Passenger Trains > Someone Help Me Understand Amtrak Costs

Amtrak wants to charge $1000 for a roomette or $2000 for a bedroom in order to travel from Nebraska to Colorado (distance of one state over/17 hours on the train). Can someone please explain to me how they are getting any business for these rooms at these rates? Not to mention that is with a 10% discount and a good amount of time between booking and travel. I'm just dumbfounded....who is paying this? Railfans? Old people? It seems to be severely overpriced. That's not even considering how much longer it takes than air travel, how they almost religiously run very late and that everything is outdated interiors for the roomettes and bedrooms.

Anyway, just looking for the other side of the argument. I am not seeing any pros with this means of travel whatsoever other than railroad nostaligia. As my friend says, if you're a desire based business and not a needs based business you need to make things appealing and I am not seeing the appeal.

-J



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/18 11:02 by JLW2K.

Cal Zephyr end to end low bucket fares are $485 and $852 for Roomettes and Bedrooms respectively.
It appears as if $764 and 1662 are the high bucket fares for Roomettes and Bedrooms respectively.

The fact that prices are so high when you are looking likely indicates the train is nearly sold out.

Your end to end fare is simply incorrect, unless you are trying to book a ticket for 20 people or so. Perhaps you have accidentally put in an absurdly high number in the total passengers?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/18 10:49 by R30A.

What??? I just went on AMTK's website and they quote $580 for a roomette from Omaha to Oakland.

Are you looking at a nonstop trip from NE to the west coast? From your post it looks like you are talking about stopping in between at places. Also you might look at the Amsnag website to see if adjusting your dates a little can help you find a better bucket.

https://biketrain.net/amsnag/amSnag.php

I am seeing much lower prices from Lincoln to Denver (under $300) and Lincoln to Sacramento (under $600).
This is for travel on the next train tonight.

What dates and city pairs are you choosing?

Looks like someone added an extra zero

So there was some sort of website glitch for west coast numbers. They are not as high as my original post.

However, the one state over trip from Omaha NE to Grand Junction Colorado (July 18-July 21) are still $996 for a roomette and $1934 for a bedroom round trip x1 Active Military Adult discount. Availability doesn't seem to matter as I tried the same trip May of next year (as far as you can book out) and got nearly identical costs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/18 11:14 by JLW2K.

Regardless of price, they are charging what they want when they want. Their costs are irrelevant to us riders. Either pay or go coach.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/18 11:14 by 41bridge.

41bridge Wrote:
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> Regardless of price, they are charging what they
> want when they want. Their costs are irrelevant
> to us riders. Either pay or go coach.


And they're an "in the red" business kept a float by government subsidies. It's not either pay or go coach. It's pay, go coach, fly or drive. That's part of the problem if they're pricing themselves right out of business and people are picking flying or driving over them which results in them getting saved by Gov't subsidies.

Costs are irrelevant to us riders? So their entire business model should be focused on people that don't care what they pay because they prefer Amtrak or love trains? I love trains and have plenty of disposable income, but I'm not going to flush that disposable income down a superliner bedroom toilet.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/18 11:22 by JLW2K.

They are a business. They charge what they believe the market will bear to maximize revenue, as all successfull businesses do. Not defending them. Sleeping car rates are outrageous in my opinion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/18 12:00 by 41bridge.

As people say, cost is not the issue. Prices are not necessarily related to costs.

Amsnag it.

https://biketrain.net/amsnag/amSnag.php

Technology-Jeske Wrote:
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> Amsnag it.
>
> https://biketrain.net/amsnag/amSnag.php


I'm not seeing much variation in price at all. Oh well. I'll think it over.

This was all discussed recently about the Empire Builder where sleeping car space between intermediate stops is outrageously priced vs what is charged between Seattle/Portland and Chicago/St Paul. Meanwhile, I received an email from Amtrak today advertising a roomette sale on LD trains between August 20 and February 15. It’s two ride in a roomette for the price of one. That is a savings but it won’t mitigate the higher fare charged between intermediate points.

Stephanie Ann

in the middle of july on amtrak??? they are the most expensive tickets your gonna find around. that's when AGR points come in real handy. dave, out.

I didn't spell it out, s-u-m-m-e-r-t-i-m-e = expensive family travel time on amtrak. may, june, july, august then the kiddies go back to schooling.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/18 15:35 by davebb71.

Just like the airlines do, prices increase as more tickets/rooms are sold. They also go up as the travel date approaches. It's just like the airlines, where 'last minute' bookings pay a premium price, usually business travelers book only a couple days in advance.

Also note that the 'Saver' fare disappears automatically about 2 weeks before travel date, unless already sold out. Some trains don't even offer Saver fares, even months in advance.

At this time of the year, pretty much all summer season rooms are already booked, at lower prices. I booked a roomette from Portland OR to Springfield MA for less than $800, but it was 8 months prior to traveling.

The last couple of posters may have missed my post where I said I've done varying dates all the way out to late May and as early as late July.

steph62850 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This was all discussed recently about the Empire Builder where
> sleeping car space between intermediate stops is outrageously
> priced vs what is charged between Seattle/Portland and
> Chicago/St Paul.

So $358 for a room Chicago to St Paul. $318 for the same room Chicago to Wis Dells. Sure, that looks like a lot of money to get to the Dells compared to the coach seat price ($84 Dells vs $152 St Paul on the same train). But is Amtrak going to be able to turn that room and sell it to someone else Dells to St Paul? No!

Unless you are renting seedy hotel rooms by the hour you have to pay for the entire night.

Any idea on what each (of four) bucket price is?

On the Auto-Train, bedroom prices have a huge variation between the cheapest bucket and the most expensive bucket? If they don't sell the remaining rooms shortly before departure, they can revert to the cheapest bucket.

Yield management, trying to squeeze the most value out of each room.

I'm never one to spend more than the lowest fare bucket if I get a roomette, or else I will use points. With that policy I've found reasonable prices at times on superliner trains. For example, I have done the capitol limited a few times end to end for about 140+coach fare. I've done Chi-Den for about $180+ coach fare. I travel coach only a lot more. I'm citing those prices to make sure it is known that there are prices that low for superliner roomettes. But perhaps that pricing has recently changed.

Edit to add: In October a roomette on the Empire Builder from Chicago to Essex is $247 nearly every day. In September it is as high as $700.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/18 18:36 by inCHI.