Roomette major fare hikes?

Hi everyone, can any of you shed light on the following? I was looking to book future travel on the Crescent from Atlanta to Philadelphia, when I noticed the lowest prices I was seeing were much higher than what I've seen previously. At first I thought this was just due to the summer season (was looking at early Sept), but then started looking at October, as well as off-peak times in January and February 2019, 30 days at a time using AmSnag and seem to have found a consistent result. Previously, I've been able to book one-way roomettes from Atlanta to Philly as low as $314 ($139 base fare + $175 room surcharge), but the absolute lowest I've seen from the middle of this year out is now $452 ($139 base fare +$313 room surcharge). This is pretty scary to me as it's a ~44% increase and would lowest bucket round-trip travel for just up and down the east coast at a whopping $900, which is basically at the level of transoceanic flights...

From mid Sept to Turkey day is "Snowbird" migration time,a lot of retired people head south to the southern states to avoid winter and snow.
A good part of the "flock" come from Canada and northeast US.

Had no idea about the Snowbird migration, thanks for the heads up there and that explains some of the largest fares then. But the fare increases I'm talking are the fact that as of 8/14/18 every day until 02/14/19 (the last day currently available for booking), the lowest room charge I'm seeing is $313, while in the past the lowest bucket I'm familiar with is $175. This seems to me like a fair hike with the lowest bucket price being $313. Unless Amtrak charges more if you book more than 5 months ahead, which I know airlines do, but wasn't aware of Amtrak doing. Any further thoughts would be helpful!

Also, mid-week prices are cheaper than weekend prices, sometime prices one direction are higher than the other way.

Put an airline man in charge, you get airline type pricing. I'll bet you money that the reduced seat pitch idea will come quietly back up soon, too. Watch for it in new equipment.

Airline style pricing has been nearly systemwide since the Gunn administration. Hard to stick that to Anderson.

I certainly understand that Amtrak has had, let’s call it, “airline-inspired” pricing for a while. But one of the main differences has been that with Amtrak, the folks who book the earliest have always gotten the best rate, with the roomette bucket pricing system starting low and then moving up with bookings. Airlines generally charge higher prices for booking more than 2 months in advance, figuring that you’re very dedicated to that trip and are willing to pay more for the security of knowing it’s booked. Of course they then start raising the price agressively from about 6 weeks in. I’m still trying to figure out, as per the info in my original post, whether Amtrak has incorporated the pricing premium for early booking into their scheme, or whether they have raised roomette fares on the Crescent. The higher fares start consistently exactly 5 months out.

First, it was let's lower the fares to fill the coaches.
Second, it was let's introduce business class seating in coaches, to price fares below roomettes but above basic coach.
Now, it is to lower fares for roomettes if you book your trip less than 6 months in advance. Basically to eliminate airline style bucket pricing schemes that even cruise lines use.

When will it be enough? Would you be happy only if all rides no matter which accommodation you choose is free - no charge at all? Wouldn't you also want freebees thrown in, like free drinks and food?????

I wish to reflect on an old JFK quote:
".....ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

As a taxpayer I'm getting sick of everyone asking for discounts and freebees from government agencies!

It's not happening on the Silver Meteor right now. But, I agree, after about Aug. 18, the 2 lowest and the highest buckets of 5 vanish from the Crescent for Roomette fares.

Thanks for the confirmation, JimBoylan. So after monitoring this over a couple weeks, I'm pretty confident that I've figured out what has been done to the pricing for, as it seems right now, just the Crescent. Basically, any roomette booking more than 5 months out now starts at the ~3rd bucket. But as soon as the date is within 5 months, the price drops to the 1st (cheapest) bucket (unless of course the demand was already high). Long story short, don't book sleeper travel on the Crescent more than 5 months in advance as you will pay a significant premium for it!

This is a major change in sleeper pricing for Amtrak (in that the absolute earliest booker is no longer guaranteed the lowest fare), and so far seems to be an experiment just with the Crescent. I'm glad that I'm pretty confident now it's not a fare hike, and this will actually likely be helpful for me as a young person with a busy work schedule that's uncertain far out (I always felt it wasn't fare for me to compete with retirees who could plan they're travel 10 months out and get the lowest fares ). But that being said this is an important thing to know now when booking sleepers! Keep an eye out for major fare changes 5 months out on the other routes as well since they might start implementing the same new pricing!