Sleeper Pricing

[GoldenSpike]

I'll never understand the logic of how Amtrak determines sleeper pricing. In one case in the past traveling MSP - SEA, I got a FBR

way cheaper than a Roomette. Even the SCA was amazed.

 

If you are traveling on a Roomette budget, but would really like a BR, I stumbled on to this little gem if you are traveling LAX-SEA

between December 7-13 this year for your consideration.

 

Roomette: $ 497... BR: $ 498

 

SAC-SEA for the same dates: Roomette: $336 ... BR: $333

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Amtrak has revenue managers that check and change the fares. There's no real pattern but obviously the rev. managers do have so training to do which chages in what situations, like lower prices when nobody's buying.

 

[Ispolkom]

Thanks a lot, GoldenSpike! Your posting led me to poke around at future travel dates, and I discovered to my amazement, not relatively high roomette prices on the Empire Builder, but bottom bucket ones in both November and December, prices I haven't seen in months. The difference: I was looking at travel between two intermediate stations (Minot and St. Paul), not end-points. You just saved me $41!

My guess is that the roomettes now available at bottom price are already reserved for another partial trip somewhere else on the Hi-Line, and revenue management decided to cut the price in hopes of enticing additional revenue. FWIW, the price for a roomette on #28 the day I'm traveling just jumped from $93 (bottom bucket) to $176 (third bucket), after I made my new, cheaper reservation.

 

[Guest]

What's there to figure out? Buy the bedroom!

 

[Ryan]

I'll never understand the logic of how Amtrak determines sleeper pricing. In one case in the past traveling MSP - SEA, I got a FBR

way cheaper than a Roomette. Even the SCA was amazed.

It's pretty simple supply and demand. If people bought up all of the roomettes and nobody had bought a FBR, you'd expect to see exactly that.

 

[the_traveler]

As said, it's the law of supply and demand. Less people bought bedrooms on that train than bought roomettes, so the bedrooms were cheaper on that day!

I had a similar experience when using airline points to send my BIL to Poland to see his father. Unlike Amtrak, airlines only set aside a certain number of seats at the low rate. After that, you can redeem for any available seat for double the points. On his return, the "cheap" coach award seats (for 50,000 miles) were not available, so coach would cost 100,000 miles!

However the cheap First Class seats were available for 80,000 miles. So I had to decide if I wanted to spend 100 K for coach trans-Atlantic or 80 K for First Class on a daytime flight!

 

[Anderson]

The best way to think of it is that a roomette is good for 1 or 2 travelers. A bedroom is good for 1-3 passengers. While not quite substitutes, Amtrak is going to want to keep bedrooms open for those larger groups of passengers as a rule.

However, when the roomettes run particularly low on a given run, this ceases to be a concern...particularly on Superliner trains, where you may have 12-18 bedrooms on board. At that point, it becomes entirely a matter of filling space on the train, regardless of what kind of space is being filled. Indeed, leaving a roomette or two free might be desirable in some cases depending on the actual distribution of the existing roomette sales...for example, Amtrak might want to have through space LAX-PDX/SEA free in the Starlight roomettes to avoid "lockouts" of through sleeper traffic originating south of the Bay Area, and in such a case they might even want to encourage bedroom purchases for shorter-distance travelers to keep some of that space open.

 

[GoldenSpike]

Thanks a lot, GoldenSpike! Your posting led me to poke around at future travel dates, and I discovered to my amazement, not relatively high roomette prices on the Empire Builder, but bottom bucket ones in both November and December, prices I haven't seen in months. The difference: I was looking at travel between two intermediate stations (Minot and St. Paul), not end-points. You just saved me $41!

Your welome. Info sharing is one of the great things about forums such as AU.