Possibly others have found such to occur when making an on-line booking, but this was my first encounter with such.
For an upcoming Easter weekend trip to Detroit (the Detroit Symphony musicians and management have settled their labor issues and I want to go and support this world class orchestra that fearfully may still be lost), I booked yesterday #350(23) and return on #353(24). While booking 350 Business Class went OK, for 353 was different. In this case, the screen first displayed a lower level "bucket' fare then offered Business Class at what I believe is a very modest premium. Clicking Business Class showed the "hurry hurry only one seat left" that Amtrak has borrowed from our friends aloft and then showed "estimated" by the previously quoted Coach fare plus the B/C seat charge. Now click "add to cart' (is this Amtrak or is it Amazon?) and guess what; a new higher "bucket" rail fare shows up in the "cart". For other trips, I have seen rail fares go down when adding Sleeper accommodations, but never up.
This is "a new one" on me; and it seems as if it comes from the airline's playbook; namely quote the fare then after the passenger commits, slap on the various taxes and surcharges. However in the case of Amtrak, the passenger could still decline the itinerary or the B/C seat.
This practice seems a bit deceptive, but I accepted the total fare, so who am i to complain?
For an upcoming Easter weekend trip to Detroit (the Detroit Symphony musicians and management have settled their labor issues and I want to go and support this world class orchestra that fearfully may still be lost), I booked yesterday #350(23) and return on #353(24). While booking 350 Business Class went OK, for 353 was different. In this case, the screen first displayed a lower level "bucket' fare then offered Business Class at what I believe is a very modest premium. Clicking Business Class showed the "hurry hurry only one seat left" that Amtrak has borrowed from our friends aloft and then showed "estimated" by the previously quoted Coach fare plus the B/C seat charge. Now click "add to cart' (is this Amtrak or is it Amazon?) and guess what; a new higher "bucket" rail fare shows up in the "cart". For other trips, I have seen rail fares go down when adding Sleeper accommodations, but never up.
This is "a new one" on me; and it seems as if it comes from the airline's playbook; namely quote the fare then after the passenger commits, slap on the various taxes and surcharges. However in the case of Amtrak, the passenger could still decline the itinerary or the B/C seat.
This practice seems a bit deceptive, but I accepted the total fare, so who am i to complain?