Hello,

As some of you might recall, I commute round trip each week from Buffalo to Chicago for work. I tend to reserve my tickets for the following week when I arrive at Union Station on Monday (but of course, I don't actually pick up the paper until Friday nights just before my departure - a lesson I learned by reading here!).

My coach fare buckets on these trains (48, 49) have always been $58, 72, 90, and 112 respectively. When I reserved my seats today, however, my seats only cost $49. I checked forward to next week, and it's the same there too.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining. I've only been riding since October, so am I correct in assuming that this is some sort of peak/off-peak pricing that I'm experiencing, or is it something else?

The only impact it will have on me, AGR-wise, is the loss of 16 points each week (58 * 2 = 116). I can live with that for a saving of $72 per month! But I was hoping someone could explain this?

Gary

It might have something to do with this Long-Distance Sale:

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/Conten...96100&ssid=224

Given your frequency of travel I assume you are an AAA or NARP member for the discount (or have some other discount available to you). In which case the point difference should only be about 6 per segment.

That seems to be it--I checked a few dates and saw $49 through March 31 and $58 after that.


Interesting to note that these sale fares *do not* seem to combine with the AAA, NARP, ISIC, Senior etc. discounts.

Also of note is that the fares need to be booked by Jan. 21.

Well see, I thought about the sale prices too, but since I didn't specifically see BUffalo in that list, I assume it wasn't part of the sale.

I chose a few dates in the future and it does seem that the sale extends into March for the LSL to Buffalo, but yes, I also noticed the January 21st deadline. Common sense here, but - one assumes that as of January 22nd, the $49 fares that I see now on the site for the rest of January - March 31st will all revert back to their original buckets?

Thanks!

Gary

Unless they come out with another fare sale.

Yes - it is due to the "fare sale". Even if you do not ask for it specifically, as long as the "fare sale" seats are available, whenever someone asks for an adult fare, you will get the "reduced fare" price! BUT NOTE - this fare is NON-REFUNDABLE! (But if you requested another fare like AAA, it would be.) True, you could apply the fare to a new ticket, but maybe the AAA fare would be in the 3rd or 4th bucket at that time.

BTW - 2 city pairs listed are CHI-ALB and CHI-NYP, so I would assume CHI-BUF is also included.