photo by Emma K Alexandra
“Dear PoPville,
My birthday is in mid-September, and in the decade+ I’ve lived in DC, I’ve always followed this rule that I should have my Thanksgiving and Christmas Amtrak tickets home to New York purchased before my birthday in order to secure a good price.
In recent years for Thanksgiving, for example, I’ve departed the day before the holiday and come back to DC over the weekend. Since the pandemic, I’ve paid $120-150 for roundtrip coach tickets (though one year, I got a steal with $58 roundtrip tickets from a promotional sale).
I just took a look at the website and a one-way ticket is a whopping $286 for any time slot– and this is well earlier than the time I usually look for tickets.
I’m really shocked. Did I miss some Amtrak pricing change? Should I be looking for a seasonal sale I’m not aware of? I thought I was pretty savvy with Amtrak after all my loyal years of riding with them and am feeling kind of betrayed. Would be happy with any community advice here.
I might end up having to drive, which I hate doing during holiday seasons.”
