POSSIBLE LOOPHOLE on First Transpennine Express Advance Purchase Tickets

rev_henry

TransPennine Express currently has a promotion on their advance purchase tickets for holders of 16-25 railcards, in that the railcard discount is upped to 50% rather than the usual 1/3, when booked using this link. Full details can be found on this page of their website.

As a railcard holder I have used this promotion a couple of times, it seems to work by giving you two discounts, firstly the normal 1/3 discount, then at the end of the transaction it will tell you that you have received X amount additional 'FTPE Student Promotional Discount', which presumably is the difference between 1/3 and 50%, if you see what I mean. The price quoted throughout the transaction is including both discounts though, so the price you see is the price you pay throughout, it just tells you have much additional discount you have received at the end simply for your information.

This is all well and good, however I have discovered that using the above link, non-railcard holders seem to receive the 'FTPE Student Promo discount' in some shape or form as well.

In my case, I wanted to book a ticket from Grimsby to Manchester for my girlfriend, who does not have a railcard. I went through the normal TransPennine Express homepage and got a price as usual. I then did it again through the link I posted above and the price was less, even though I had put in that the ticket was required WITHOUT a railcard! So I then went through and bought the ticket at this lower price.

I have no idea how this discount is calculated in this case, it must be something like the difference between the ticket discounted by 1/3 and by 50%, if it was discounted by 1/3 in the first place, which of course it was not as the ticket does not have a railcard discount.

So, to conclude, there seems to be some loophole with the transpennine express website that gives an extra discount as I (tried to!) explain above. This ONLY works when purchasing Advance Purchase tickets for use on transpennine express trains, when booked through the link above. Also, when using the link, as the promotion is meant to be for 16-25 railcard holders, the box detailing railcard discounts is filled in for the above railcard by default. Be sure to clear this box! (if you don't have a railcard, of course!)

I hope I have explained myself clearly! Sorry if my post is a little garbled, it was rather complicated to explain!

dzug1

rev_henry wrote: »

.

This is all well and good, however I have discovered that using the above link, non-railcard holders seem to receive the 'FTPE Student Promo discount' in some shape or form as well.

In my case, I wanted to book a ticket from Grimsby to Manchester for my girlfriend, who does not have a railcard. I went through the normal TransPennine Express homepage and got a price as usual. I then did it again through the link I posted above and the price was less, even though I had put in that the ticket was required WITHOUT a railcard! So I then went through and bought the ticket at this lower price.

It could be a glitch in the system that hasn't cleared the cookies properly from the session when you DID buy with a railcard, despite you clearing the box

It will be interesting to see how the ticket is marked when it arrives/is collected

rev_henry

dzug1 wrote: »

It could be a glitch in the system that hasn't cleared the cookies properly from the session when you DID buy with a railcard, despite you clearing the box

It will be interesting to see how the ticket is marked when it arrives/is collected

That did cross my mind! I bought several tickets WITH the railcard a couple of minutes before, just ordering these separately as they have to go to a different address. They had better not be endorsed for a railcard or I will not be happy!

rev_henry

All my tickets came today. I can confirm that they are ALL MARKED CORRECTLY! Only the ones I wanted with the railcard are marked as such.

The loophole works people!

icefall

Thanks for this

rev_henry

No problem! Hope it saves u some money.

rev_henry

dzug1 wrote: »

It could be a glitch in the system that hasn't cleared the cookies properly from the session when you DID buy with a railcard, despite you clearing the box

It will be interesting to see how the ticket is marked when it arrives/is collected

A friend of mine has just bought tickets using this loophole. He did not enter anything about a railcard so it has can't have anything to do with cookies and is still working of course.