surprise when I saw several days of sleepers at $160-220

Needless to say. I was shocked. So I booked and then called Res to see if I could get a different sleeper as I prefer the 9110 car to the 9111.

According to Res I got the 2nd to LAST sleeper roomette!

Someone in yield management has had a massive change in thinking.

I am happy for the deal I got (Less then 1/2 what I am used to paying and more like 1/3 the price the last 2 months) but, if they are that full I am surprised that they are letting them go that cheap!

 

[apok86]

I have noticed the same thing. It now seems that a few days (my best guess is 2-3, never more than 6) before a trip amtrak removes the high prices and then tries to sell the remaining inventory at the lowest bucket price. At least this has been my experience, I use the builder semi frequently and have got the low bucket prices on a bedroom a day before departure.

 

[ACVitale]

I am still surprised. I generally book last minute (Same day to 1 week out).

I have never gotten a sleeper for less then $369 + railfare on that route.

As I said. Very happy.... However, Surprised as the sleepers tended to go up as they filled up and they almost always sold out.

 

[jdcnosse]

I might have to keep this in mind. I tend to book fairly late (about a week or two in advance) but I usually am booking coach, however if the sleeper is only that much extra then heck I might as well try.

 

[Shanghai]

I think the sleeper prices to and from Florida at this time of the year

may be demand driven. I would think if you checked dates in mid-June

you would find the rate would be greater than May-early June. Most

"snow birds" return north in April and tourists to Orlando do not

begin until children are out of school for summer holiday.

I'm happy to were able to book the sleeper at an attractive price.

 

[jis]

I am still surprised. I generally book last minute (Same day to 1 week out).

I have never gotten a sleeper for less then $369 + railfare on that route.

As I said. Very happy.... However, Surprised as the sleepers tended to go up as they filled up and they almost always sold out.

In a properly managed yield management system in a high demand situation, the fare profile typically is mid-to-high start and then adjust up or down dynamically depending on how the inventory is being consumed and finally dump the remaining if any at the end, since it is better to collect at least some fare instead of running an empty seat. But getting this profile right takes sophistication which Amtrak may have been unable to execute on in the past, and is perhaps now getting better.

In a low demand situation where one wants to fill as many seats as one can knowing full well that one will not sell all, the profile would look different since then one'd want to fill seats at every opportunity, so one starts low and slowly raise fares as the inventory gets consumed.

 

[amamba]

I agree that is a good idea to drop the prices a few days before travel if there are still rooms remaining. Better they sell for a low price than nothing, right?

 

[MrJake]

Where are you coming from? Lowest roomette from NYP is still $358.

 

[Oldsmoboi]

must be specific to that train.

The Capital from PGH to CHI has a lot of SOs across the board for the next month. A few trains are listed as completely sold out. No coach, no roomette, no bedroom, no family room.

 

[ACVitale]

Where are you coming from? Lowest roomette from NYP is still $358.

Out of RGH to WPB.

Glad I have the sleeper, even if I cannot sleep, lightning is rather spectacular and I cannot sleep as I stare out the window at the light show.

I am actually posting from 91 outside Columbia SC where we are running a little over 3 hrs late.

76 was on time from CLT to GSO and completely sold out. They actually sat people in the food/bev car, large group of 150-200 kids from CLT to GSO, delayed from GSO to RGH due to slow orders at 10mph (Flash flood warnings, severe thunderstorms, etc.) Passed 79 which was running 3+ hrs delay due to the same reasons.

Was originally panic'ed as I did my normal 2 tickets and an illegal connection in RGH (I would rather risk the 45-60min connection vs the 6 hrs in RGH). But fortunately for me and not everyone else everything today was late. This means never have missed the connection with the 76 to 91 but, have come close once with 6 mins between trains on a delayed 76 in March. Had enough time to walk across the street to the Tuscan Blu restaurant for a nice dinner between trains.

Every sleeper accom is full out of RGH. I would have paid more if I needed to so not sure Amtrak did there best.

Happy I got the lower price. Looked at Amsnag and there is a silver sleeper on Monday from RMT to WPB for $160! What a deal, The rail fare drops to $90 so it really is like getting the sleeper for only $98 with meals over the regular coach fare. If you deduct meals you could get the bed on Monday for around $30 bucks more then coach with meals!

Somehow I do not think this will last.

 

[ACVitale]

must be specific to that train.

The Capital from PGH to CHI has a lot of SOs across the board for the next month. A few trains are listed as completely sold out. No coach, no roomette, no bedroom, no family room.

Silvers are all viewliners. No Family rooms avail. EVER!

The bedrooms are sold out.

This is roomette only

Hope that clairifies.

 

[Anderson]

I've noticed this tendency a few times in the past (for mysterious low fares to seem to show up)...but I think this falls in the vein of a lot of what we usually see (people scrapping reservations, etc.). It might be more airline-style yield management, but I find that you tend to get a certain number of cancellations as a date gets closer, almost without fail.

 

[had8ley]

Just a word to those in the know~ IF you want to do the cheapie Atlanta-NOL sleeper turn now might be a good time to consider same. For whatever reason there's an awful lot of talk about both the sleepers and diner not operating south of Atlanta. I know there was a lot of talk about the daily Eagle but this move doesn't cost $750 million...

 

[Anderson]

I think I figured out what's happening: You can make a long-term reservation (i.e. several months out) without paying at that time, but there's a due date on the payments. If the date passes without payment, the reservations lapse. There may be a tendency of some trains to get a few folks who make a reservation (or several reservations) and then fail to pay. This disgorges the reservations, giving a drop in fares.

 

[bwitt]

First I want to say thanks for this post, I have a trip from GBB to DEN in a couple of weeks so I just went to the amtrak site to see if there had been any changes in price. Originally I had booked coach both ways but there was a roomette on the return listed for $143. Since my original coach fare on the return was $197 after the discount on to low bucket on coach fare the difference for the sleeper was only $46, heck yeah I'll take a roomette for that price. One question, will I get dinner leaving from Denver at 7:10pm?

 

[had8ley]

I think I figured out what's happening: You can make a long-term reservation (i.e. several months out) without paying at that time, but there's a due date on the payments. If the date passes without payment, the reservations lapse. There may be a tendency of some trains to get a few folks who make a reservation (or several reservations) and then fail to pay. This disgorges the reservations, giving a drop in fares.

Yes but there is no guarntee that Inventory Control will let the loose reservation fall back into a low bucket.

 

[Ryan]

must be specific to that train.

The Capital from PGH to CHI has a lot of SOs across the board for the next month. A few trains are listed as completely sold out. No coach, no roomette, no bedroom, no family room.

Silvers are all viewliners. No Family rooms avail. EVER!

The bedrooms are sold out.

This is roomette only

Hope that clairifies.

I bolded the important part of his post.
Hope that clarifies.

 

[AlanB]

I think I figured out what's happening: You can make a long-term reservation (i.e. several months out) without paying at that time, but there's a due date on the payments. If the date passes without payment, the reservations lapse. There may be a tendency of some trains to get a few folks who make a reservation (or several reservations) and then fail to pay. This disgorges the reservations, giving a drop in fares.

Unpaid reservations automatically expire and return the room to inventory after 7 days. So it can't be that someone booked a room 6 months ago for example and it just dropped this week. It is possible under certain circumstances to get an agent to extend the hold time by a week or two, but it doesn't happen very often.

Now that said, it is possible for a travel agent to gobble up a block of rooms and hold them for quite some time before finally comitting to buying the rooms; so that can sometimes dump rooms for a specific train on the market shortly before departure.

Personally my guess for the OP's luck is that the room he's getting was sold on the northern end already, so Amtrak decided to try and fill the room on the southern end and collect some more revenue. Hence the lower price.

 

[dlagrua]

I believe that the best strategy to getting a sleeper at an affordable price is to reserve 11 months out and then watch the prices over the next few months. The economy is still very soft right now but the price of gasoline is still high and each train has only about 30-40 sleeper tickets available ( more on the A/T, LSL and less on the CDL). Then factor in the influence of the scalpers and it makes the task interesting.

BTW, from what I can see, with rare exception, the prices of sleepers is going up not dropping.

 

[ACVitale]

Well the low rates on Sleepers on the Silvers have disappeared. Went to book a trip this week last minute and they are back in the stratosphere!

I did a quick check on Amsnag and they are way high for the foreseeable future.

A quick call to res found plenty of sleepers avail but they are up there price wise.

Oh well it was nice while it lasted. Back to the normal prices for the roomettes.

 

[Cristian]

Same with the CS, bedrooms prices just on high bucket for the entire month of June at least...

 

[Anderson]

I believe that the best strategy to getting a sleeper at an affordable price is to reserve 11 months out and then watch the prices over the next few months. The economy is still very soft right now but the price of gasoline is still high and each train has only about 30-40 sleeper tickets available ( more on the A/T, LSL and less on the CDL). Then factor in the influence of the scalpers and it makes the task interesting.

BTW, from what I can see, with rare exception, the prices of sleepers is going up not dropping.

CDL? What train is that? The Coast Daylight hasn't run in a couple of decades.

 

[jphjaxfl]

I believe that the best strategy to getting a sleeper at an affordable price is to reserve 11 months out and then watch the prices over the next few months. The economy is still very soft right now but the price of gasoline is still high and each train has only about 30-40 sleeper tickets available ( more on the A/T, LSL and less on the CDL). Then factor in the influence of the scalpers and it makes the task interesting.

BTW, from what I can see, with rare exception, the prices of sleepers is going up not dropping.

CDL? What train is that? The Coast Daylight hasn't run in a couple of decades.

The Coast Daylight hasn't run since Amtrak started so over 40 years.

 

[Ryan]

Which would be "a couple of decades"...

I assume that CDL means Cardinal, but that's just a guess.

 

[user 1215]

On the Silver Star I was on last night from WAS to SAV, the sleepers were almost completely empty. I think I counted about 6 empty roomettes in EACH of the three cars (9710 Mountain View, 9711 * View, 9712 Autumn View). If I recall correctly, maybe of the 6 Bedrooms, only one or two were being used. I don't think ANY of the H rooms were occupied during any portion of the trip.

Now I wish I booked an "H" room on the Viewliner. Note that I would not ever mind an "H" room on a Viewliner, but I don't think I like the "H" room on a Superliner AT ALL. Saw one, but it just didn't seem very pleasant. Large and spacious, but not pleasant. Can't put my finger on what I didn't like. Maybe the fact that the toilet was a regular toilet and only shrowded by a curtain as opposed to the "hidden" toilets on the Viewliners.