Deceptive sales, a vent

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Bex

Bex

Service Attendant
Joined
Dec 6, 2014
Messages
215
Location
NEC
I mentioned this in another thread, how Amtrak often sends emails out regarding "sales" which are really just letting you know Saver fares exist and are not an actual limited time sale, but I feel like it's reached a new low with a promotion I received today from Choice Privileges, a hotel rewards program. I'm a member even though I have zero points and rarely stay at hotels.

"Ride the Rails at 25% OFF!
Choice Privileges® members save 25% on Amtrak® fares!
*Amtrak coach tickets must be booked by April 22, 2019, for travel by July 18, 2019."

It then gives you a special link that takes you to https://www.amtrak.com/choice. But the fares via that link are no different even when looking within the dates they provide and other restrictions. So I called Amtrak and the CSR admitted that that 25% is the Saver fare. That anyone gets. At any date.

I want Amtrak to succeed and I want as many people as possible to be tempted to ride but it's really frustrating when they make it seem like an actual sale and instead it's just the regular Saver fare. I know other companies do similar things; Lands End clothing is "30% off" or more every day, for example, but I still wish they would stop doing this. I'd stop opening their promotional "sale" emails except every so often there is an actual sale. Sigh.
 
TBH I stopped paying attention to Amtrak sales years ago for a whole host of reasons (mostly upgrade restrictions on "sale fares"), and indeed Amtrak's "bad behavior" with the E-bucket restricted coach fares trained me not to book in advance since the website would "force" those onto you.
 
I never paid attention to their promotional emails, but I do hate it when companies try to trick you into buying something at a normal price by making you think its a sale. Safeway does this, at one point yellow tags meant sales only, now they can also be the normal price, but packaged. For instance a sausage I buy is $1.50 and a couple years ago they would be white tagged at $1.50. Now they'll be yellow tagged at 2 for $3...and now an orange tag is the super sale! I get why Amtrak would try to trick people into buying "Saver" tickets for normal price, but the hotel company should be giving you a discount on their end. Sorry to get off topic.
 
Yeah, I kind of have to pay attention because I ride twice a week so an actual sale can save me $100 or more. And they had a lot of those last year. But this year, so far, it's just been these fake ones.
 
Bex said:
I mentioned this in another thread, how Amtrak often sends emails out regarding "sales" which are really just letting you know Saver fares exist and are not an actual limited time sale, but I feel like it's reached a new low with a promotion I received today from Choice Privileges, a hotel rewards program. I'm a member even though I have zero points and rarely stay at hotels.

"Ride the Rails at 25% OFF!
Choice Privileges[emoji768] members save 25% on Amtrak[emoji768] fares!
*Amtrak coach tickets must be booked by April 22, 2019, for travel by July 18, 2019."

It then gives you a special link that takes you to https://www.amtrak.com/choice. But the fares via that link are no different even when looking within the dates they provide and other restrictions. So I called Amtrak and the CSR admitted that that 25% is the Saver fare. That anyone gets. At any date.

I want Amtrak to succeed and I want as many people as possible to be tempted to ride but it's really frustrating when they make it seem like an actual sale and instead it's just the regular Saver fare. I know other companies do similar things; Lands End clothing is "30% off" or more every day, for example, but I still wish they would stop doing this. I'd stop opening their promotional "sale" emails except every so often there is an actual sale. Sigh.
Click to expand...

Funny thing.....I’m a Choice Rewards member, stay at their hotels most of my trips on Amtrak and have never seen a promotion like this. I’m not doubting you received this, but I just haven’t.
 
sttom said:
I never paid attention to their promotional emails, but I do hate it when companies try to trick you into buying something at a normal price by making you think its a sale. Safeway does this, at one point yellow tags meant sales only, now they can also be the normal price, but packaged. For instance a sausage I buy is $1.50 and a couple years ago they would be white tagged at $1.50. Now they'll be yellow tagged at 2 for $3...and now an orange tag is the super sale! I get why Amtrak would try to trick people into buying "Saver" tickets for normal price, but the hotel company should be giving you a discount on their end. Sorry to get off topic.
Click to expand...

Sadly, it seems that many, if not most, advertisers do this. In 2001, I visited an auto dealership, and there was a used green car for sale on the lot. Its price showed as $13,999. Five days later, when I went to pick up the car that I had purchased, I saw the same green car still parked in the same spot, but its price now showed as" WAS $17,999--SALE PRICE NOW $13,999." I'm afraid that it has only gotten worse since then in all industries.
 
Speaking of auto sales, I've noticed that that dealers now refer to their "BLOWOUT (whatever)" as a "Sales Event" (sometimes in small print or whispered voice). This to me means their actual "drive off" will not likely be any lower outside this "Event" than it would otherwise.
 
The pathetic part about all of this is that (at least on the LD trains) Saver fares are 20% off (less than) the low bucket (aka, Value) coach fares - not 25% off. As far as I can tell the 25% comes into play only when comparing the low bucket Value fare to the Saver fare - the Value fare is 25% higher (more than) the Saver fare.

Must have been some real mathematical genius at Choice that came up this gimmick. And if you think I'm blowing smoke your way, here are the all the known fares for the LD trains to practice on:
22-18 Jan 2019 Fare Buckets.jpg
Can you find the one and only LD train whose Saver fare is not 20% off (less than) its low bucket Value fare?
 
Last edited:
andytiedye said:
That would be the Auto Train. Saver fare is $5 more than it should be.
Click to expand...
Bingo!

But a little deeper digging showed that there are indeed some routes with Saver fares 25% less than the next higher fares: https://www.amtrak.com/savings-made-simple-amtrak-saver-fares

Guess I never noticed them simply because I seldom travel on them. So I guess Choice members as well as anybody else on the planet can indeed save 25% - provided they book travel on Acela or Cascades trains. But on NEC and LD trains a Saver fare is only 20% less (except for the Auto train which is only 15% less).

As others have said, it's nothing more than tricking you into believing you're getting a special deal which is also available to all 7 billion of us. At least Amtrak has the wording right when saying "Save Up To 25% on Travel".
 
Yeah, I'm mystified by the offer I got from AGR with a 30% off coupon. I know the restriction about it applying to the full adult fare and only for coach or business class seats ("Offer is not valid on sleeping car accommodations but *may* be used in conjunction with sleeping car booking upon full payment of the accommodation charge). It doesn't say anything about points but I'm guessing they can't be used.

So I did a comparison of the fare from FTW to WAS using the senior fare, which is now 15% off with the same restrictions as above; alongside the 30% coupon, using the exact same dates and the same trains. The 30% deal came to just under $25 MORE. But 30% is twice the senior discount.There's something I'm not understanding here...
 
Did you forget that the 10% (not 15%) Senior discount applies only to the Coach portion of the total fare - and not to any sleeper upcharge?
 
niemi24s said:
Did you forget that the 10% (not 15%) Senior discount applies only to the Coach portion of the total fare - and not to any sleeper upcharge?
Click to expand...

No I didn't forget. The 30% coupon has the same restrictions. So it still seems to me that the 30% should be cheaper than the senior discount, even more so now - 30% is 3 times 10%. I still don't understand what I'm missing.
 
Conceptually, they need that wiggle room because dollars don't always round off nice and neat even if they're not pulling any shenanigans (and don't forget, you've got thousands of city pairs to deal with here).

The only guess I have, and it doesn't make sense, is that the 30% sale doesn't apply to some bucket that the 10% does. But like I said, it doesn't make sense if that's applying in the case of sleeper fares, etc. It might be worth calling in (with the base fares alongside to compare) to ask what's up.
 
Anderson said:
Conceptually, they need that wiggle room because dollars don't always round off nice and neat even if they're not pulling any shenanigans (and don't forget, you've got thousands of city pairs to deal with here).

The only guess I have, and it doesn't make sense, is that the 30% sale doesn't apply to some bucket that the 10% does. But like I said, it doesn't make sense if that's applying in the case of sleeper fares, etc. It might be worth calling in (with the base fares alongside to compare) to ask what's up.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking that's the only way it does make sense, even though it really doesn't...personally I think I'd take it through an AGR agent to sort it out. I've never been screwed by them. I've actually had them call me back once and issue a refund because I was charged too much.
 

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