Originally Posted by
zephyr17
The rail fare portion of the sleeper fare, which is what the cost is for an open sleeper, used to be the lowest "Value" coach yield management bucket. It never was the lowest "Saver" coach fare.
Sometime during the last couple years they changed it so it is now the second lowest "Value" coach bucket.
The change was well before the return of traditional dining on the western trains, I doubt they are related.
Even with the change, the accommodation charge is still far more expensive than the rail fare portion. Further, Amtrak seems to have become very aggressive in the last 6 months in their yield management for sleeping car space, especially in the initial allocation when inventory is released for sale 11 months in advance. They'll adjust it and reallocate some inventory into lower buckets if demand doesn't develop, but they seem to be doing that piecemeal.
I typically take 2 long distance train trips per year and book my tickets when they first open up. Fares are much higher this year than last. Have you actually seen them go down recently? I've only seen them go up, often after only 1-2 rooms are booked. I reserved CIN-SLC yesterday for next Aug. The Family BR $931, Roomette $1042, and Bedroom $2000+. I fortunately reserved a family BR which we like much better than Roomette. Bedrooms are about twice the cost as last year for our trip to Glenwood Springs.