Superliner Bedrooms--Price Differentials

[Manny T]

I just checked the prices of bedrooms on the Capitol Ltd. for next month with an Amtrak agent. She told me the fare for Bedroom A was $801; the fare for Bedroom B next door, on the same train on the same date, was $393.

Is anyone familiar enough with Amtrak's pricing structure to explain this difference in price for two adjacent bedrooms on the same train on a single date?

If you go to Amtrak.com, the price is $393. Presumably if you make a reservation, the site will sell you Bedroom B; once that sells out, the price will increase to $801 and the site will sell Bedroom A.

Is that correct? Thank you!

 

[CCC1007]

My suspicions are that Amtrak has changed their pricing to charge a certain amount for individual rooms in the car, with the online sales taking the lowest price available at the time. This would fit the behavior that has been reported more and more on this forum similar to this thread.

 

[Maglev]

This makes sense to me. I think bedroom A is usually sold last, because it is a little smaller than the other bedrooms. It is logical that the last bedroom to be sold is in a higher bucket.

 

[Ryan]

That's not really a change. Rooms have always been allocated to buckets in the reservation system.

What might be a change is the agents ability/willingness/permission to manually deprive the rooms to swap their assigned buckets. It can be done, but only if the agent knows how, is willing to, and permitted to by management.

 

[Manny T]

Thank you for the explanations.

And there must be separate category for Amtrak "logic" which says hold back the smallest (least desirable?) room until last, and then sell it for double the price of the more desirable rooms.

 

[me_little_me]

Thank you for the explanations.

And there must be separate category for Amtrak "logic" which says hold back the smallest (least desirable?) room until last, and then sell it for double the price of the more desirable rooms.

Makes sense to me! At least as much as anything else that comes out of Amtrak.

 

[Lonestar648]

If there was a large number of change requests when the original reservation received was "A", a decision may have been made to keep A to last, then the person is suppose to be happy they could even buy a Bedroom.

 

[ehbowen]

Thank you for the explanations.

And there must be separate category for Amtrak "logic" which says hold back the smallest (least desirable?) room until last, and then sell it for double the price of the more desirable rooms.

If they didn't, then where would the sleeping car attendant sleep? You really can't expect him/her to get any rest in a tiny roomette, can you?

(Yes, I'm being snarky, but there's more truth to this than I like to think....)

 

[Lonestar648]

I SCA uses Roomette #1. All my trips over the past year, all the SCAs slept in that room. Some by 10PM until 6AM, others available as needed, with just the curtain pulled.

 

[IndyLions]

When we traveled the Cardinal from Crawfordsville, IN to Charlottesville, VA back in March - we got on the train about 10:20pm in Roomettes 5 & 6 - and never saw the attendant at all until after lunch time the next day. I think he was in Room H. I just took care of the beds myself. While I understand the need to get SOME sleep - and I typically am a generous tipper - I felt nothing but a bare minimum tip had been earned by the attendant on that trip.

 

[Lonestar648]

Actually, The SCA in your case didn't even perform his minimum duties. Had it been me, there would have been NO tip.

 

[niemi24s]

When we traveled the Cardinal. . .[we] never saw the attendant at all until after lunch time the next day. I think he was in Room H.

As a guess, perhaps the SCA was in the Viewliner H Bedroom only because all the Roomettes and Bedrooms A and B in his car were sold out?

 

[Bob Dylan]

When we traveled the Cardinal. . .[we] never saw the attendant at all until after lunch time the next day. I think he was in Room H.

As a guess, perhaps the SCA was in the Viewliner H Bedroom only because all the Roomettes and Bedrooms A and B in his car were sold out?

There is a dedicated Roomette by the Shower for the SCA ( and Roomettes for all the OBS) on all LD Viewliner Trains, just like Roomette #1 on the Superliner Sleepers.
This sounds like a case of the Invisible SCA!

 

[the_traveler]

On Superliners, the SCA's room is #1. On Viewliner I the SCA's room is #14, while on Viewliner II it will be #12.

 

[Lonestar648]

There are 12 Revenue Roomettes, 2 Bedrooms, and 1 H room on the viewliner. the shower is across the hall from the SCA room, which is set up for the SCA with a Call light board.

 

[riderails]

Elderly topic, more data. Recently when I asked for A on an LA-CHI rt in Jan., an actual living agent (at nearby Amtrak station) pointed out that other available bedrooms were "less costly" than good old "A." I did not bother to ask for the difference. This might contradict sometime claims that last available = highest price. She went into the bucket thing....

 

[CCC1007]

My suspicions are that Amtrak has changed their pricing to charge a certain amount for individual rooms in the car, with the online sales taking the lowest price available at the time. This would fit the behavior that has been reported more and more on this forum similar to this thread.

Just reiterating my suspicions here...
I do think there is more evidence for than against at this point.

 

[AmHope]

Actually, The SCA in your case didn't even perform his minimum duties. Had it been me, there would have been NO tip.

My policy is to tip on boarding. I've never had bad service that way. It *shouldn't* be that way, and if everyone did it it would probably revert back to bad service, but it's always worked for me.