For whatever its worth, there are plenty of days over the next 11 months where the Roometes are going for $520.00. Pick your day. Dont know what you have paid before, a lot less? Curious.
When you buy the most expensive fares on an airline it's usually very easy to change or cancel with little or no penalty, but on Amtrak the most expensive fares come with the most restrictions and penalties. Amtrak's travel insurance is so limited in value and purpose that the cost of travel can exceed the value of the contract. It honestly makes no sense to me and if there is even the tiniest doubt in my mind I will generally book elsewhere.
I'm 8 months out right now, but that price is way too high. I'll keep checking.
What price are you referring to?
I bet @cpotisch has some insite re this. As-far-as the A/T - there is a maximum number of cars they can pull. I'll bet the size of the train determines if they could even add any cars. I remember my toy train set. Too many cars won't make it around a bend! I.e., the horseshoe curve in Jacksonville.(???) Or, maybe the limits on the engines? @cpotisch : what determines the length of a train.
You must have me confused with some other member, because I have virtually no knowledge about this stuff.
In this case, it is my understanding that the contract Amtrak has with CSX for the auto train includes a 50 car limit on the train length.
Because there is really no lead time. I know that storm was slow and took “forever” in terms of a weather system, but honestly, who is booking sleeper car service that close to the date of travel to justify the expense to shuttle the cars to where they can be of use. And since it is a short term situation, how long would they be allowed to book those sleepers before they were needed on their original trains?
I wondered the same thing. Amsnag is the only place to see up to 30 dsys. I use Southwests flexible option the timescI have to fly. How hard would it be to add a flexible option to their website? Type in a month and you can see rates for coach and sleepers. Usually the sleeper pricing will determine the days I travel.
Why, pray tell, would Amtrak (which is trying to maximize profits and minimize losses) do something that would allow the average traveler to easily select a travel date with the lowest possible fare?
Because then Amtrak can more easily get the price-sensitive traveler that may not be date-sensitive. If someone goes to Amtrak.com, sees the date they pick as high bucket, instead of checking different dates they may just leave and book a different mode. However, if they have the option to use a calendar view, they can see "oh, I can leave five days later and save $400" and then Amtrak gets that booking instead of the customer going off to another company. Since low-bucket fares are likely on low-demand days, that's revenue that Amtrak may not have been able to get otherwise (maybe that seat or room would have traveled empty.)
Seriously? You do realize that many airlines AND railroads do this. Why offer cheap fares at all if you don't want anybody to see or utilize them? And if a possible customer is able to easily see that Amtrak offers a good fare on a certain day, there's a better chance that that person chooses to take Amtrak.
Offering low fares without an easy way to find them is a bit like building a doomsday device without bothering to tell anyone about it.
When Amtrak's website caters mainly to the needs of date-sensitive customers, while having no official way to easily compare prices for price-sensitive customers, it's not at all surprising that Amtrak gets mainly customers that are more date-sensitive than price-sensitive. I wonder how much more business they'd get if they also catered to customers who may have flexibility in travel but can't necessarily afford the higher buckets that may appear on the dates they're looking at.
So Amtrak can charge whatever they want and people will still buy the sleeper cars? If so, why doesn't Amtrak always charge high-bucket, or bring high-bucket even higher?
If date is of the absolute importance, book 11 months out. You may pay more, but you'll likely get the dates you want.
I buy my tickets as far in advance as possible, then watch for the fares to possibly drop and get an adjustment (hopefully without a penalty). Booking early assures space in case the train sells out, and gives the greatest choice of rooms (if you are particular about that).
Probably because they know they early birds are seeking bargains they think would be forthcoming. Once they get an initial take on the demand for the given train, they may switch to lower buckets after that time to make up the gaps.
