I commute 3 times a week on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) and I have noticed ticket prices have gone up by roughly 20 to 30 percent this summer. I also started booking further in advance than usual, even buying tickets for September already.
To deal with this, I built a simple tool that monitors price drops on tickets I have already purchased. Whenever the fare for a trip I booked goes down, I get an email alert. I then rebook at the lower price and cancel the original ticket for a full refund. In testing, I have been able to catch around four price drops so far and save about $5 to $10 per drop.
I have added this as a feature on a small site I built for commuters, and I am currently testing it with other users to see how often price drops actually happen across different routes. It is free to use for now, and I am mainly looking for feedback on reliability and coverage.
Would be interested to hear if anyone else on NEC or other Amtrak routes is seeing similar price volatility.
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