Planning a road trip for this summer? You might want to reconsider after you take a look at how affordable it can be to travel with Amtrak - particularly if you take advantage one or more of the many discounts floating around online.

First, here’s how cheap an ordinary, non-discounted, advance purchase Amtrak fare can be: if you wanna go from LA to San Francisco on 7/1 and stay for a week, as of today (6/10), you’ll pay just $104 round-trip. Think you can fly or drive for that? No way!

And in fact, there are a whole ton of discounts you can apply to your Amtrak fare to make it even cheaper. For instance:

Amtrak offers discounts every day to certain types of people and to members of certain organizations. Seniors 62 years of age and older receive a 15% discount; members of the military, as well as their spouses and dependents, can take 10% off; AAA members also receive a 10% savings; kids 2-15 get a whopping 50% off the adult fare.

If you’re a student of any description, you’re in luck. Student Advantage cardholders receive 15% off most fares, and if you don’t feel like paying $20 a year for membership, you can get a free 30-day membership when you sign up online. (Note that you also get a discount at Greyhound and a $10 rebate on your first purchase of any type using the card.)

If you live anywhere close to Chicago or St. Louis, you have access to all kinds of discounted fares. I’m not sure why the Midwest in particular gets so many el cheapo tickets, but it does. These fares are released via Amtrak’s online Weekly Specials Fare Finder. Theoretically, the weekly specials are not limited only to the Midwest, but in practice, I’ve never seen tickets for any other region on this page.

In addition to these everyday discounts, you should definitely check up on the current discount codes before booking your ticket to see if one or more applies to your situation. This site maintains what seems to be a fairly comprehensive list. You can save up to 25% off travel on some trains, and others offer great companion discounts. You also may want to check through the FatWallet forums for recent posts regarding Amtrak discounts, since such info frequently turns up there.

Also, before you book with Amtrak, do be sure to check Greyhound’s prices. I personally prefer to travel with Amtrak when I can, but Greyhound also offers pretty awesome fares sometimes, particularly if you purchase your ticket well in advance.

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