Advice on booking the EP for next Aug or Sept

[AstroCat]

The Empire Builder from Chicago to Glacier National Park fills up amazing quickly for travel during the summer months. If I want to travel next August or September, it is time to book. I am curious as to what the best strategy is.

Amtrak allows you to book trains up to 11 months in advance. To test this, on Sept 17, 2008 I tried booking a train that ran on Aug 17, 2009 and it was allowed. When I tried booking a train for Aug 18, 2009 – it was not allowed. The booking period appears to be 11 months, based on calendar date.

The point is that even booking 11 months in advance, it seems that fares and roomettes are higher than I expected. I suppose I will have to get up very early in the morning to be among the very first to make a reservation on a certain train for a certain date. Also, it seems wise to book the reservation as two separate one-way trips, in each case booking the trip on exactly 11 months before the travel date.

Is this what others have done in order to book summer travel on the EP at the best price? Just curious.

 

[the_traveler]

What may be happening with the EB is this.

The EB is especially popular during the summer. It may be booked by tour groups - for instance for a package to Glacier NP with rail. They may book a block of say 5 rooms in August 2008 for July 2009. This puts the remaining rooms in a high(er) bracket. Then they find that by March 2009, the packages for July are not selling like they thought, so they cancel the unsold rooms.

These rooms go back into the available inventory - but at the original fare bucket paid!

Thus, it my be possible that a room booked by someone in April 2009 could be at the lowest bucket, while the room you booked last August was at the highest bucket!

 

[access bob]

The Empire Builder from Chicago to Glacier National Park fills up amazing quickly for travel during the summer months. If I want to travel next August or September, it is time to book. I am curious as to what the best strategy is.
Amtrak allows you to book trains up to 11 months in advance. To test this, on Sept 17, 2008 I tried booking a train that ran on Aug 17, 2009 and it was allowed. When I tried booking a train for Aug 18, 2009 – it was not allowed. The booking period appears to be 11 months, based on calendar date.

The point is that even booking 11 months in advance, it seems that fares and roomettes are higher than I expected. I suppose I will have to get up very early in the morning to be among the very first to make a reservation on a certain train for a certain date. Also, it seems wise to book the reservation as two separate one-way trips, in each case booking the trip on exactly 11 months before the travel date.

Is this what others have done in order to book summer travel on the EP at the best price? Just curious.

I always try to book my trips as soon as I have the dates, and the money. I was told (but haven't checked) that you can book Amtrak up to 350 days out?! the 11 months makes more sense though.

Bob

 

[Ispolkom]

The point is that even booking 11 months in advance, it seems that fares and roomettes are higher than I expected. I suppose I will have to get up very early in the morning to be among the very first to make a reservation on a certain train for a certain date. Also, it seems wise to book the reservation as two separate one-way trips, in each case booking the trip on exactly 11 months before the travel date.

I can understand sleepers and roomettes selling into high buckets (on my trip last month on the Empire Builder I counted three different tour groups), but good Lord, even coach prices are expensive. MSP-PDX is $245 for 8/17/09 purchased now, while the same ticket purchased last October for 8/22/08 was $141. I thought that Amtrak might have increased prices, but if so they are doing it for lots of destinations: MSP-MOT for 8/17/09 is $98 vs. the bucket of $57 (a rate I know well). Another fact that points to demand being the culprit is that these high fares are confined to the high season for Glacier National Park. Fares in May, for instance, are much more reasonable. That, of course, doesn't do you any good.

 

[Ed]

Fares are definitely higher on the EB next summer vs this past summer. I booked 8 months in advance for a trip this past June. The fare was in the low $300 (Round trip) and the low bucket for bedroom was $440 (one way). Now the fare is low $400 and the low bucket for a bedroom is $1162. This has definitely priced me out of a train trip next summer as the bedroom is the only way we will travel. I do hope it is the tour groups that took the rooms and will maybe give them back. Otherwise, my days with AMTRAK have been priced out.

 

[VentureForth]

It's all about the scenery, baby. The first Daylight Savings trip for two in a roomette next March can be had from CHI to SEA for $492. This will get you West-bound daylight until just before Essex, MT if the train is on time. Interestingly, that's about $90 less than the same trip on the shortest day of the year in December.

Again, the same trip on the longest day next Summer runs $798. That extra $300 will buy you sunlight to Whitefish.

Looks like the best sunlight/cost value is on May 22nd - $492 with only about 7 minutes less daylight than the Summer Solstice. Hmmm... now I'm wondering... Can I get my wife to go???? Hmmm...