Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

Brybo

Hi o wise ones!

I've been searching for cheap tickets from Birmingham to Newcastle 17th July, returning 19th July. Cheapest I can find is £32 single, anyone suggest a cheaper alternative?

Thanks

dzug1

Brybo wrote: »

Hi o wise ones!

I've been searching for cheap tickets from Birmingham to Newcastle 17th July, returning 19th July. Cheapest I can find is £32 single, anyone suggest a cheaper alternative?

Thanks

That IS a cheap ticket, albeit not the cheapest theoretically available. It's 25% off a normal return.

Try split ticketing at one of York, Leeds, Doncaster or Peterborough. It may not work - in fact I don't think it will so I'm not offering to look it up for you. But it might.

AirlieBird

lexilex wrote: »

Thanks, will have to try thinking of something else now.

There appears to be only the 1 train on a Sunday - the 8.39 - that Airport Advance tickets are offered to Hull. For your date they start at £17 per person. Your alternative is Advance tickets from Manchester Piccadilly.

Calvino

I'm also having a right bother finding £9 fares from Edinburgh to London. However, the good point is that it doesn't really matter when I go, it can be any week in the offer leaving on Sunday and returning on Thursday. anyone had any success with the fares?

lexilex

AirlieBird wrote: »

There appears to be only the 1 train on a Sunday - the 8.39 - that Airport Advance tickets are offered to Hull. For your date they start at £17 per person. Your alternative is Advance tickets from Manchester Piccadilly.

Yeah, I've seen that one, I did consider it, we land at 7.15, but I don't want to risk it. If there was a delay we would be fine, they would let us travel on a later train, but I'm wondering about getting stuck at baggage or something, think we would have to pay for tickets again if that was the case.

apt

An alternative would be to book tickets on the 12.02 from Manchester Piccadilly to Hull. They are available for £9.50. Or book Manchester Airport to Leeds £7 at 9.20 or 10.19. Leeds to Hull then for £5.50.

lexilex

apt wrote: »

An alternative would be to book tickets on the 12.02 from Manchester Piccadilly to Hull. They are available for £9.50. Or book Manchester Airport to Leeds £7 at 9.20 or 10.19. Leeds to Hull then for £5.50.

Yeah, I've been looking into those options today. The only thing that puts me off is the fact if we are delayed we will have to buy tickets again for the Leeds to Hull train, but I suppose we'll just have to deal with it.

I'm starting to think it would have been easier just to drive!

adamtrainman

This is by no means a given thing but in times of trouble say with the split Man air ticket with one bit been valid for 3 hours after and the other bit been train specific before you get on the train have a word with the conductor show him/her the tickets explain the situation and leave the decision with them. A fair few would appreciate your honest and up front and say get on and youll be fine. But beware there is some ogres out there so dont take it personally should it not work because at the end of the day they are doing you a favour.

Just as a side line how long would people allow between landing time and the time to book a adv ticket for, personally i land at 12:30 i was thinking 14:05?

lexilex

adamtrainman wrote: »

This is by no means a given thing but in times of trouble say with the split Man air ticket with one bit been valid for 3 hours after and the other bit been train specific before you get on the train have a word with the conductor show him/her the tickets explain the situation and leave the decision with them. A fair few would appreciate your honest and up front and say get on and youll be fine. But beware there is some ogres out there so dont take it personally should it not work because at the end of the day they are doing you a favour.

Just as a side line how long would people allow between landing time and the time to book a adv ticket for, personally i land at 12:30 i was thinking 14:05?

Originally, I was planning leaving a similar amount of time. I normally travel from Humberside or Leeds Bradford and don't think there's ever been more than 45 minutes between landing and getting out of the airport. I suppose it depends which airport you're using. I'm just thinking, larger airport, more chance of problems which could lead to me missing the train.

Thanks for your advice by the way, I'll keep that in mind.

lingojingo

It's quite a walk at Manchester from getting out of the airport bit to the train platforms, you need to allow time for that too.