Family Railcard

tonystaf

I can't help feeling that the family railcard is a waste of money. In two situations, Birmingham to London and Birmingham to Edinburgh, I found that I could not get a discount on the cost of a rail ticket.
Anyone else feel the same?

skylight

Nope.


It works perfectly for me and my family and I have saved a small fortune, and gone places we would not have gone were it not for the discounts.

Sorry it doesn't work on the trains/times you want.

tonystaf

Thank for the reply.
I have known it to work and I have saved money. Just that on certain occasions I have noticed that there was no savings. I thought the saving should apply to all trains, or is it affected by the popularity of the service.

pompeyrich

tonystaf wrote: »

I can't help feeling that the family railcard is a waste of money. In two situations, Birmingham to London and Birmingham to Edinburgh, I found that I could not get a discount on the cost of a rail ticket.
Anyone else feel the same?

Not as good value as it used to be, down here, group save 4 for 2, works out cheaper than using the card, when 4 of us travel. Still good if our party isn't 4 or we are going further afield.

dzug1

tonystaf wrote: »

Thank for the reply.
I have known it to work and I have saved money. Just that on certain occasions I have noticed that there was no savings. I thought the saving should apply to all trains, or is it affected by the popularity of the service.

I belive there are (on some routes) separate allocations of cheap advance tickets for railcard and non-railcard users. If the former have sold out the latter may still be cheaper than a discounted full price ticket.

bootman

I have used it for Banbury to Leeds and back several times and it definitely saves money on that journey.

Networkguy

Ours paid for itself in less than a month.

Sure there are times when we can get an advanced savers ticket (or whatever they are called these days) for less and in those circumstances, we don't use the railcard but at £24 a year, all you need is a couple of family trips somewhere and you are quids in.

moonrakerz

tonystaf wrote: »

I can't help feeling that the family railcard is a waste of money. In two situations, Birmingham to London and Birmingham to Edinburgh, I found that I could not get a discount on the cost of a rail ticket.
Anyone else feel the same?

What were the circumstances ?

The Ts & Cs on a Family Railcard are fairly clear and there aren't many restrictions applying to its use, these mainly being in London and the South East.

tonystaf

Thanks for the advice