Amtrak deals?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Someone posted a few weeks back about a discounted child rate and other discounts. Does anyone know about any promotions right now? Thank you!

Beth

[Momit]

I posted about Amtrak deals a few weeks ago. I never found any that were very good.

We had their 2010 brochure, which had a kids ride free coupon, but I called Amtrak and they said the 2011 brochure had a different coupon. Supposedly there was a Thomas holiday video that had the kids ride free coupon.

Hope you have better luck than I did!

[njs]

do you know if you have to bring carseats for the kids to ride in on amtrak?

[SnuggleBuggles]

I've never been on a train before so I am no help on the carseat thing.

Momit- it was your post that inspired me to look for a deal. I saw your post and forgot to check back if you found any deals. Bummer that that coupon isn't out this year. I wonder if AAA has a deal? I'll check into that. Maybe Costco too.

Beth

[Multimama]

do you know if you have to bring carseats for the kids to ride in on amtrak?

There are no seat belts on Amtrak trains, so there would be no way to install a carseat. HTH.

[julevizamom]

I'm pretty sure they offer a 10% AAA discount on all seats all the time. You just select AAA child or AAA adult when choosing your fare.

[Momit]

There is a section of the Amtrak website that has deals and promotions, but none of them were relevantfor where we were going.

If you have a train station nearby, you might want to pick up thier current brochure (it's magazine size with maps of all their routes and lots of nice train photos). When I called they said the 2011 brochure didn't have the kids ride free coupon but it did have a different coupon (I should have asked what it was but I didn't). Or order that Thomas video from Amazon (it's not in stores anymore, I looked).

[Simon]

We use Amtrak regularly and have for years. They have a frequent rider (miles) card for discounts, a listing of hot fares on their Web site but I don't know any other current discounts.

We have AAA and always use that discount for adults and kids. They do require the card at the station when you pick up the tickets.

Amtrak ticket prices work like this. They have a set number of tickets for sale at one price (starting at the lowest price) and when those are all gone they rise to the next price point, again once those sell out the fares rise again. So prices rise as tickets sell out at certain price levels and not just as the departure date approaches.

Amtrak does not require car seats but we often take them to give the kids someplace to fall asleep. Young kids are not required to have their own seat on Amtrak, but we often buy them anyway because they have been so cheap (at times) and then we can have more space to spread out.

[TwoBees]

I see/hear ads for discounts every so often, but very, very few of them ever apply to the Northeast Corridor line (it's Amtrak's bread and butter). So it depends where you are traveling. Check the "Deals" section of their website, and also search for coupon codes at places like retailmenot. AAA also offers a discount if you are a member, IIRC.