Thoughts on amtrak pricing model? (hexbear.net)

submitted 6 months ago by bleepbloopbop@hexbear.net to c/urbanism@hexbear.net

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Talking about the "bucketing" where they first sell x% of tickets at a cheap price, then the next x% at a higher price, and on and on until its expensive as shit.

This is really demoralizing as someone who'd like to be a bit more spontaneous, and be able hop on a train out of town (which is running either way and never full...), the price I get offered is like double the price if I booked 3-4+ months out.

There must be a better system.

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[-] bleepbloopbop@hexbear.net 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I don't think that's the only reason but maybe I'm wrong. Like airlines, they try to pack planes as full as possible, to the point of overbooking flights and betting there will always be cancellations... But amtrak rarely seems to run a full train, at least in my part of the country. Why not lower the price in the last week or few days or whatever before the trip, to fill out the empty seats and make more money? not even like, below the base price, just not the peak price bucket.

Like its not a killer amount of money, but it is like, physically painful psychologically, and makes amtrak much less compelling compared to cheaper flights and buses.

I guess the high price buckets ensure people with money can almost always get a seat, but idk why amtrak really cares, those people are taking first class flights except maybe in the NE corridor