Virgin 1st Class

[fatboyonadiet]

Booked some tickets to go from Manchester to London first class and it says complimentary drinks and food are included, I guess for drinks this includes tea or coffee, does anyone what food is given? Suprised they give anything!

[wonka]

I take it you had to take out a mortgage to buy the ticket....?

I was just about to book a 2nd class ticket from Warringtom to Milton Keynes for this Friday, then found out the cost..... £125.

This is just an utter and complete joke. Other train operators around Europe charge around £15-20 for a similar distance.

I shall therefore be driving there, petrol will cost around £35.

And then we all wonder why our roads are so congested.

[Rikki]

Fatboyonadiet has your post arrived yet this morning. I braved the cold and went to the post box. :D

[fatboyonadiet]

Left before the post came - tends to come around the time I get home!

wonka paid £60 for 2 First class returns from Manchester to London travelling at peak times! Now if that's not money saving I don't know what is!

[wonka]

So how did you do that then? Is it a 14 day advance booking or what?

[heatherw_01]

When I went to London first class with Virgin I never got food except a biscuit and lots of tea or coffee.

[fatboyonadiet]

So how did you do that then? Is it a 14 day advance booking or what?

A magician never reveals his secrets...good job I'm not a magician then!

Firstly check out the current offer on the Virgin Trains website: http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/dailymail/default.aspx

And then my post yesterday to get some tickets:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com:8080/showthread.html?t=144382

They are doing another promotion where they will swap any used boarding cards for flights between Manchester and London for a first class ticket, I was contemplating a trip to the airport and rooting through the bins at arrivals!

[fatboyonadiet]

Also I did used to get the train to London a lot and used to book around 3/4 weeks before travelling to get a return for £20! Sometimes 2 singles work out much cheaper then one double.

[sarahluv]

I take it you had to take out a mortgage to buy the ticket....?

I was just about to book a 2nd class ticket from Warringtom to Milton Keynes for this Friday, then found out the cost..... £125.

This is just an utter and complete joke. Other train operators around Europe charge around £15-20 for a similar distance.

I shall therefore be driving there, petrol will cost around £35.

And then we all wonder why our roads are so congested.


are you travelling at peak times? a saver single between galsgow and london is £90! i can't see how warrington to milton keynes would be more. i've paid as little as £20 for a virgin 1st class single between glasgow and london.

free alcohol, soft drinks, tea and coffee. food offering depends on the time of day.

[wonka]

Yes I read about the boarding card offer in the MEN.

But it only applies to MCR -> London journies, not Warrington :-(

[fatboyonadiet]

Could you not go from Manchester? I know it's a bit more hassle but might save some pennies?!?! Also in the past I've found it cheaper to go ton the station sometimes as they seem to have better availability of cheap fares and more seats.

[wonka]

Ah well I did consider that, but found out it would add about 50 mins to journey time, which is 50 mins less time spent in bed!! (I'm going at 7am).

[bunking_off]

(I'm going at 7am).

...which explains the fare. Best price for travel at that time will be to get a Business Advance (either A or B, typically £60 single) for the outward fare, then value fare for the return. Whatever you do, don't accept a return fare as you'll be paying a premium on the return leg that mirrors the premium on the outbound - whether or not it's necessary. I regularly travel from Preston to London and £100 is the going rate, standard class outbound, 1st class return. I'm staggered at the number of people I see who'll buy standard returns on the train (going rate = £210) - it may be on expenses, but our lot would sack me if I was so wasteful of company money.

It's a bit late to be getting value tickets for this Friday, but on a cursory glance you shouldn't be paying more than £88 - Advance B out, saver return. With a bit more notice you could have got £56 (return in standard, Value C) or £72 (return 1st class, Value C).

In 1st, you get free tea/coffee, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks, and food that varies (according to time of day) from Full English, through pizza slices/quiche/ploughmans, through full silver service menu. Always worth the extra £10-20 on a Value ticket IMHO.

[sockospice]

Just so as you know, Monday to Friday you get an at seat service of complimentary food and drink (including alcoholic drinks after 11am) and on a weekend you get complimentary tea coffee and biscuits which you have to pick up from the on board shop. You'll find that there are many, many more value tickets available for first class on a weekend because there is no at seat service and no business travel.

[Armbase]

Yes I read about the boarding card offer in the MEN.

But it only applies to MCR -> London journies, not Warrington :-(

OK her eis my tip.

Go to the trainline.com and check your ticket.

Lets say you are goi ng from glasgow-york.
You may be quoted saver return £67.90, next cheapest £127 however, click on the singles may be cheaper. Singles are say £11 normal and £26 1st class.

So book your tickets. You cant change them, but when was the last time you missed a long distance train? So instead of £68 saver you get £22 cheap or £52 1st class. Now here is a trick I use if the time or return is not known.

Get 2 1st class tickets and a £11 single for 3 hours later. Same price as a saver, but you go 1st class. Free tea and coffe and a sandwich, laptop plug and better class of service. If your late, you still have a better backup than the saver.

Cheers
Bob

[brad]

I want to go to London from North Wales in mid March. A friend of mine gets the Mail so if I get the vouchers can I book any Virgin train or are there restrictions?

Before christmas if I booked in advance I could get First Class to London for £60 , however none of these tickets appear to be available any more!
I would be grateful for any suggestions how to get low cost first class fares?

[fatboyonadiet]

Full details here: http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/dailymail/default.aspx, it seems to be pretty much any train and time, seems to be availability at peak times too (might only be first class though).

Other suggestions for getting low fares, the saver tickets are normally released 3 or 4 weeks before the date of travel but can sometimes be just before 14 days. "singles often work out cheaper then 1 return. Try booking at the train station, sometimes cheaper and with better availability. HTH.

[sarahluv]

the low cost fares are on sale at the moment. i'd suggest trying booking through the actual virgin trains site rather than thetrainline. Also, make sure that you look at the single fares!

[fatboyonadiet]

the low cost fares are on sale at the moment. i'd suggest trying booking through the actual virgin trains site rather than thetrainline. Also, make sure that you look at the single fares!

I'm not too sure about that, I've found in the past if the trainline doesn't have it neither does Virgin, if the total cost is over £50 you do get 1% cashback from Quidco, the Virgin site is powered by thetrainline.

[highguyuk]

Generally talking, if you go to the train station and say you want to go between point A and point B for the cheapest way possible and your not bothered when you travel they CAN search the system and get you there. If you get the cashier that can be bothered of course.

Last Easter - 2 tickets from Stafford to Torquay £38 Return.

[fatboyonadiet]

If you get the cashier that can be bothered of course.

That's so true, remember when Midland Mainline were going to London from Manchester and they use to give a discount of £4 for 2 bookings, never knew this but one cashier told me, other cashiers would do it unless I queried it after that

[sarahluv]

I'm not too sure about that, I've found in the past if the trainline doesn't have it neither does Virgin, if the total cost is over £50 you do get 1% cashback from Quidco, the Virgin site is powered by thetrainline.
thetrainline now charge you for using a credit card, if you are only looking for virgin value fares, virgin doesn't. also, there are sometimes slight differences between availability on the two sites. It is also easier to look at virgin value availability over an entire day on the virgin site.

[bunking_off]

thetrainline now charge you for using a credit card, if you are only looking for virgin value fares, virgin doesn't. also, there are sometimes slight differences between availability on the two sites. It is also easier to look at virgin value availability over an entire day on the virgin site.

This is bizarre. Both use the same booking engine, and the Trainline is owned by Virgin nowadays. Don't doubt what you say though - I've noticed different availability myself in the past (though it quite often dries up when you go from browsing fares to actually buying them). One top tip - speaking as someone who spends approx £1000 of my employer's money a month on Virgin trains - if you look at the value singles and can't see the fare you'd like, go away and try again later. Particularly if the page is showing no availability on any of the value fares. Quite often when you go back a couple of hours later, they've miraculously re-appeared....

One final thing. Haven't tried this myself, but if you're travelling on the west coast mainline (Wigan/Warrington/Preston) and end up wanting a late afternoon train but want flexibility, you might think you're snookered because saver fares aren't valid on trains leaving London from 1500-1830 (value fares are, but have no flexibility). There is a cunning way out : saver fares are valid to Lancaster and beyond. A £61 saver single to Lancaster is considerably cheaper than a £120 open single to Preston...

[PUREHOMES]

first class service about a month ago.

£27 each way. Free newspaper, free drinks (alcoholic included :beer: ) and free food.

If I remember correctly we had a cold meat salad, cheese and biscuits and some cakes and stuff.

I had a beer and a couple of vodka lemonades.

Pity really it ran on time (almost to the second!) About 2hrs 20

[gingerdad]

We travelled on the train from Oxenholme to London, for only about 100 first class return for both of us, found the fair cheaper booked via the phone as it was a one of the advance purchases and wasn't available on the web. we travelled on week days one peak one not, free food and drink on both, very good service and excellent value for money

[bunking_off]

? I didn't realise there were any advance purchase fares available by phone but not web? Can you elaborate?