Cheaper Rail Travel - Book Direct

traveladict

I've just looked at booking some rail tickets from Manchester down to london and looked on a search website trainline. It showed me that Virgintrains were the cheapest so went to book... However just out of curisity i looked at the same booking under www.virgintrains.com and it was cheaper!!

The actual price of the ticket was the same but virgin dont charge any booking fee's and also had a saver return ticket on which was cheaper then 2 singles and didnt show up on trainline.

has anyone else noticed that it works out better/cheaper to book direct with the operator??

Livingthedream

Train operating companies make their money from the price of the ticket, Trainline makes it's money from commission/delivery costs so if you want cheaper tickets then do what traveladit did and buy direct from the Train operating company, they also sell tickets for other train operating companies aswell ie you can buy a Virgin Advance manchester to london euston from NXEC or Scotrail at the same price

dzug1

traveladict wrote: »

The actual price of the ticket was the same but virgin dont charge any booking fee's and also had a saver return ticket on which was cheaper then 2 singles and didnt show up on trainline.

has anyone else noticed that it works out better/cheaper to book direct with the operator??

Yes, many times.

The trainline would have had that saver return if you asked it the right question, but still better to book with Virgin to avoid the booking fee.

Quentin

The trainline's booking fee is £1 per booking (not per ticket), and they pay 2% cashback via quidco, so if your order is over £50, then this ends up cheaper than booking direct with Virgin. (Use a debit card to avoid any card handling fees).

moonrakerz

Quentin wrote: »

so if your order is over £50

Which MSE'er pays more than £50 for a rail ticket !!!

Quentin

The £50 isn't per ticket. Its per order. Like what I wrote!

Traveller_353

Before booking with thetrainline, check prices and total costs direct with the train operator's websites. There are cheaper deals, and many (eg London Midland & Virgin) do not charge a credit card fee, or admin fee for sending the tickets direct to you by 1st class post.