Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

Livingthedream

daisyboo wrote: »

Anyone know how to get form Preston to Stowmarket (Suffolk) on sat 4th April without it costing £105 return!

Just a little bit early at the moment, the cheap Virgin advance tickets are only up to 22nd of March for some of their routes. Use this website to see when they are released;

http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/buy_tickets/seat_reservations/default.aspx

I've checked on a variety of different dates for cheap Advanced from Preston to Stowmarket and can't find any? which is strange but you can do this when Virgin released their cheap Preston to London Tickets

Preston to London Liverpool St Advance Single £19.50
London Liverpool St to Stowmarket Advance Single £6

Stowmarket to London Liverpool St Advance Single £6
London Liverpool st to Preston Advance Single £19.50

Total: £51 Return

When you book your tickets give yourself plenty of time to get accross London to make your connections at either Euston or Liverpool St. These are advance single so you must travel on the booked train.

daisyboo

Thank you so much for that and your time looking for me. Greatly appreciated

dzug1

daisyboo wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. How far in advanced do the advanced ticket prices come out?

£105 was from train line (it adds on for postage )

I will look at split ticketing but not sure how it works do you look for a major station on the way and book two separate journeys?

my mum also recommended raileasy but the only give you prices for the next 12 weeks.

The trainline and raileasy are two sites to avoid. They are the only two that charge postage/fees on top of the ticket which is the same price as anywhere else.

Advance tickets are supposed to come out 12 weeks ahead, but it's a very rare thing if they do. 8 is more common, less at weekends.

I see someone has give advice on possible prices so I won't repeat that

emrawkgrrl

Might be travelling to Newcastle from Guildford next Saturday (24th). Need to be there about 1:30pm but don't mind it being a bit earlier, then back the same day but leaving no earlier than 6pm. Is there anything around that is less than £90??? Or any promo codes or anything anyone knows?

miller

emrawkgrrl wrote: »

Might be travelling to Newcastle from Guildford next Saturday (24th). Need to be there about 1:30pm but don't mind it being a bit earlier, then back the same day but leaving no earlier than 6pm. Is there anything around that is less than £90??? Or any promo codes or anything anyone knows?

I suppose a bit earlier doesn't include 0430 in the morning? This from National Express East Coast:

Newcastle - Peterborough 0430 - 0709 £12
Peterborough - Guildford 0709 - 0933 £14
Total: £26

Try also splitting at other places like York, Doncaster etc. if that is not palatable.

emrawkgrrl

miller wrote: »

I suppose a bit earlier doesn't include 0430 in the morning? This from National Express East Coast:

Newcastle - Peterborough 0430 - 0709 £12
Peterborough - Guildford 0709 - 0933 £14
Total: £26

Try also splitting at other places like York, Doncaster etc. if that is not palatable.

Wow, blimey thanks! What's the best way to search for split journeys?

miller

emrawkgrrl wrote: »

Wow, blimey thanks! What's the best way to search for split journeys?

Its just trial and error really. I use www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com as its a bit faster than the other train related sites.

I also checked flybe yesterday and they were £45 quid for a single flight to Gatwick (OK, so there would then be the train to Guildford to pay for so its actually a bit dearer).

There is also an EasyJet flight to Stansted for £29 (though thats a bit of a trek to Guildford from there).

sadiejp

need to travel form melton mowbray to london, 23rd jan iseally around lunch time but anytime ok and return on the 25th again anytime, whats the cheapest way to get ther coming up at 50 pound return on trainline,

KeithP

You can save yourself £1.00 by getting your tickets anywhere else.
As dzug says a few posts up...

dzug1 wrote: »

The trainline and raileasy are two sites to avoid. They are the only two that charge postage/fees on top of the ticket which is the same price as anywhere else.

Other than that, try split ticketing, either at Peterboro or Leicester.

fairydust

Hey all, I wonder if any of you can help me? I'm looking to travel from Swindon to Bristol on the 31st Jan... I had a look before Christmas and it was advertised at £24. To Bristol?!! I thought that was too expensive (I've paid less than half of that to go to Cardiff and back!) but now I look and it's £29 - I can't believe it's so expensive?! I'm hoping someone will tell me I've got it wrong...

Edit - I've been looking around online and I've found a company called 'raileasy' who can offer me these tickets for £14.50 - has anyone dealt with this company before?