Travel by train

[lillylynnb]

So does anyone think any deals will come out for Auto train for September ?

 

[POOHsie]

I already made my reservations for late Sept. My understanding of the auto train is that it one of Amtrak's most popular trains. The fare becomes higher the closer to departure date as the train seats fill up. Plus if, like me, you have an oversize car (mine is a mini-van), car spaces might be sold out later. I was going to use my AAA discount, but Amtrak informed me of a better discount for disabled, that I qualified for.

Here is a quote from a poster from the website flyertalk.com, on the subject of "When to Book Auto Train" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amtrak-guest-rewards/759507-when-book-auto-train.html
... There is only one direction train fares can go: up. Amtrak works on a strict bucket system. There are (I believe) four fare buckets. 330 days out, when a ticket is first bookable, the fares start at the lowest bucket. After a certain number of seats are booked (say, 25%, though I'm not sure of the specific percentage), it jumps to the next fare bucket. When 50% are booked, you get the third bucket, and the last 25% of the seats go at the highest bucket.

There is no such thing as fares going down, because unless a rush of people cancel their tickets, buckets will only fill up and make the fares go higher. Amtrak does not do what the airlines do and manually restrict certain buckets only to release them later and/or file new, lower fares. Perhaps Amtrak could make more money by implementing a system more like the airlines (so that they could, say, open only the highest fare bucket on all trains operating at Thanksgiving, their busiest time of year, since by definition 75% of the seats on any given sold-out train are NOT going for top dollar), but until they do, it is ALWAYS and 100% in your favor to book earlier rather than later.

That, combined with the fact that your tickets are fully refundable until you pick up the paper ticket stock from a station/machine, means that it's a no-brainer to book now. [boldface added by me]