Amtrak Guest Rewards - Seasonal low bucket pricing?

I am actually planning ahead to try and get an Amtrak low bucket fare that beats airfare, and collect on NTD :D, for a trip this May. I am running into a roadblock on the Empire Builder fares MSP-CHI, until the end of February the low fare is $59, March onward it is $100 every day. My intended trip connects to the Capitol Limited which does not seem to have this variation.

Is this driven by seasonal demand on the Builder or is this a way to extract extra revenue from those that plan ahead?

Would it be possible to book the trip with the current Builder bucket and refare a single leg once/if the price drops? Alternatively can I book CHI onward at the current fare so I can snag a cheap roomette and link/add a second reservation for the Builder when prices are more palatable?

Would it be possible to book the trip with the current Builder bucket and refare a single leg once/if the price drops? Alternatively can I book CHI onward at the current fare so I can snag a cheap roomette and link/add a second reservation for the Builder when prices are more palatable?

Yes and yes. ^ Amtrak allows refares and doesn't use conjunctive pricing for connecting long-distance train segments. Ergo, a change to one leg would not affect the fare on the other, and they could be booked together or separately at the same cost.

and they could be booked together or separately at the same cost.

Absolutely not true. Booking two separate trips, one SEA to CHI and then CHI to WAS would result in a higher fare than if one booked SEA to WAS on one reservation.

I just pulled up a random date in Jan, the 25th departing from SEA to WAS and Amtrak.com shows a fare of $208 just for a coach seat. I didn't bother with sleepers. Book that same trip on two reservations, SEA to CHI and then CHI -WAS will result in a combined fare of $246. Adding sleepers will make the disparity even worse.

One can book a round trip either together or on two reservations for the same price. But one cannot book a through trip separately on two reservations and still get the through price.

Would it be possible to book the trip with the current Builder bucket and refare a single leg once/if the price drops? Alternatively can I book CHI onward at the current fare so I can snag a cheap roomette and link/add a second reservation for the Builder when prices are more palatable?

It is indeed possible to change one leg of the reservation without affecting the other leg, and price drops can be dealt with by an agent and credit applied back to your card if the price drops. But do be careful with this.

If you get an agent that seems confused or to not understand, back off and try a different agent. Get the wrong agent and they can screw things up. I'd make sure that you have the agent read back the current fares for each leg, prior to starting the reprice, that way if they do screw things up you can at least remind them of the fares that they originally quoted you for each leg prior to starting the modification.

ARROW doesn't allow for a history review, so if they screw things up and accidentally reprice the Capitol leg while dealing with the Builder leg, there is no way that they can go back and find out what the original price was. However, if you make sure that they know what the price for that leg was by requesting that info, then if they do screw it up, they can reprice things back to the original bucket since they would hopefully remember that they just told you what price you had.

Above all, lock in the current prices that you see right now on one reservation so as to ensure that things don't go up.

AlanB, I'm actually quite shocked as I've never seen that kind of behavior with LD pricing before. :eek: Is it a recent phenomenon? Thanks for setting me straight on that and for your detailed suggestion to OP.

GoAmtrak,

No, that's been around for at least several years. Not sure if that happens in all cases with connecting trains, but definitely any connecting trains in Chicago will price out higher if you book two reservations instead of a through reservation.

GoAmtrak,

No, that's been around for at least several years. Not sure if that happens in all cases with connecting trains, but definitely any connecting trains in Chicago will price out higher if you book two reservations instead of a through reservation.

It does depend on the routing. MSP-CHI-PIT-LNC is equal to the sum of MSP-CHI and CHI-PIT-LNC. If I change the destination to PHL it routes through WAS and the cost of the additional WAS-PHL leg over a WAS destination is $2, definite savings there.

Current low bucket is $149 rail fare, a steal. With the "seasonal bucket increase" it is $213 so Delta looks a little more attractive. While the move may give Amtrak a higher recorded fare, it does risk driving some revenue off the books and to alternative modes.