Cancel and Rebooking at Lower Price

I have booked a trip on the CONO for 30 July 2012. At the moment it seems for the ticket and room I'm not getting the lowest fare. If the price goes down nearer the departure date can I book at the lower price and then cancel my original booking made at the higher price?

As long as you don't print the tickets or have them mailed to you then yes you can.

gilly said:

I have booked a trip on the CONO for 30 July 2012. At the moment it seems for the ticket and room I'm not getting the lowest fare. If the price goes down nearer the departure date can I book at the lower price and then cancel my original booking made at the higher price?

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I have not had a problem in the past with calling Amtrak and getting them to recognize the lower price for my booking. Usually, they will just change my reservation to the lower price, or change the room number to get me in on the lower rate. I usually have tickets in hand already, so I just go to the agent at the departure station and get my refund. I have never had to cancel and rebook to get the lower price.

Good grief! I just went and looked at a block of ticket prices for November. They must have gone up on the prices recently, quite a bit in fact. I remember a price of $96 for a roomette, not long ago.

Yes, your question was answered by LTR accurately. As long as the tickets aren't printed, you can cancel and rebook anytime.

Isn't it possible to say you have a Reservation and you saw a lower price online and you want that price??? Not having to cancel your current reservation??

Depends on the agent you get.

Unless you're wedded to the particular room you got, I'd take the safe route and book the cheaper option and then cancel your old reservation.

Acela150 said:

Isn't it possible to say you have a Reservation and you saw a lower price online and you want that price??? Not having to cancel your current reservation??

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Yes. Happened for me. For my roomette which dropped $26 in price, I called Amtrak. The agent verified that the price was now lower and issued a credit to my credit card. Wonderful system.

The price you pay on Amtrak seems like a bit of a lottery and booking early is not neccessarily cheaper. I checked tickets for March-April and they are significantly cheaper than August. Same happened last year when I booked the Zephyr 7 months in advance and then 3 months later the price had dropped by $90. It could be that they put a premium on travel in August and I'm not sure what the bucket price for the CONO is. I booked a ticket and a roomette round trip CHI-NOL for two and it came in at $780. Not sure if this is a low or high price. Any thoughts?

gilly said:

I booked a ticket and a roomette round trip CHI-NOL for two and it came in at $780. Not sure if this is a low or high price. Any thoughts?

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That seems very high to me. Most times I've looked, the roomette add on is $94. (Unless you're traveling in some special period - like Mardi Gris [sp?]!)

the_traveler said:

gilly said:

I booked a ticket and a roomette round trip CHI-NOL for two and it came in at $780. Not sure if this is a low or high price. Any thoughts?

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That seems very high to me. Most times I've looked, the roomette add on is $94. (Unless you're traveling in some special period - like Mardi Gris [sp?]!)

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The easiest way to find out is using Amsnag. You can search 30 day periods at a time and look at the prices. When you see a lower price anywhere, you know what to target for. E.g., Oct 15 to Nov 13 has low roomette at $129 (with with roomettes $160 and $221 on bad days) and coach at $115 with $180 on bad. The next 30 days shows coach at $115, $144 and $225. Roomettes are $129, $190 and $221. So over a 2 month period, you can figure the buckets have a low for room/coach at $129/$115 and a high of $221/$225. That means:

Best day coach: $115

Worst Day coach $225

Best day room for 1 with fare: $129 +$115 = $244

Worst day room for 1 with fare: $221 +115 = $336 [ room gets low fare]

Best day room for 2 with fare: $129 +$115 +$115 = $359

Worst day room for 2 with fare: $129 +$115+$115 = $474 [ room gets low fare]

While there could be other buckets not available, this should be the starting point for any trip planning.

Pat Harper said:

Good grief! I just went and looked at a block of ticket prices for November. They must have gone up on the prices recently, quite a bit in fact. I remember a price of $96 for a roomette, not long ago.

Yes, your question was answered by LTR accurately. As long as the tickets aren't printed, you can cancel and rebook anytime.

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If you cancel, isn't there some sort of a cancellation fee that's imposed? I believe if you opt to take a credit for future trips, there's no charge deducted. Just looked this up on the Amtrak website:

Refund/Exchange PolicyOnce the value of a refund has been determined, as described in the following paragraphs, passengers have two options on how to receive the refund value:

Exchange Voucher: Passengers may receive the full calculated refund value in the form of a non-refundable exchange voucher valid for future travel purchases. (Note: this option is not available online. See below for details on where to obtain refunds.)

Refund: Passengers may receive the calculated refund value, less a 10% refund service charge, in the form of cash, check or credit to credit card, depending on the form of payment that was used for the ticket(s) being refunded. The maximum amount imposed by Amtrak on this 10% refund service charge will be $100 per refund transaction on any single reservation.

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I recently noticed that the price of a trip I had booked from Tampa to Washington DC had dropped about $75 due to a reduction in the price for roomettes. I called up Amtrak and they refunded the difference to my credit card.

JoanieBlon said:

If you cancel, isn't there some sort of a cancellation fee that's imposed?

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As long as the tickets haven't been printed, not at all. When Amtrak cancelled my ticket due to flooding, I got a full refund on the first leg, then I told them since I had to book a flight, they may as well cancel the second leg. I got my entire purchase price credited to my credit card. At that time, it was a given that they wouldn't be back in full operation until AFTER my second leg, so they would have cancelled that leg as well if I hadn't done it.