Originally Posted by
physioprof
One aspect of dynamic pricing is that far-advance bookings are frequently offered only high prices, with the assumption that people booking far in advance have no time/date flexibility so will tolerate a high price to lock in what they need AND that if bookings are coming in low, there is plenty of time to lower prices later.
I don't think this is true for Amtrak in theory or in practice.
Advance bookings that have high prices typically do so because the low-price tickets have sold out even farther in advance.
Tickets are sold a maximum of 11 months in advance, and so while 3 months may seem like far-in-advance, it's not for the trains that sell out (try Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Now, Amtrak has been changing things around lately and people have started to see last-minute price drops on fares when that never used to happen, so your milage may vary.
But I would counsel it is definitely a mistake to wait before booking hoping that a fare will go down. Book it now as a flex fare and you can always change it if the fare goes down, or cancel it or change it to a different date/citypair if the price is too dear or plans change.