To be clear, this change is for the 50% discount for children traveling in a party with adults. This is somewhat disappointing, but not surprising given how most routes are as popular as they've ever been. Amtrak is controlling their scarce inventory and managing yields much more tightly than they ever did before the era of big data.

For unaccompanied minors, ages 13-15 still fall into the governed range (and 12-and-under UMs are banned entirely). As one who started traveling regularly on my own at age 13, I say .