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I plan to travel Amtrak between Wisconsin and Orlando in February 2006 to catch a Disney cruise. Trying to guesstimate the cost, I plugged in travel dates of January 2006, the farthest out dates for which the website will calculate a fare. I was surprised to find the most expensive leg of the trip would be the northbound leg from Florida to Washington, D.C. A bedroom would be more than $700 for that leg, hundreds more than the same leg southbound. What am I missing here? I expected the southbound trip to be more expensive. I would think there would be much less demand for the northbound trip at that time of year.
Posts: 51 | From: La Crosse, WI, USA | Registered: Jun 2004
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Bedrooms and Roomettes always cost less starting with the first one booked on the date then become more expensive as the car sells. If you have the time, check the next day or the day after and you might save big. Good luck!
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I booked my May 05 Portland trip as soon as it became available in June 04 last year. Deluxe sleepers all the way out and back, it cost me $1,400.00. I just tried to duplicate the trip for the same May dates and it is over $2,950.00 and one leg of the trip is in a roomette not a bedroom. I can’t imagine what it would cost if I waited until May to book the trip.
As has been said on this board many times, it is simple economics (supply and demand). Amtrak does not have enough spare sleepers to add additional sleepers. The sleeper on the Cardinal may or may not be part of the train when I begin my trip.
Posts: 68 | From: Lynchburg, Virginia USA | Registered: Feb 2003
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And this is the same pricing scheme that is used throughout the travel and hospitality industries, especially where first class options are selected.
Posts: 255 | Registered: Nov 2001
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Guess I still don't get this. SDo you guys mean that the northbound travel will be mroe expensive because from the beginning Amtrak will make fewer sleepers available northbound in the winter? But surely they don't just stack them up in Orlando? Don't the sleeping cars have to get back up north to bring down more vacationers?
Posts: 51 | From: La Crosse, WI, USA | Registered: Jun 2004
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Another way to put this issue: Amtrak, like other parts of the travel industry, uses yield management in their price / fare structure. As each train becomes more and more full, the price for the remaining accomodations becomes higher and higher. The last few accomodations for a given train on a given date will have the highest price.
------------------ Over 20,000 miles aboard Amtrak trains.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain.
quote:Originally posted by clwood: I was surprised to find the most expensive leg of the trip would be the northbound leg from Florida to Washington, D.C. A bedroom would be more than $700 for that leg, hundreds more than the same leg southbound.
East Coast travel to and from Florida tends to be pricier than it is along Amtrak's other routes.
However, you didn't mention your outbound or return travel dates. Are you planning to board your return train on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday? System-wide, they're Amtrak's busiest days of the week. Even a year in advance, the railroad already knows it will fill the rooms on those days, and greater demand traditionally means steeper prices.
[This message has been edited by dilly (edited 02-05-2005).]
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