Amtrak Weekely Specials?

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pnkgirl25

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Feb 8, 2008
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Does anyone know when amtrak weekly specials come out? Is it every Sunday or Monday or some other day?
 
had8ley said:
Unfortunately, it looks like they never change and haven't budged much in close to a year.
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I haven't been an astute observer of the page; but, while the trains always seem to be the same, the dates change.

Therefore there must, at least, be a time when those are updated.
 
sechs said:
had8ley said:
Unfortunately, it looks like they never change and haven't budged much in close to a year.
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I haven't been an astute observer of the page; but, while the trains always seem to be the same, the dates change.

Therefore there must, at least, be a time when those are updated.
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Technically you are 100% correct; marketing wise Amtrak gets a fat goose egg from me. Must be a hard job to change the dates on the same trains week after week after week...
 
As I recall, this has been discussed before, and the problem is, of course, Congress, not the Amtrak management per se.

So, write your legislators!
 
sechs said:
As I recall, this has been discussed before, and the problem is, of course, Congress, not the Amtrak management per se.
So, write your legislators!
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Already done that. What disturbs me is the fact that when you use the "Contact Us" to ask why there are no other specials, you don't get a reply. If the answer is so obvious why doesn't Amtrak divulge it to the public?
 
Congress did not prohibit weekly specials. They limited the discount to 50% of the regular fare to prevent Amtrak from selling tickets at ridiculously low fares (such as Philadelphia to Pittsburgh $70 marked down to $9, which actually happened). Fares like that have no commercial justification. Selling tickets at half price would still be fine and Amtrak could do that at any time on any route od its choosing.
 
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PRR 60 said:
Congress did not prohibit weekly specials. They limited the discount to 50% of the regular fare to prevent Amtrak from selling tickets at ridiculously low fares (such as Philadelphia to Pittsburgh $70 marked down to $9, which actually happened). Fares like that have no commercial justification. Selling tickets at half price would still be fine and Amtrak could do that at any time on any route od its choosing.
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BINGO !!! My point exactly. Thank you.
 
PRR 60 said:
Congress did not prohibit weekly specials. They limited the discount to 50% of the regular fare to prevent Amtrak from selling tickets at ridiculously low fares (such as Philadelphia to Pittsburgh $70 marked down to $9, which actually happened). Fares like that have no commercial justification. Selling tickets at half price would still be fine and Amtrak could do that at any time on any route od its choosing.
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I think you're wrong. Fares like that do have a justification. If you are running a Superliner from point A to point B as part of a train, and throughout that trip you have, say, 40 seats empty, you are getting $0 from those 40 seats. If you charge $9 for those 40 seats, you get $360 for those seats, and $360 is considerably more than 0. There is no justification in the world that could get you to sell $9 tickets for a car that isn't already coupled and has to have a TA already. If the $9 fare means adding another car or Train Attendant, than no, it doesn't have a justification.
 
Green Maned Lion said:
PRR 60 said:
Congress did not prohibit weekly specials. They limited the discount to 50% of the regular fare to prevent Amtrak from selling tickets at ridiculously low fares (such as Philadelphia to Pittsburgh $70 marked down to $9, which actually happened). Fares like that have no commercial justification. Selling tickets at half price would still be fine and Amtrak could do that at any time on any route od its choosing.
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I think you're wrong. Fares like that do have a justification. If you are running a Superliner from point A to point B as part of a train, and throughout that trip you have, say, 40 seats empty, you are getting $0 from those 40 seats. If you charge $9 for those 40 seats, you get $360 for those seats, and $360 is considerably more than 0. There is no justification in the world that could get you to sell $9 tickets for a car that isn't already coupled and has to have a TA already. If the $9 fare means adding another car or Train Attendant, than no, it doesn't have a justification.
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Using that logic GML, the weekly specials should also include sleepers - not just coach. If the Crescent goes from NYP-NOL, and someone only takes a sleeper on the overnight portion from WAS and gets off in ATL, that sleeper is available for the rest of the daylight trip. So why not offer it as a weekly special to someone going from BHM-NOL?

Likewise, trips like CHI-MSP, DEN-GJT, RNO-SAC and SEA-PDX are all daylight trips where a sleeper may not be used, and a TA is onboard. For those too, Amtrak is getting $-0- for that portion. (Yes, meals are included, so instead of $9, offer them slightly above the meal cost.)
 
the_traveler said:
I think you're wrong. Fares like that do have a justification. If you are running a Superliner from point A to point B as part of a train, and throughout that trip you have, say, 40 seats empty, you are getting $0 from those 40 seats. If you charge $9 for those 40 seats, you get $360 for those seats, and $360 is considerably more than 0. There is no justification in the world that could get you to sell $9 tickets for a car that isn't already coupled and has to have a TA already. If the $9 fare means adding another car or Train Attendant, than no, it doesn't have a justification.
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I once got $16 PHL-CHI (we're almost certainly talking about the same sale). And I agree 100%--this was a completely justified sale. Amtrak probably got at least $30 they wouldn't have gotten otherwise out of it from me, since I rode in coach and bought several meals worth of Amsnacks along the way. Assuming Amtrak knew in advance of advertising the sale that the train was extremely unlikely to sell out given past and recent data, this was completely justified. If they're carrying three coaches and know they sell about two-and-a-half coaches, offering fifteen tickets per trip at a deep discount is *not* cutting their profits *at all*; it's raising their profits on that immediate trip, it's giving them increased revenue through food sales (likely), and it's giving them a very satisfied customer (value/dollar is *extremely* high) who may become a repeat rider and who may provide good word-of-mouth PR for Amtrak to other non-riders.

Plus, there's a chance someone who got a $9 fare one-way (but was naturally taking a round-trip) was also paying full-fare for the return (and was quite willing to do so given the overall cheapness of their itinerary because of the sale on one direction, when they otherwise would have flown or taken a bus or driven).

the_traveler said:
Using that logic GML, the weekly specials should also include sleepers - not just coach. If the Crescent goes from NYP-NOL, and someone only takes a sleeper on the overnight portion from WAS and gets off in ATL, that sleeper is available for the rest of the daylight trip. So why not offer it as a weekly special to someone going from BHM-NOL?
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I have also gotten a good deal on a sleeper once, though it wasn't on an amtrak.com weekly special. Instead, I had a coach reservation and Amtrak called me about a week before my trip to ask if I wanted a deep-discount upgrade to a roomette or bedroom for the trip. I don't recall the price, so I can't tell you whether they were simply offering me "last-minute regular low-bucket" or if it was actually "below low-bucket, priced to sell". But they at least tried something approaching this idea once. I was traveling NYP-CHI, so it was actually an overnight full-distance use of the room rather than a day-time fill, though.

I agree, this would be excellent marketing and profit-increasing on their part.
 
Green Maned Lion said:
PRR 60 said:
Congress did not prohibit weekly specials. They limited the discount to 50% of the regular fare to prevent Amtrak from selling tickets at ridiculously low fares (such as Philadelphia to Pittsburgh $70 marked down to $9, which actually happened). Fares like that have no commercial justification. Selling tickets at half price would still be fine and Amtrak could do that at any time on any route od its choosing.
Click to expand...
I think you're wrong. Fares like that do have a justification. If you are running a Superliner from point A to point B as part of a train, and throughout that trip you have, say, 40 seats empty, you are getting $0 from those 40 seats. If you charge $9 for those 40 seats, you get $360 for those seats, and $360 is considerably more than 0. There is no justification in the world that could get you to sell $9 tickets for a car that isn't already coupled and has to have a TA already. If the $9 fare means adding another car or Train Attendant, than no, it doesn't have a justification.
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Several problems with your logic. First, you assume that all the buyers of the $9 ticket would not have traveled otherwise. I know that is false. When the specials showed up, passengers I know simply cancelled their $70 reservation for a full refund and booked the $9 special. Others booked the $9 seat when they would have been willing to pay the $70. Each case like that was a $61 loss of revenue, not a $9 gain. If just 20% of the $9 tickets were sold to passengers who would have paid $70, Amtrak lost money. I believe far more than 20% fit that description.

Second, Amtrak oddly required a 7 day advance purchase for the weekly specials back then. How did Amtrak know the seat that was booked at $9 with a 7 day AP would not have sold for $70 as a walk-up on the day of travel or that the train would not have sold out? Answer: they didn't. They were giving away seats that they did not even know would go unsold.

There is a point where you just say your service is too valuable to be given away. Theaters in New York routinely offer unsold seats on the day of the performance at 50% off. But they do not offer 90% off. There is good business practice and bad business practice. Selling your $70 product for $9 is bad business practice unless all you think it is worth is $9.
 
PRR 60 said:
Second, Amtrak oddly required a 7 day advance purchase for the weekly specials back then. How did Amtrak know the seat that was booked at $9 with a 7 day AP would not have sold for $70 as a walk-up on the day of travel or that the train would not have sold out? Answer: they didn't. They were giving away seats that they did not even know would go unsold.
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Market research could have given them reliable data here that those seats would go unsold. Did they do the research and base their sale decisions off of it? Who knows. But they could very well have had data that they were simply not going to sell some number of available seats and put most of those seats on sale priced to sell like hotcakes.

Again, it's not just the $9 they make on each sale. If 20% of the sale-grabbers saved $61, 80% paid $9; even if those percents are changed, some number of riders paid $9, and I would guess some significant portion of *them* wouldn't have strongly considered Amtrak otherwise. Having experienced Amtrak--comfortable way to travel, etc--they may well become repeat riders, while they otherwise would never have become riders at all. And again, market research could have given them numbers on how many people first-time riders (lured by sales) were likely to become repeat riders (at regular fares).

There was no way to prevent some riders from canceling $70 fares and saving $61; accepting that that would happen was presumably an acceptable issue, and presumably didn't (in their estimation) affect long-term revenue, being offset by increased revenue down the road.

Did they do the research? Who knows. Perhaps they were even doing the research on that sale, gathering data to see how many of those first-time riders did become repeat riders.
 
The way you could do that is to offer a "walk up" price the day of the travel, but have a policy that prevents you from canceling your reservations at the last minute such that you could take advantage of the discount. Most people want certainty about getting from A to B and are willing to pay for it. If they don't reserve the expensive seats or rooms, they are risking not getting one at all.
 
Green Maned Lion said:
The way you could do that is to offer a "walk up" price the day of the travel, but have a policy that prevents you from canceling your reservations at the last minute such that you could take advantage of the discount. Most people want certainty about getting from A to B and are willing to pay for it. If they don't reserve the expensive seats or rooms, they are risking not getting one at all.
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Sure, but few people are going to take that for a trip of any distance. I'm not likely to decide "hey, maybe I'll go to Chicago today, why don't I wander over to 30th St and see if there are discount tickets" the way I might think "hey, maybe I'll go to the theater tonight, why don't I wander over to the TIXX and see if there are cheap seats for something good".

Amtrak's long-distance sale customers are more likely to be thinking "hey, I need to go to Chicago in two weeks, what are my options... let's check Travelocity, and while I'm at it, what about Amtrak... oh, wow, Amtrak's a great deal! let's try that".

If I need to go to Chicago *today* from Philadelphia, I'm either going to accept whatever fare Amtrak offers me (if I can afford the Amtrak travel time) or go straight to Priceline. And most travelers wouldn't even consider Amtrak; I only would because I already know I like it and know I can make excellent use of the generous AGR points later.

I can see your Windy City Flyer model attracting last-minute long-distance fares (along with any similar "business hotel route"), but since those fares will be paid for by expense accounts (largely), there's no need to discount them (and strong incentive to sell them at premium prices up to the last minute, because a law firm will basically pay anything to have its lawyer well-rested and in Chicago at 9am tomorrow morning).
 
I guess you're right. I'm making the mistake of applying myself to the concept. I'd take a ride to Chicago or Seattle last minute if the price was right, but I'm probably a very small minority.
 
Many, many years ago, I lived in upstate NY. I found a weekly special from ALB-CHI for $17, one from CHI-DEN for $17, one from DEN-CHI for $17 and one from CHI-ALB for $17. As it turned out, all these were available for connecting trains! :D And for a quick day turnaround in DEN! :D :D

So, I left ALB on Thursday night, arrived on and spend the day Saturday sightseeing in DEN, left DEN on Saturday night and arrived back in ALB on Monday morning! I had no previous plans to take Amtrak that weekend!

Because of these 4 weekly sale offering, Amtrak took in $68 for 1 seat on 4 trains - instead of $-0- for 1 seat on 4 trains! Add to that the cost of the 3 meals I ate in the dining car in each direction!

I think this is good marketing - to get $100+ from me that I was not planning to spend that weekend. And the trains would have carried the empty seats and food on the Dining car any way. Any I didn't take the seat from someone who would have paid $xxx.
 
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