Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

dzug1

patricia1066 wrote: »

This is a one off trip, but so many different routes I thought I would ask if I have found the cheapest one. The journeyplanner site warns of planned engineering works on the bus route, but there is always something on this route so that isnt a surprise. No railcards apply.

Bromley to East Croydon by bus 119 (Oystercard 1.20 x2)
East Croydon to Brighton £13 return offpeak

I need to get a return at 5pm approx and cant fix a timed ticket with any certainty so the Advance Southern single deal wont help.

Hope someone can help.

Could still be cheaper to buy several Advance Southern singles - they are offering 50% off at the moment (well as of Monday....) with a no fee refund if you buy on their own website.

This is in a 7 day sale starting Monday - you can book for up to 12 weeks ahead though.

wealdroam

patricia1066 wrote: »

This is a one off trip, but so many different routes I thought I would ask if I have found the cheapest one. The journeyplanner site warns of planned engineering works on the bus route, but there is always something on this route so that isnt a surprise. No railcards apply.

Bromley to East Croydon by bus 119 (Oystercard 1.20 x2)
East Croydon to Brighton £13 return offpeak

I need to get a return at 5pm approx and cant fix a timed ticket with any certainty so the Advance Southern single deal wont help.

Hope someone can help.

If you can plan seven days in advance, a Southern Daysave ticket at £12 will give you one day's unlimited travel on Southern's network.

So if you are near Beckenham Junction, it's £12 to Brighton and back. (and no buses)

patricia1066

dzug1 wrote: »

Could still be cheaper to buy several Advance Southern singles - they are offering 50% off at the moment (well as of Monday....) with a no fee refund if you buy on their own website.

This is in a 7 day sale starting Monday - you can book for up to 12 weeks ahead though.

Hi dzug. The Southern site states they are non-refundable - have you another ticket in mind? D'oh I just read it again - the sale starts Monday next.

Advance Single 25% off

Refunds:
REFUNDS. Your ticket is non-refundable. If the train you purchased a ticket for is cancelled or delayed by more than 60 minutes, special arrangements will be made to accommodate you on another train (although a seat cannot be guaranteed). If, as a result, you decide not to travel, a refund will be offered on completely unused tickets and you will not be charged an administration fee. CHANGING THE TIME OR DATE OF TRAVEL. Changes to time or date of travel must be arranged before departure of the first reserved train printed on the ticket, after which the ticket has no value and a new one must be purchased. You will need to present the ticket(s) and reservation(s) when you request a change. Changes to tickets cannot be made on-board the train. If you board a train without a ticket and reservation for that service, a new ticket must be purchased. The origin, destination and Train Company or route shown on the ticket(s) must remain the same. The difference between the price paid and cost of the next suitable fare for your journey is payable, plus a £10 administration fee per person, per single ticket for each change to a journey. If you change to a train on which a cheaper fare is available, the difference will not be refunded.

patricia1066

wealdroam wrote: »

If you can plan seven days in advance, a Southern Daysave ticket at £12 will give you one day's unlimited travel on Southern's network.

So if you are near Beckenham Junction, it's £12 to Brighton and back. (and no buses)

Very useful. Thanks
That is, until I checked out the terms, which are quite restrictive.

• Not between 16:45 and 19:15 Monday to Friday when boarding trains from East Croydon and London stations (Victoria, London Bridge and Clapham Junction)

and it wont be useful to me as I will use East Croydon to Penge, onward to Beckenham Jct

dzug1

patricia1066 wrote: »

Hi dzug. The Southern site states they are non-refundable - have you another ticket in mind? D'oh I just read it again - the sale starts Monday next.

.

This offer is not on the Southern site yet. Here's an extract from an e-mail I had from them:

Here's something that will really brighten up these dull, cold January days – Southern Railway's massive 7-day sale starts on Monday 10th January giving you a huge 50% off all Advance Southern tickets booked online. The great news is that Southern Advance tickets are valid for travel up to 12 weeks after you've bought them. So you could have lots of fun taking the train for days out during February half term, to do some sales shopping, or just escape somewhere different while making huge savings. [URL="wlmailhtml:{68BFB8FF-9B94-4186-B595-27180236C543}mid://00000006/!x-usc:http://southernrailway.r.delivery.net/r/c/r?2.1.3NE.2rW.11GuAC.BuiDg4..N.CjP2.3q.bW89MQ%5f%5fCENQFJd0"]Find out more.[/URL] [URL="wlmailhtml:{68BFB8FF-9B94-4186-B595-27180236C543}mid://00000006/!x-usc:http://southernrailway.r.delivery.net/r/c/r?2.1.3NE.2rW.11GuAC.BuiDg4..N.CjP4.3q.bW89MQ%5f%5fCETcFJf0"][/URL] Even better – any Southern Advance tickets you book online during our massive 7-day sale come with Southern's Rainy Day Guarantee. This means that if you can't travel for any reason, not just bad weather, we'll give you a full refund. It means you can take advantage of this fantastic sale, safe in the knowledge that if you can't go, you'll get all your money back. It's a win-win situation. [URL="wlmailhtml:{68BFB8FF-9B94-4186-B595-27180236C543}mid://00000006/!x-usc:http://southernrailway.r.delivery.net/r/c/r?2.1.3NE.2rW.11GuAC.BuiDg4..N.CjP6.3q.bW89MQ%5f%5fCEaIFKB0"]Find out more[/URL].

wealdroam

dzug1 wrote: »

This offer is not on the Southern site yet.

Yep. Tis on their website.

(As mentioned here.)

:beer:

Lennie08

Hi there, wonder if anyone can help me please. Am going to Leeds on 4th February until 6th. Journey is Nuneaton to Leeds. The cheapest i have seen is £22.50 going out and £16.50 coming back, wondered if anyone could better that at all please before i book cos as they say "every little helps". I dont have a railcard. Any suggestions gratefully received. Am looking at trains after 11am (to get there mid afternoon) and the noon train coming back from Leeds.

dzug1

Lennie08 wrote: »

Hi there, wonder if anyone can help me please. Am going to Leeds on 4th February until 6th. Journey is Nuneaton to Leeds. The cheapest i have seen is £22.50 going out and £16.50 coming back, wondered if anyone could better that at all please before i book cos as they say "every little helps". I dont have a railcard. Any suggestions gratefully received. Am looking at trains after 11am (to get there mid afternoon) and the noon train coming back from Leeds.

Those look to be very good fares. What are they? Through tickets? Split tickets? What route?

If you are looking at a website that charges fees (raileasy, thetrainline) then you can save that bit by using a site that doesn't - First Great Western for example. Or go to Nuneaton station. The fares will be the same

If you are prepared to travel by bus for part of the journey have a look at Megabus on the Birmingham Leeds bit - £1 fares are possible and £5 seems standard

Lennie08

dzug1 wrote: »

Those look to be very good fares. What are they? Through tickets? Split tickets? What route?

If you are looking at a website that charges fees (raileasy, thetrainline) then you can save that bit by using a site that doesn't - First Great Western for example. Or go to Nuneaton station. The fares will be the same

If you are prepared to travel by bus for part of the journey have a look at Megabus on the Birmingham Leeds bit - £1 fares are possible and £5 seems standard

Thank you for replying, looked at Megabus but its quite a long journey so have opted for train. Route is Nuneaton, Leic, Derby and Leeds and on the return leg is Leeds, B'ham and Nuneaton. Was slightly cheaper booking return with Cross Country at £16.50 as all other sites wanted £18.00. I also got cashback on my hotel :)booking so that will go towards fare.

sambagirl

Hello, I'm not sure if this tip has been put forward already (I can't bring myself to search through 100+ pages on this topic!!), but I have found that if I am doing a train journey which passes through a major station, often it can be cheaper to get to separate singles.

E.g.

Today I wanted to buy a one-way ticket from London to Crewe for Sun 23rd Jan. It was coming up as £45 on thetrainline.com. However, I was able to buy a London Euston - Birmingham ticket for £19, and Birmingham - Crewe for £13. If I had wanted to wait another 30mins in the station, I could have bought the latter ticket for £7. I have found this to work for services from Crewe to Bristol aswell and of course there will be others. The only issue might be if the first train is very late and you miss the second, whether the station officer would allow you to get the next train.

I checked these single ticket prices on the Virgin website and they were the same. However, interestingly when I did the search as an 'all-in-one' ticket on the Virgin website (no doubt the trainline.com, redspottedhanky.com etc would show the same) - e.g. requested London Euston - Crewe, via Birmingham, it came up with exactly the same two trains (dep Euston 1518, dep Birmingham 1710) but for a price of £88.50! The same train schedule an hour later was showing £30.50, but the individual prices weren't any cheaper so something seems amiss there??!

Hope this has been useful