Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

wealdroam

mercman1969 wrote: »

Hi folks,

Hope somebody can help me find the cheapest tickets for the following

Thursday 30th September - (Outward)
2 Adults + 1 Child (aged 5)
Grantham to London Bridge Tube via Kings Cross

Thurday 30th September - (Return)
1 Adult
London Bridge Tube via Kings Cross

Friday 1st October - (Outward)
1 Adult
Grantham to London Bridge Tube via Kings Cross

Friday 1st October - (Return)
2 Adults + 1 Child (aged 5)
London Bridge Tube via Kings Cross to Grantham

Hope that makes sense....appreciate its a bit long winded
Basically Daughter has to goto hospital and stop over 1 night so mum will stop with her

I need to return back home and then travel back to pick them up the following day

What are our cheapest options?

What have you found so far?

Should be quite easy to build upon the information you were given to help you with last Thursday's trip.

I would suggest Off Peak Returns from Grantham to London Bridge for when all three of you are travelling together, using the Family and Friends Railcard you bought earlier.

You buy an Off Peak Return from London Bridge to Grantham to cover when you are travelling alone.

I say 'Off Peak Returns' but it really depends on the time of day.

Advance Singles may be a cheaper possibility if the times of travel suit.

NEH

Can anyone tell me if East Coast will release any more advance tickets between now and Christmas? They released the first lot last week but unfortunately the email notification never came and now all advance tickets are sold out for the return leg of the journey on all days between Christmas and New Year....

Just wondered if we need to book the standard fares that are left or wait until more advance tickets are released?

wealdroam

NEH wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if East Coast will release any more advance tickets between now and Christmas? They released the first lot last week but unfortunately the email notification never came and now all advance tickets are sold out for the return leg of the journey on all days between Christmas and New Year....

Just wondered if we need to book the standard fares that are left or wait until more advance tickets are released?

What journey? What dates?

With that information, someone may be able to help you further.

NEH

wealdroam wrote: »

What journey? What dates?

With that information, someone may be able to help you further.

Sorry as it was generalised query as to the release dates didn't think it was necessary Darlington to Inverness, not sure of dates as advance tickets are sold out between Christmas and New year...

I've checked out all the diffferent websites and different days and different combinations but they are sold out i just need to know if that is it for the advance ticket release...

wealdroam

NEH wrote: »

Sorry as it was generalised query as to the release dates didn't think it was necessary Darlington to Inverness, not sure of dates as advance tickets are sold out between Christmas and New year...

I've checked out all the diffferent websites and different days and different combinations but they are sold out i just need to know if that is it for the advance ticket release...

Sorry, don't know the answer to your specific question, but...

I can see Advance Single for the whole route at £36.05 on 27 Dec, and Advance Single at £21.80 on 31 Dec.

Splitting at Edinburgh will find at least one Advance Single each day between Edinburgh and Inverness. Generally at £19.60.

Darlington to Edinburgh Advance Singles are more prolific.

Should be able to beat the Anytime Single price of £97.00

NEH

wealdroam wrote: »

I can see Advance Single for the whole route at £36.05 on 27 Dec, and Advance Single at £21.80 on 31 Dec.

Splitting at Edinburgh will find at least one Advance Single each day between Edinburgh and Inverness. Generally at £19.60.

Darlington to Edinburgh are more prolific.

Should be able to beat the Anytime Single price of £97.00

Thanks a lot....

I can't get the advance fare option to show for the 27th, it's greyed out for me how did you manage to get it?

Livingthedream

NEH wrote: »

Thanks a lot....

I can't get the advance fare option to show for the 27th, it's greyed out for me how did you manage to get it?

Hi Wealdroam is correct there is one train showing up at 14.10 on the 27th Dec, but it's strange that there isn't more advance singles for that route, perhaps and this just a guess, Scotrail haven't released all the connections for East Coast trains for some reason.

You could e-mail East Coast and ask them direct.

NEH

Livingthedream wrote: »

Hi Wealdroam is correct there is one train showing up at 14.10 on the 27th Dec, but it's strange that there isn't more advance singles for that route, perhaps and this just a guess, Scotrail haven't released all the connections for East Coast trains for some reason.

You could e-mail East Coast and ask them direct.

I can't get it to show up....

Just checked and First Scot Rail haven't released their's yet and neither have the other companies so that explains one or two things.

epm-84

Livingthedream wrote: »

Hi Wealdroam is correct there is one train showing up at 14.10 on the 27th Dec, but it's strange that there isn't more advance singles for that route, perhaps and this just a guess, Scotrail haven't released all the connections for East Coast trains for some reason.

You could e-mail East Coast and ask them direct.

It might be not that many Advances will be released for 27th Dec. If they expect some services to be busy they normally release little to no advance tickets for that particular service.

Bogof_Babe

The other day I used the East Coast site to book three Advance singles each way for my usual route (Hereford to Southport), for 20th Dec outward, returning on 23rd Dec. All fine except that it would not allocate me seat reservations. It just showed asterisks on that part of the booking form, with a message to the effect that "although seats were reserved for you we are unable to allocate numbered seat reservations".

I don't see how they can say they have reserved seats then. Those dates are likely to be busy anyway, so I guess it's the luck of the draw.

I also tried again, without specifying any preferences, but it was still the same. I wonder if it's because I was booking for three people to travel, so as the seats are in twos (except for table ones) it might have confused the seat allocating software.

Not too worried about being challenged by ticket inspector, as I expect the machine will churn out seat res. tickets with asterisks on, like it does on the Liverpool South Parkway to Crewe leg of some of my journeys for some reason. Just a bit annoyed that we will maybe have to travel separately wherever we can find a seat, if we can find one at all on those dates!