Cheap UK Travel Deals Discussion

[MSE Archna]

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Cheap UK Travel deals

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[borgmanjayce]

I signed up to the First Great Western special offer where you get £5.00 off on any ticket over £6.00, but there's a snag in that you can't book single tickets, only returns which is no good to me for a trip that I'm going on to London next week as I wanted to use it to buy a single from London Euston to Runcorn.

In any case, I'll use it for another trip that I'm going on to London next month.

[MSE Archna]

Originally Posted by borgmanjayce

I signed up to the First Great Western special offer where you get £5.00 off on any ticket over £6.00, but there's a snag in that you can't book single tickets, only returns which is no good to me for a trip that I'm going on to London next week as I wanted to use it to buy a single from London Euston to Runcorn.

In any case, I'll use it for another trip that I'm going on to London next month.

Hi borgan,

The ts and cs say that you can use the code for single tickets but the total must be over £6 for the code to work.

[borgmanjayce]

I definitely tried to buy a single ticket as described, but it wouldn't work... It made me input both a outward date and a return date which I didn't want to do...

[donkeymusic]

i found the link would not work

[MKB]

I registered both my partner and myself for the £5 off promotion. We have the same home address, different email addresses. T&C's say limit is one discount per person, not one per household.

Two emails immediately arrived in our respective inboxes, but containing the same PIN number!

Called FGW customer services, and after 15 minutes on hold, they decided they didn't know how to fix it and told me to call another number which routed through to a woman in India who was completely inept.

Despite my reference several times to my partner as "he" and giving his name as "David", she kept referring to "your wife". The upshot of an unnecessarily lengthy call where the FGW representative continually struggled to understand the problem, is that I have to re-register using a different email address.

I asked to have the account for the original email address deleted and was told this was not possible, so my partner will have to endure the marketing guff on that account.

[slopemaster]

Just wasted a load of time trying to get this £5 off.
Didn't work, either through the website or the callcentre, and I will make a point of NOT booking with them in future

[MSE Archna]

Hi there,

First Great Western has said there should be no problems claiming the £5 off but if you could be more specific about the problems they will look into any possible glitches. If you could post some more details on this thread that would be great.

Many thanks

[happyshopper]

Well I just tried to use the code that was emailed to me and used this link http://www.fgwtickets.co.uk/promotio...F&sitecode=FGW The site accepted my code, but the total price charged was the same that I would have paid on a non 'trainline' website that I checked at the same time, so no discount was applied. I bought 2 single tickets from Manchester to Euston for November 15th.

I was already registered with FGW and Trainline, would this have made any difference?

hs

[UselessFGW]

Well, it comes as no surprise to me that the £5 reduction offer from First Great Western is riddled with flaws. I registered last night and recieved a PIN number through email. Logged in with it, chose my ticket, and then it couldn't find a journey for the times I specified and was coming up with 7 hour journey times from Portsmouth to London. So I thought I would try to change the destination station, well that was impossible. Once I had chosen the stations I wanted to travel from/to, there was no way of going back to the main page to reselect a station. I tried logging out and back in again and it managed to remember where I left the site the last time, so I still couldn't return to choosing new stations. Just out of interest I went to the National Rail site to see what the journey would have cost me normally: £18.90. I then went back to First Great Western and searched for the same journey (without logging in with my PIN), and the price they gave me for EXACTLY the same journey was £4 more then on National Rail. Therefore the £5 discount I would have recieved through them if there website had actually worked, would have saved me roughly £1. Like I say, its what I have come to expect from them, as there train service itself is ridiculously unreliable compared to other train operators, and I use trains all the time as I don't use a car.

[hallucenogenic_midas]

Here is my experience:

I registered my details including my email address but was not asked for a registration password. The promotional code was emailed to me without any problem. I entered the PIN code and found the journey I want to make (incidentally, I have also found that the journey has been "saved" so I cannot change the details of the journey), this was displayed at the FULL PRICE cost of £21 as quoted on nationalrail.co.uk i.e. without the applied discount, I assume that the discount will be applied at a later stage.

HOWEVER, when I tried to pay for it and complete the transaction, I was asked to sign in with an email address AND PASSWORD which I dont have!!

So I called the 0844 number to book aforementioned ticket over the phone. I was told that now I have been given a PIN number by email, I cannot book over the phone, I have to complete the transaction over the internet. I would like to know how I do this without a password?!

When I explained the problems I was having, I was asked to call the SAME 0844 number again and speak to some who knows more about it!!!!

[fashiontesse]

Just thought I'd put a little note in here from someone who the offer of £5 off train tickets actually worked. I had no problems whatsoever finding routes and times that suited and got 5 pounds of a 10 pound journey, so half price for me!

[hallucenogenic_midas]

I am delighted to say that today it worked
Had to register twice but I did indeed get my £5 off.

[Lad]

Originally Posted by happyshopper

Well I just tried to use the code that was emailed to me and used this link http://www.fgwtickets.co.uk/promotio...F&sitecode=FGW The site accepted my code, but the total price charged was the same that I would have paid on a non 'trainline' website that I checked at the same time, so no discount was applied. I bought 2 single tickets from Manchester to Euston for November 15th.

I was already registered with FGW and Trainline, would this have made any difference?

hs

Hi happyshopper. How did you get your pin? Like you, I'm already registered with FGW and Trainline but when I try to register to get my £5 pin, its says my email address is already registered. Is this promotion only opened to new registrations?

[millie]

They have some very cheap deals at Shearings at the moment, they are late deals but they always seem to have late deals on offer. eg 5 day All Inclusive coach holidays for £129

http://www.shearings.com/uk/coachholidayoffers.aspx

[worsleystef]

Originally Posted by donkeymusic

i found the link would not work

I also tried the Virgin link which worked fine. My problem is i don't have a suitable mobile phone to receive tickets. is there any way i can get a printable ticket on my computer?

[glynd]

Although there is still a link on the main website you cannot get print at home tickets. Virgin Support say that they are no longer available and have no idea when the system will be operational again. In the meantime you can only get Mobitix tickets requiring a wap enabled phone for each travelling passenger. Of course there are lots of more expensive tickets available via the contact centre. Not very inclusive for a company providing a heavily subsidised public service!!

[Morti]

Quick tip for National Express Funfares that might be worth a mention on the site.

If you're booking a journey that involves multiple coaches then don't book it all on one ticket.

For example, I wanted to travel from Canterbury to Birmingham and back. This involves a change in London so that's four coaches total. By booking a return from Canterbury to London the National Express website tries to charge me about £42 (if I recall correctly). So what I did was go through their booking process four times. I booked Canterbury to London, London to Birmingham, Birmingham to London then London to Canterbury. With Funfares the average cost of each trip was £5 making my total ticket cost about £20. This was booking the day before travel as well.

It takes a bit longer but book in sections and use Funfare e-tickets and on this type of journey you could at least halve your cost.

Also if you have a phone that allows you to store and display web pages but lack a printer then that (in my experience) has been just as valid as a printout. Saves you the 50p on the mobile phone ticket if you can do it that way but I've only tested this a couple of times so I'm not sure if it came down to a generous driver or company policy.

[marionquine]

Club 55 is back in Scotland till March 31st 2009

With Club 55 you can travel anywhere in Scotland at off peak times (and as far down as Carlisle) for just £15 return between 20 October and 31 March 2009 inclusive. (excluding travel between 19 December and 11 January)

Last week I got a return ticket from Aberdeen to Glasgow for £15 instead of £47.10.
http://www.firstgroup.com/scotrail/club55

[goblin]

Sorry if this should be posted somewhere else ... I'm not very good at this sort of thing.
I booked a journey through thetrainline.com and got the chance to claim back £15 off my next journey during a 30 day free trial of Shopper Discounts & Rewards. Bit of a palavar because after the trial period they debit you £10 a month to be a member, but I did check in the small print that you can cancel, it was worth it I reckon. I booked another journey within the required period (30 days) (not even for me ... for my sister, who needs to travel soon). e-mailed the trainline payment confirmation to SDR and a £15 cheque arrived within 3 days! Cancelled my trial period. Job done. I've got £15 in the bank - to share with my sis!