HELP When to buy tickets??

[Jakeleg223]

Hello all,

I'm planning a trip home in late July from Michigan to Louisiana, My pan is to catch the 7/27/13 2:52 PM 353 Wolverine @ KAL to CHI and then a 3-4 hour layover for the CONO from CHI to HMD. Ive been watching AMSNAG for the best ticket prices on the CONO and trying to decided when to buy tickets. I know they have changed the way they price the tickets on that train "cono" and I'm not sure buying early is going to get me the low bucket. Should i wait a few months to buy hoping the tickets will drop a bit? It seems i saw this happen on the same route this winter when i was thinking about a trip north that never happened. The tickets started high several months out and then dropped the prior month to my date. Im trying to save every dime i can at 1st class with 2 adults and one child. Looks like 2 roomettes will be the way to go but @ almost 700$ one way every little bit will help. What would y'all do??

Thanks,

Jake

 

[Bob Dylan]

If you check amsnag.net you will see that on the day before, Fri 7/26 and the Mon after 7/29 that there are Bedrooms Available for $285 which would cover all three of you as well as the Meals and the Low Bucket Rail Fare is $125, you didnt indicate the Age of your child, but they should be 1/2 Price if of age! Roomettes are $135 so you could get Two (ask for Two across the aisle from each other)of them for a little less! Id go ahead and Book ASAP and if the Price dropped (July is not a Popular Month for NOL)you could Modify your Rez, But Don'tCancel it, that would Raise the Price if Fares had Gone to Higher buckets!!! Nice Trip, NOL is a Great Place to visit except during Carnival, Music Fests and the Super Bowl!

 

[Jakeleg223]

Jim, I just checked AMSNAG for that Monday you spoke about and i have the bedroom at 275! The Friday prior is at 334$. Sometimes i wonder about Amsnag or Amtraks system, You saw 285$ im seeing something completely different! My child will be 7 at point of travel so 1/2 the price should be good for her. I think i will book soon, i was not aware i could call back for a Modify and get the lower price, I assumed that if i booked it would bump the bucket for that day and it wouldn't get any cheaper. Am i wrong about that? I know I'm worrying about a small amount of money but ive always felt guilty traveling 1st class if i cant get it cheap as possible! I could drive the 2400 miles round trip with hotels cheaper, but i enjoy the train and consider part of the vacation. Im auctually from South Louisiana so i know all about N.O! We are bumming a ride with my parents " i do the driving" up to Michigan so im just planning a trip back on the train. Ive done it a few times before but things were alot cheaper then! I could get a roomette for 98 bucks if i booked early! Not anymore!!!!

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Yes, you can call back and get the lower price, but as Jim said, make sure they don't cancel your first rez before booking the new rez. They should be able to give you the same room(s) also. If the agent doesn't seem to know how to do it, ask for a supervisor or call back another time and hopefully you'll get an agent who knows how to do it.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Ever changing Fares are the Norm in all Forms of Transportation, that's what makes amnsag.net (developed by one of our Members, Paul M.)such a Valuable Tool! Thats a Great Price for the Bedroom, or the 2 Roomettes for a Little Less is also Good!

Book it Danno!

 

[Jakeleg223]

Thanks Guys, Well it looks like i wont get the best deal,just found out my wife will only have 8 days off by then, I've been bugging her for five to figure it out LOL. Tuesday will be a little too late. Looks like ill be a Saturday traveler! I'm going book in the next few days and maybe ill get lucky and it will drop a few bucks and ill modify then! Ive seen that happen on this train over the winter. I looked 6 months out and the list on the roomette was 220$ It dipped as low as 98$ just weeks before i was thinking about going. I know summer is a whole different ball game but maybe it will drop some! I guess i don't understand the bucket system, I thought that every time a ticket or room was sold for that train the price jumped a little? Or is it a group of seats or rooms?

Thanks for the help guys!

Jake

 

[AlanB]

I guess i don't understand the bucket system, I thought that every time a ticket or room was sold for that train the price jumped a little? Or is it a group of seats or rooms?

Jake,

It's a group of rooms. There are 5 pricing buckets for all Amtrak sleepers. The revenue management (RM) department can place X number of rooms within any of those 5 buckets and then later move them around at will. So for example, there are 5 bedrooms for sale on the CONO. RM could put 1 room into each bucket if they like. Or they could put 1 in the low bucket, zero in the next highest, 2 in the middle bucket, zero, and 2 in the highest. A month from now they could change things around if the rooms aren't selling and drop one of the high bucket rooms back one bucket. Or if they have 2 rooms sell on the day that rooms first become available, they could move all remaining rooms into the high bucket.

RM is going to do what they feel they need to do to maximize revenue from each train on each day of departure.

Now that's an over simplification, as there are only 5 Bedrooms & 5 buckets. Things get more complex when you have 3 sleeping cars and 30+ roomettes. But still the idea is the same, RM can place as many rooms as it wishes into each bucket, including zero into a given bucket. For example, right before Thanksgiving, you're unlikely to find any rooms in the low bucket at all. And probably only 1 or 2 in the next highest bucket. All the remaining rooms will be spread out over the 3 highest buckets, and probably even the middle bucket will be light by comparison to the two highest buckets.

Regardless, once all the rooms within a bucket are sold, automatically the computers start selling rooms at the next highest bucket level price. Now you could be the person who kicks the bucket, or it could remain at that price for days, even months until someone else gets that last room at that bucket price.

If RM decides that rooms aren't selling well enough and moves higher bucket rooms into lower buckets and you see that and call, then you can get an adjustment if you paid more. But please note that if you ask for a refund of that money to your credit card, you will pay the 10% refund penalty fee. If you ask for a voucher to use towards a future trip, then you'll get 100% of the difference back that way.

 

[Jakeleg223]

Thats great info. I just booked my trip and ran into a new issue, I called to make the res so i could request 2 roomettes on the lower level. To my surprise they wanted to add 55$ to the total for the trip!!! WHAT?? Ive alwas requested the lower level at no added cost. I had to go with the upper level to get the price shown online. I really dont like whatever they have done with the system.

Oh well, Im booked anyway.

Jake

 

[AlanB]

You got a bad agent who didn't know what to do, or how to do it properly, which is why he price went up.

If you really want lower level rooms call back and see if the new agent can do it right. If they can't, then ask for a supervisor who should be able to do it correctly.