View train inventory?
Mar 22, 2018, 8:38 am
#2
Join Date: Jun 2014
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None as far as I know. The best way I know of is looking at the fare buckets on Amtrak.com. X% of seats are available at saver, value and flexible buckets. If a train only has flexible tickets in advance then you know it will be packed. Saver tickets are only sold more than 2 weeks out.
Mar 22, 2018, 3:39 pm
#4
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It's actually kind of a good question.
Amtrak does sell via travel agents, and they do have an IATA code (2V), so presumably they do return inventory via the GDS. (I once found some instructions for how to log into ARROW and access information from a GDS terminal, but I had lost Sabre access so couldn't play around with it ) It'd be interesting to see if they return fare bucket information like the GDSes do for airlines.
Amtrak does sell via travel agents, and they do have an IATA code (2V), so presumably they do return inventory via the GDS. (I once found some instructions for how to log into ARROW and access information from a GDS terminal, but I had lost Sabre access so couldn't play around with it ) It'd be interesting to see if they return fare bucket information like the GDSes do for airlines.
Mar 22, 2018, 6:00 pm
#6
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https://richmedia.sabre.com/Docs_Sup...etAmtrakQR.pdf
Note the first action is to log into ARROW directly with ¤¤AMK. Subsequent to that, any commands you're issuing are, I think, transmitted directly to ARROW, so even though you're accessing it "through" Sabre, you're actually talking directly to ARROW.
Theoretically, EF could probably script that in if they thought there was market demand for it, but it does require some dedicated programming as the command structures are different, and you can't just expect to issue a standard 130JUNLAXSJC‡2V query and expect Amtrak availability to come back. (Not to mention that Amtrak uses non-IATA-standard city codes for most of their stations.)
Mar 23, 2018, 10:56 pm
#8
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Going through a host agency gives you all the functionality of your own access, except that you can't ticket on your own, but you can queue an itinerary up for the host agency to ticket. It's quite a bit harder to get access on your own without a host agency, and especially if you ever want to book/ticket your own itineraries, since you need E&O insurance, an IATA number, etc.
I later had one through work but we let it lapse as we never used it.
Mar 26, 2018, 7:51 am
#9
Join Date: Jun 2014
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I had one for awhile personally, and it wasn't cheap but wasn't horrible--$49/month or something through a host agency. I can't recall if there was a sign-up fee.
Going through a host agency gives you all the functionality of your own access, except that you can't ticket on your own, but you can queue an itinerary up for the host agency to ticket. It's quite a bit harder to get access on your own without a host agency, and especially if you ever want to book/ticket your own itineraries, since you need E&O insurance, an IATA number, etc.
I later had one through work but we let it lapse as we never used it.
Going through a host agency gives you all the functionality of your own access, except that you can't ticket on your own, but you can queue an itinerary up for the host agency to ticket. It's quite a bit harder to get access on your own without a host agency, and especially if you ever want to book/ticket your own itineraries, since you need E&O insurance, an IATA number, etc.
I later had one through work but we let it lapse as we never used it.
Mar 26, 2018, 2:23 pm
#10
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Actually, I may have misremembered.
Apparently I signed up for individual Sabre access directly with Sabre for $45/month but without ticketing privileges. If I had wanted ticketing privileges, I could have signed up with a host agency, but I apparently never did. (I never did book a ticket; I only ever used it to search inventory and try to learn how it works...warning: it's significantly more difficult to use than you'd think!)
The one I'm remembering is Nexion.
For more on this topic, you may want to read and post here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trav...-bookings.html
Apparently I signed up for individual Sabre access directly with Sabre for $45/month but without ticketing privileges. If I had wanted ticketing privileges, I could have signed up with a host agency, but I apparently never did. (I never did book a ticket; I only ever used it to search inventory and try to learn how it works...warning: it's significantly more difficult to use than you'd think!)
The one I'm remembering is Nexion.
For more on this topic, you may want to read and post here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trav...-bookings.html