Too far away for prices?

[Gingee]

I looked into a mock reservation for next year. It told me some the train is sold out. Think it is too far away?

 

[SarahZ]

Which train and which date(s)?

 

[TinCan782]

You should be able to "look" (and book) 11 months out.

 

[Train2104]

You should be able to "look" (and book) 11 months out.

Everything in your itinerary must be within that 11 months. It'll give you an error, if you say, search NYP-EMY for the last day enabled in the calendar, as your connection departs Chicago more than 11 months out.

 

[saxman]

I think you can only book 330 days out. So about 11 months. (-5 days)

 

[fairviewroad]

You should be able to "look" (and book) 11 months out.

Everything in your itinerary must be within that 11 months. It'll give you an error, if you say, search NYP-EMY for the last day enabled in the calendar, as your connection departs Chicago more than 11 months out.

But the error message says "Problem with selected travel date." It doesn't say "sold out."

The OP is perhaps trying to book a specific type of accommodation and is running into a truly sold out situation. Perhaps because

of a tour group or a travel company speculatively booking a large set of rooms that may be canceled later.

Another possibility is that there is track work potentially planned for that date and Amtrak is blocking space so they don't have

to re-accommodate folks later on.

 

[TylerP42]

It may be a station that only gets trains on certain days, as well.

 

[fairviewroad]

It may be a station that only gets trains on certain days, as well.

Again, the website wouldn't say "sold out" if that was the case, it would say there is a problem with the selected date.

 

[Gingee]

It is for early next June. Bloomington to NYC and then to ft lauderdale.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Yes, NEXT June is too early for booking.

 

[MrFSS]

It is for early next June. Bloomington to NYC and then to ft lauderdale.

11 months out is the limit. Wait until July.

 

[Gingee]

Okay Thanks

 

[prech786]

It is for early next June. Bloomington to NYC and then to ft lauderdale.

11 months out is the limit. Wait until July.

Here’s an observation and question. I was looking at the Empire Builder for my son to GPK. I first tried AmSnag and thought I was seeing a mistake. I went to the AMTK site and saw the same thing.

If you try and find a fare more then exactly six months out you get exactly the same fare for coach seat or the same one fare for each different room accommodation any day of the week, any month of year. This is looking from month six to month eleven. From month one to six you get varying prices and number of available room combinations every day as expected.

In this case today is June 18, 2015. From Dec. 19, 2015 to May 19, 2016 I’m seeing exactly the same fare for a coach seat or any different room accommodation any day of the week, any month of year: Coach =$136, Roomette =$228, FR=$864, BR= $676 (plus Coach fare). Before Dec.19 a roomette could go for as low as $157, a BR for $343 and a FR as low as $346.

In addition the AMTK site says there are exactly the same number of available rooms on #7/27 or #8/28 no matter what day of the week or month from month six to month eleven. AMTK says there are only 4 Roomettes, 2 bedrooms or 1 FR available on either #7 or 27 at what appears to be very high bucket prices. Before Dec 19 it shows a varying number of rooms available at whatever the low bucket price is today.

So my question is; does AMTK’s fare program “default” to set of single bucket fares & room availability numbers on a rolling six-month basis? That’s what this looks like. So I won’t be able to see all the bucket fares and available rooms for the first week in June, 2016 until after the first week of January 2016?

One ‘could’ book now, eleven month out, but at what looks like a very high bucket price due to the low quantity of rooms the program thinks is available. Or wait until January 2016 and pay perhaps half today’s price. Or am I missing something here?

 

[Gingee]

Wow It does sound confusing.

 

[PaulM]

@prech786

I tested your hypothesis from Dec 21 (it's now June 20) for 20 days from CHI to GPK. It wasn't rejected for coach and bedroom, except for one day that BR's sold out. Roomette and family room's prices varied from day to day.

I also tried CHI to Denver from Dec 21 for 20 days and all types of prices differed.

 

[Ispolkom]

So my question is; does AMTK’s fare program “default” to set of single bucket fares & room availability numbers on a rolling six-month basis? That’s what this looks like. So I won’t be able to see all the bucket fares and available rooms for the first week in June, 2016 until after the first week of January 2016?

One ‘could’ book now, eleven month out, but at what looks like a very high bucket price due to the low quantity of rooms the program thinks is available. Or wait until January 2016 and pay perhaps half today’s price. Or am I missing something here?

One data point. I often travel on the Empire Builder between St. Paul, where I live, and Minot, where my sisters live. Not a very interesting itinerary, but one I'm on every month or two. In the past couple of years I've found that the rate for a roomette is defaulted in the second bucket ($144), but it usually drops at some point to the bottom bucket ($98) before I travel. I book at the higher rate, and then when amsnag says the price has dropped, I cancel my reservation, take the eVoucher, and book at the lower price (using the eVoucher), usually ending up in the same roomette. I don't mind banking value in eVouchers, because I know that I'll be on the train again soon enough. I've never bothered to determine when the price drops, because that's not important to me, but your theory seems reasonable.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

If you don't mind my asking I'm curious how your sisters ended up in Minot and what they do there. I started out in a much smaller town and ended up moving to the "big city" just like everyone else. Since then I've never found the path that ends up back in a small town.

 

[prech786]

@prech786

I tested your hypothesis from Dec 21 (it's now June 20) for 20 days from CHI to GPK. It wasn't rejected for coach and bedroom, except for one day that BR's sold out. Roomette and family room's prices varied from day to day.

I also tried CHI to Denver from Dec 21 for 20 days and all types of prices differed.

Here's what I see for 09/23/15 for 20 days and 01/23/16 for 20 days. This is for MSP to GPK. What happened to the $115 Coach, $157 Roomettes, $346 Family Bedrooms and $343 Bedrooms after Jan. 1, 2016? 01/23/16 is probably not a high demand time of year for the EB. One might expect lower prices mid-Winter then late-Summer. I'm just assuming this is Amtrak's version of the Airlines "Yield Management" systems. As with Airlines it just sucks for travel planing purposes. Pay me big $$$ now or takes your chances later, LOL.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

One thinks the high bucket 11 month to 6 months is to stick to those who are doing a once in a life time trip. While bucket price start on the supply and demand 6 months to day of travel.

Don't like it, but its a plan.

New advise but your ticket less than 6 months out.

 

[Ispolkom]

Six months out might well be a charm. My December 23 trip from St. Paul to Minot clicked down from second bucket to bottom bucket last night. Hmm, and bottom bucket roomette has increased by $2, from $99 to $101.