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Just saw that on July 3rd a CZ Bedroom dropped almost $1,000 in the accommodation fare from $1662 to $681. I have seen drops before but not this much.
Bedroom on CZ drops almost $1000 overnight
- Thread starter Lonestar648
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It's still a huge drop in price if someone is looking to book that day regardless of "the buckets".That's nothing more than a decrease from the high to low bucket. That amount of change ($981) is topped only by that of the EB with an $1164 difference between high and low buckets, as seen below:
4 May 2017 Amtrak Fare Buckets.jpg
Ryan
Court Jester
Yep, it happens. Good on the person that snags it up.
That 59% price drop is indeed large, but it's not regardless of the buckets. It's in accordance with the pre-established buckets and anything is possible.
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Let's assume nobody cares about the data as much as you do. If the average person sees a $1000 drop in price, that's going to be pretty astounding.
Heck, I know about the buckets, but when I saw a bedroom drop from high-bucket to low-bucket on the SWC once, I grabbed it immediately. My boyfriend and I were traveling around Christmas and knew there was no way that bedroom would remain open for very long. Considering roomettes were only ~$100 cheaper at that point, it was a no-brainer.
Heck, I know about the buckets, but when I saw a bedroom drop from high-bucket to low-bucket on the SWC once, I grabbed it immediately. My boyfriend and I were traveling around Christmas and knew there was no way that bedroom would remain open for very long. Considering roomettes were only ~$100 cheaper at that point, it was a no-brainer.
Ryan
Court Jester
That's precisely what Betty was getting at. Outside of a few people overly obsessed with Amtrak, nobody knows or cares what buckets are. That's what "regardless of the buckets" meant. Not an invitation to share what you have or haven't seen in methodical tracking of all things buckety.
True, but there are just enough people on this site (or over on FT) who are obsessed with travel pricing stuff that sharing that stuff will find an audience...;-)
Another guess would be if the buckets drop that low then the sales quota for that train run has not been met. I would agree somewhat with the statement that buckets don't matter much. If you follow fares that carefully, you must have complete flexibility on your travel schedule in order to use the low fares. If you examine fare system history some real changes may lie ahead. Amtrak is in a period of flat growth so what will happen to the fare structure is a big question mark.
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What was the city pair? e.g. If it's DEN-EMY then the rooms might be sold out CHI-DEN. I've seen this behavior on the Meteor more than once.
Thirdrail7
Engineer
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You're not going to see much growth until you have more seats available through additional equipment or additional manipulation. It would be nice to be able to get some of the wrecked equipment back in service.
Ryan
Court Jester
And somehow their lives will be complete.
I never disputed that, that fact peacefully coexists with Betty's contention that most people neither know nor care.
Manny T
OBS Chief
What's a bucket? Thank you.
west point
Engineer
Flat growth ? Kind of hard to grow any route when we cannot get funds to expand present trains equipment !
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Ryan just proclaimed "Outside of a few people overly obsessed with Amtrak, nobody knows or cares what buckets are." so if you want to know what a bucket is - ask him.
Rail Freak
Engineer
TOOOO Funny!!!! :giggle:
Ryan
Court Jester
Awwwww, someone got their poor little feelings hurt.
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Less than 24 hours after it dropped $1000 the fare (CHI-EMY) returned to the High Bucket, thus in 24 hours the fare dropped and rose $1000. When I checked on reserving a couple bedroom with the lowest bucket, only one room out of 15 was available. Wonder if the Amtrak system had a hick-up because in a different thread it was reported of a crazy one day drop.
the_traveler
Engineer
I think (but am not sure) that if a reservation is cancelled, that seat or room goes back into inventory at the original fare (bucket) it was reserved at. Once that seat or room is rebooked, the bucket reverts to the previously current bucket.
If this is so, the current bucket (before someone canceled) was high bucket. Someone who booked months ago at low bucket canceled, so that room was available at low bucket - thus the drop. As soon as someone grabbed that room, the fare reverted to the current bucket (high bucket) for subsequent reservations - thus the increase.
If this is so, the current bucket (before someone canceled) was high bucket. Someone who booked months ago at low bucket canceled, so that room was available at low bucket - thus the drop. As soon as someone grabbed that room, the fare reverted to the current bucket (high bucket) for subsequent reservations - thus the increase.
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Interestingly, There was only one bedroom available yesterday for the low bucket and today there is still only one bedroom available, so there doesn't show to be a change is availability. Using your thought process, there should have been a change in quantity.
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While most riders care not about buckets, they do care about prices. I have talked to many people about Amtrak who said they looked into it once and found the prices to be way too high so didn't travel and never tried again. Unlike airlines that have more product (i.e. first class and coach seats) on each of their planes than Amtrak has on many of its trains (4 bedrooms and 20 roomettes on a 2-sleeper viewliner e.g.), their prices tend to change more slowly. In addition, because of the number of flights between city pairs other than the one airline flying direct whose prices are higher, competition and availability keeps changes from changing quickly.
Amtrak varies much more from day to day so people who look up prices on their site often pick the wrong day and get sticker shock. On the other hand, airlines often have pricing for a few days before and a few days after. There are also numerous sites that advertise their search engines that can check nearby cities at each end as well as multiple days and fare drop notification. Amtrak has no multi-day check and only we insiders know about Amsnag.
Amtrak varies much more from day to day so people who look up prices on their site often pick the wrong day and get sticker shock. On the other hand, airlines often have pricing for a few days before and a few days after. There are also numerous sites that advertise their search engines that can check nearby cities at each end as well as multiple days and fare drop notification. Amtrak has no multi-day check and only we insiders know about Amsnag.
the_traveler
Engineer
When you see the statement "Only 1 room left at this price" on the website, that does not mean that there is only 1 room left on the train. It only means that there is only 1 room left IN THAT BUCKET (say the 2nd bucket). After that room is sold, the next room will be in the next bucket (say the 3rd bucket).
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That is true, which is why I actually try to select a quantity of rooms but varying the passenger number 1 - 8 (8 can equal 4 - 8 rooms), so if the system says insufficient rooms, I reduce the passenger number. In this case the Bedroom said insufficient until I had two passengers, then would only allow one room to be selected, instead of one or two.
Tennessee Traveler
Conductor
In my experience particularly on the Empire Builder, the rise and fall from low bucket fare to high bucket fare is not really based on sales. Last year I bought(six months in advance) possibly the first bedroom on the Empire Builder for a April/May trip and it was one of the few times I did it on line and was assigned Bedroom E. Immediately after I purchase that one bedroom the bedroom fare jumped to high bucket fare without progressing through the other progressive buckets. When I called to request reassignment to Bedroom F, the AGR agent was not able to "modify" my reservation without charging me the high bucket fare. I kept checking the fare until I traveled but it never dropped from high bucket fare unless it did close to the actual trip date. I kept Bedroom E and traveled on the low bucket fare.
