Will sold out escape fares become available again?

[gopromaster]

Dear forum members,
I am planning on going from Montreal to Toronto on March 30, 2023. The VIA escape tickets for the 13:23 train are already sold out. Going back to Montreal, I want to take the 15:17 train on April 2, where escape fares are also sold out.

Is there any chance they will be available again (as in: more contingents available later), or should I just go for the economy fare right away?
I am from Germany and didn’t expect escape fares to be sold out so far in advance. Here, you can’t even book any ticket for 2023 yet.

Thanks in advance,
Felix

 

[Urban Sky]

Hallo Felix,

given that Escape fares are available for every single train on every single last Thursday of the month before March 30th (and most of the time at the cheapest-possible fare of $59 in 2022 and $63 in 2023), I would assume that there is a high chance Escape fares will become available again. You'd be surprised how manual allocating fares into VIA's ancient reservation system still is, but I'm confident that they will eventually notice that Escape has sold out for that train, once that date has moved into a more common booking window (maybe 60 or 90 days ahead, just like back home in Germany):

Spoiler

Liebe Grüße,

Johannes

 

[gopromaster]

Hallo Johannes,

thanks for the detailed analysis - you made a good point!
I am now confident to wait until December or January, and hope you are right

Viele Grüße,
Felix