Roomettes ever on sale?
May 26, 2021, 5:31 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 318
Roomettes ever on sale?
I've been looking at booking the coast starlight early next year. Prices for a Roomette haven been steady at $ 432 (oneway) since i've been checking.
Is there a chance that there will be a sale of sorts where i would be able to get a better price or looking at the past have roomette prices been the same year round?
Thank you!
Is there a chance that there will be a sale of sorts where i would be able to get a better price or looking at the past have roomette prices been the same year round?
Thank you!
May 26, 2021, 10:45 am
#2
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Orcas Island, Washington
Programs: Amtrak Guest Rewards Select, Maika'i Card
Posts: 257
$432 is a good price for the entire route. Sometimes there is a sale where a second person traveling in a room pays no coach rail fare, with the accommodation charge paid by the first passenger, but the accommodation charge may go way up before such a sale happens again. I would grab the $432.
May 26, 2021, 2:15 pm
#4
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 284
No, sales are never run for sleeper accommodation charges. They occasionally run a BOGO sale for the rail fare so two people occupying a roomette only pay one rail fare, but the full accommodation charge, always a much larger portion of the total price, applies.
$432 appears to be the lowest yield management bucket LAX-SEA in a roomette. Buy it if you want to go, it is at the lowest price possible. It cannot go anywhere but up.
$432 appears to be the lowest yield management bucket LAX-SEA in a roomette. Buy it if you want to go, it is at the lowest price possible. It cannot go anywhere but up.
Last edited by zephyr17; May 26, 2021 at 2:21 pm
May 26, 2021, 3:13 pm
#5
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: PDX
Programs: DL DM, AS MVP 100K, Amtrak peon, Colbert Lifetime Platinum
Posts: 4,534
Sleeper prices are up across the board this summer, even with daily service returning. It's a popular product and there's not enough fleet capacity to meet demand these days. If you're confident of your plans and find the lowest bucket available, grab it ASAP.
May 26, 2021, 3:43 pm
#6
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: CMH/CVG
Programs: Marriott, Southwest, American, Delta, Amtrak,Multiple others
Posts: 564
In the past, accommodation charges occasionally went down closer to the travel date if the demand isn't strong or if they add an additional sleeper car. I noticed that the fares were very high when the date first became available, but were slightly lower a few months later. Has this policy changed with the recent fare increases? I noticed that my roomette to Flagstaff already went up $200 in past two weeks.
May 26, 2021, 5:45 pm
#7
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 284
$432 is already the lowest yield management bucket SEA-LAX. There is no lower price point to go to. It is already as low as possible. It could go quite a bit higher, though. There are 4 buckets above it.
If it weren't already low bucket, I'd agree with you. Inventory reallocation across the yield management buckets happens all the time as demand develops or doesn't. But this is as low as it goes.
If it weren't already low bucket, I'd agree with you. Inventory reallocation across the yield management buckets happens all the time as demand develops or doesn't. But this is as low as it goes.
May 27, 2021, 11:38 pm
#10
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: New England
Programs: American Gold, Marriott Gold, Hilton Silver
Posts: 5,640
$432 is already the lowest yield management bucket SEA-LAX. There is no lower price point to go to. It is already as low as possible. It could go quite a bit higher, though. There are 4 buckets above it.
If it weren't already low bucket, I'd agree with you. Inventory reallocation across the yield management buckets happens all the time as demand develops or doesn't. But this is as low as it goes.
If it weren't already low bucket, I'd agree with you. Inventory reallocation across the yield management buckets happens all the time as demand develops or doesn't. But this is as low as it goes.
May 28, 2021, 11:56 am
#11
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 284
Not officially. A member of discuss.amtraktrains.com has developed a chart of bucket levels for endpoint to endpoint gained through researching a lot of fare quotes over various times of year at different lead times. Since it is well known there are five bucket levels, he filled them in. He used the Amsnag tool, which could retrieve up to 30 days worth of fares at one time to help him. Recent changes to the Amtrak website disabled Amsnag, which used HTML scraping to gather data, and it is no longer available. I do not know if he will continue to maintain them without access to Amsnag, which could gather large numbers of fare quotes at a time.
May 28, 2021, 12:05 pm
#12
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: PDX
Programs: DL DM, AS MVP 100K, Amtrak peon, Colbert Lifetime Platinum
Posts: 4,534
Back in the days of paper tickets, the fare bucket would be printed right on the ticket stub. There were also conductor's tariff books (see eBay) with the full pricing grid along a given route.