Fare increase closer to departure ?

[Old man vagabond]

I'm planning a May 2013 round trip ABQ - SAN. At this time the fare quoted online is $214.80

I'm a senior, disabled, and have a lot of problems with stairs.

Therefore I intend to book lower level on the SWC and 'business class' (?) on the Pacific Surfliner, which is relected in this price..

I've read a few times here and elsewhere that fares increase the closer one gets to departure.

As my trip isn't for 5+ months, is there a wild guess on how long this fare will last before it starts to increase?

Thanks

 

[Henry Kisor]

I start watching fares on Amsnag (http://amwatch.hostzi.com/amSnag.php) about five to six months ahead of departure time and usually pull the trigger three months ahead. I don't travel by train in the summer months or during holidays. If you use Amsnag to examine and "predict" fares you will generally be able to get the lowest bucket, or close to it. Much less of a crapshoot that way.

In my experience, traveling in the middle of the week, especially Wednesdays, is cheapest.

 

[GaSteve]

It has more to do with how much inventory is sold than the amount of time before the trip. Less inventory = higher fares. Inventory tends to decrease as time goes on.

 

[PRR 60]

I'm planning a May 2013 round trip ABQ - SAN. At this time the fare quoted online is $214.80

I'm a senior, disabled, and have a lot of problems with stairs.

Therefore I intend to book lower level on the SWC and 'business class' (?) on the Pacific Surfliner, which is relected in this price..

I've read a few times here and elsewhere that fares increase the closer one gets to departure.

As my trip isn't for 5+ months, is there a wild guess on how long this fare will last before it starts to increase?

Thanks

Coach fares are fully refundable up to 1 day prior to travel, so booking now would lock-in your lower level seat without risk. If the fare goes up you're protected, and if it goes down, you can rebook at the lower fare and get a full refund of the difference. The business class seat on the Surfliner would follow the same refund rules as the coach fare on the Southwest Chief.

 

[Old man vagabond]

I start watching fares on Amsnag (http://amwatch.hostzi.com/amSnag.php) about five to six months ahead of departure time and usually pull the trigger three months ahead. I don't travel by train in the summer months or during holidays. If you use Amsnag to examine and "predict" fares you will generally be able to get the lowest bucket, or close to it. Much less of a crapshoot that way.

In my experience, traveling in the middle of the week, especially Wednesdays, is cheapest.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

 

[AlanB]

Old Man,

Please keep in mind that the lower level seats you see for sale on Amtrak.com are seats that are sold directly to the public without restriction.

Additional seats are held out of the online inventory for those who have a disability. You can only get those seats by calling Amtrak and those seats may be cheaper.

 

[Guest]

Not only can fares go up, but trains can sell out.

 

[the_traveler]

As Alan stated, you have to call for the disability discount. When calling, also check out the disability rate of rooms on the train! :excl: (There are rooms on the lower level also.) I'm not saying it will, but it may be possible that these rooms are less than, or close to, the coach fare! And rooms also include meals from the dining car - your attendant can bring them to your room for you.

in coach, the attendant can also bring your meals, but you must pay for them.

 

[Old man vagabond]

As Alan stated, you have to call for the disability discount.....in coach, the attendant can also bring your meals, but you must pay for them.

Percentage-wise, what's difference between the 'senior discount' and a 'disabled discount'?

As for meals, my trip is basically an over nighter ABQ-LAX and I'll bring snacks, etc.

As for LAX-SAN the business class gets a light snack; and I'll still have some snack food left.

 

[PRR 60]

As Alan stated, you have to call for the disability discount.....in coach, the attendant can also bring your meals, but you must pay for them.

Percentage-wise, what's difference between the 'senior discount' and a 'disabled discount'?

As for meals, my trip is basically an over nighter ABQ-LAX and I'll bring snacks, etc.

As for LAX-SAN the business class gets a light snack; and I'll still have some snack food left.

Both are 15%. Check HERE for all the Amtrak policies concerning passengers with disabilities.

 

[AlanB]

As Alan stated, you have to call for the disability discount.....in coach, the attendant can also bring your meals, but you must pay for them.

Percentage-wise, what's difference between the 'senior discount' and a 'disabled discount'?

It's 15% just like the Senior discount.

However, one thing that is important to remember here is that regular lower level seats have pricing buckets, so that 15% is applied to whatever the current bucket is. I'm not sure if the lower level seats held out for those with a disability have buckets or not, but even if they do have buckets they could be at a different bucket level than the "regular" seats. So you should always check both prior to booking.

One other thing that I just noticed, one can now book these special seats on line. It used to be that one had to call to get them. I'm not sure if one can book the H-Room via the online system yet or if one must still call for that.

Finally, if you have a traveling companion accompanying you and assuming that they're not a senior, then you should book a disabled seat, as they too would get the 15% discount.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Discount or not, I suggest that you book as soon as possible. No need to take your chances and wait.

 

[Trainut]

In my travels, I use the H room and found the H room is the same price as the Superliner Roomette. That is the only discount I have found traveling in sleepers. Never Traveled coach.

 

[AlanB]

Yes, the "discount" if you will for the H-room is that one is getting a room that is the size of a Bedroom including a toilet for the price of a Roomette.

But you should also still get the 15% discount on your railfare too.

 

[diecastaussie]

I'm planning a May 2013 round trip ABQ - SAN. At this time the fare quoted online is $214.80

I'm a senior, disabled, and have a lot of problems with stairs.

Therefore I intend to book lower level on the SWC and 'business class' (?) on the Pacific Surfliner, which is relected in this price..

I've read a few times here and elsewhere that fares increase the closer one gets to departure.

As my trip isn't for 5+ months, is there a wild guess on how long this fare will last before it starts to increase?

Thanks

Coach fares are fully refundable up to 1 day prior to travel, so booking now would lock-in your lower level seat without risk. If the fare goes up you're protected, and if it goes down, you can rebook at the lower fare and get a full refund of the difference. The business class seat on the Surfliner would follow the same refund rules as the coach fare on the Southwest Chief.

I'm not sure that your last statement "get a full refund of the difference" on rebooked tickets is correct.

I recently discovered that fares on 2 of 4 sectors of a trip across America that my wife and I will be doing next March had dropped considerably and would be well worth rebooking at the latest "lower fares".

Rebooking was not a problem although the lengthy phone call from Australia was a bit costly, however, it was explained to me that rebooking entailed first cancelling my existing bookings which would mean that a 10% cancellation fee would apply before the new bookings could be made at the new rates.

Consequently a refund that we thought would be more than $200 suddently shrunk to less than $100; still a win, but not the full refund of the difference that we thought that we would receive.

 

[calwatch]

With e-ticketing you either get a voucher that you can only use at a staffed station, or a refund of the difference minus the 10% cancellation fee. But the fee should be 10% of the amount refunded. In the future, if you were informed this way, I would respectfully decline and call another agent who would process it as an exchange and thus trigger a fee of 10% of the $200 refunded.

 

[Diecastaussie]

With e-ticketing you either get a voucher that you can only use at a staffed station, or a refund of the difference minus the 10% cancellation fee. But the fee should be 10% of the amount refunded. In the future, if you were informed this way, I would respectfully decline and call another agent who would process it as an exchange and thus trigger a fee of 10% of the $200 refunded.

Thanks for the explaination, unfortunately the rebooking is already done although we definitely lost far more than 10% of the actual fare difference. However, they also gave us a voucher for about $8 which we can only use for train travel and only if booking in person at a ticket counter.

Nice, but not much use to us Aussies who won't get to America again for a while.

 

[PRR 60]

With e-ticketing you either get a voucher that you can only use at a staffed station, or a refund of the difference minus the 10% cancellation fee. But the fee should be 10% of the amount refunded. In the future, if you were informed this way, I would respectfully decline and call another agent who would process it as an exchange and thus trigger a fee of 10% of the $200 refunded.

The 10% refund penalty applies to sleeper travel. The OP is going in coach, and for coach travel there is no penalty for refunds one or more days in advance of departure.

 

[VentureForth]

I don't think that's true anymore, PRR 60. Ever since the new refund policies that began at the beginning of last month, ANY refund has a 10% penalty unless taken as an eVoucher that has to be redeemed at an Amtrak staffed station.

According to the Policies page on the Amtrak.com site:

Refund Fee
Where applicable, refund fee is 10% of the total amount refunded, with a minimum amount of $5.00 and a maximum amount of $100.00 per refund transaction. Unless stated otherwise, if a ticket is refundable, the passenger may avoid any refund fee by accepting the full refund value of the ticket as an eVoucher or other exchange credit, good toward future travel within one year.

 

[PRR 60]

I don't think that's true anymore, PRR 60. Ever since the new refund policies that began at the beginning of last month, ANY refund has a 10% penalty unless taken as an eVoucher that has to be redeemed at an Amtrak staffed station.

According to the Policies page on the Amtrak.com site:

Refund Fee
Where applicable, refund fee is 10% of the total amount refunded, with a minimum amount of $5.00 and a maximum amount of $100.00 per refund transaction. Unless stated otherwise, if a ticket is refundable, the passenger may avoid any refund fee by accepting the full refund value of the ticket as an eVoucher or other exchange credit, good toward future travel within one year.

The key phrase is where applicable. If you scroll up on that same page, you will see the situations when the refund is and is not applicable. The 10% refund fee does not apply to reserved coach (which includes all long distance coach travel) when the reservation is cancelled more then one day prior to the date and time of departure.

Here are the rules:

Refund Calculations

Refunds will be calculated for the total fare paid for each trip, as described below.

Passenger travel in a reservation is grouped into trips. A trip is a grouping of continuous travel. Example: A booking Wilmington - Washington - Chicago - Seattle with same-day connections is one trip. Refund rules are applied based on the scheduled departure for the first travel in a trip. When more than one type of travel is in a trip, the refund policy is applied to the entire trip based on the primary travel type in the trip which is determined in the following order:

Sleeper Travel: If canceled 15 or more days before scheduled departure, refund fee applies. If canceled 14 days or fewer before scheduled departure, but before the scheduled departure, ticket is not refundable but the value may be applied within one year toward future travel. If not canceled before scheduled departure (no show), entire amount is forfeited.

Acela Express First Class and non-Acela Business Class: If canceled before scheduled departure, full refund without refund fee. If not canceled before departure (no show), ticket is refundable with a refund fee.

Reserved Coach and Acela Express Business Class: If canceled more than 24 hours before scheduled departure, the ticket is fully refundable. If canceled within 24 hours of departure or not canceled a refund fee applies.

Unreserved Coach: Refund fee applies at all times.

Advance Booking/Purchase Fare: Refundability is based on the rules applying to the particular fare. Some advance booking/purchase fares are not refundable.

 

[VentureForth]

I could be very wrong, but I would venture to say that this page has not been updated since the policy change.

 

[PRR 60]

I could be very wrong, but I would venture to say that this page has not been updated since the policy change.

That page is current and reflects the new policy.

 

[Ryan]

That certainly want the case when I cancelled a regional trip more than 24 hours in advance and had to take the voucher to get the full value a few months ago.