Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

Livingthedream

miller wrote: »

For the avoidance of doubt, thats the lot who used to advertise with the sheep i.e. you're a sheep if you book with them.

They don't advertise with sheep anymore they now use 80's pop group 'Black Lace' singing a dodgy version of the 'Do the Conga' to the words of 'Choo Choo Choose'. Damn thetrainline and their bucket load of money for advertising, but in all honesty it must work and they reel in loads of new customers, as the amount of people who post on here saying;

I've just been on the trainline and it's quoted me.....

miller

Their fees tend to be bundled in towards the end of the transaction "budget-airlines-style". Not very transparent. £3.50 for a credit card, £1 for the priviledge & potential insurance premium £ :eek:

I can only think of East Coast advertising on TV and even then it tends to push details of its advance fares rather than lack of additional charges or that it can be used for any journey. No catchy theme tune either - so doesn't stick in the mind.

uncle_nick

good evening
Does anyone here have experience of reducing cost from London to Sheffield ? I have to travel on Friday eve, and would rather not Megabus for £6 cos I am over 6foot, and getting back across town from the Meadowhall coachstop is no fun.
Splitting at Peterborough is a start:
18:10 Kings X -> Peterboghorror = £23.90
19:51 PB -> Sheffield = £19.50
.... better than direct trains at same time ~£74.50 and earlier than the £36 for 19:55 St Pancras -> 22:15 Sheff

What do you know ?
Nick

miller

uncle_nick wrote: »

good evening
Does anyone here have experience of reducing cost from London to Sheffield ?

Try splitting at East Midlands Parkway. Usually getting on the Nottingham train and getting off there for the Sheffield which is (usually) behind it can yield results.

Has given me plenty of success in the past, but it wasn't a Friday evening...

Edit: doesn't look any good

miller

uncle_nick wrote: »

19:51 PB -> Sheffield = £19.50

Via the East Coast website this leg includes 10%(ish) off the advance fare at £17.75 (currently).

uncle_nick wrote: »

18:10 Kings X -> Peterboghorror = £23.90

Via the East Coast website the 18:30 which gets to Peterborough 4 mins earlier than the FCC train departing at 18:10 has a Super Off Peak Single for £19.20.

NB. couldn't find this £19.20 fare on any other site I tried
(this might explain it http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/special-offers/flexible-off-peak-travel-for-less/)

http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/

Also, don't forget about this:
http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/loyalty-intro-page/
Probably too late this time to use the 100 free points, as I'd snap up that advance fare whilst its still available (the points take a while to be credited)

Lube

:spam: post 3819

NEH

Can anyone help out. I'm travelling from Inverness to Darlington on the 6th November returning 14th November using my disabled rail card.

Unfortunately I missed the release of the tickets this morning at 10am and they are all now starting at £30 or over for one way for the direct service.

I think I'm going to have to get a super off peak return but before I do can anyone suggest any cheaper alternative? I tried getting two tickets for the same train but it didn't work out any cheaper.

Thanks

Livingthedream

NEH wrote: »

Can anyone help out. I'm travelling from Inverness to Darlington on the 6th November returning 14th November using my disabled rail card.

Unfortunately I missed the release of the tickets this morning at 10am and they are all now starting at £30 or over for one way for the direct service.

I think I'm going to have to get a super off peak return but before I do can anyone suggest any cheaper alternative? I tried getting two tickets for the same train but it didn't work out any cheaper.

Thanks

If you want to travel just on the direct service from Inverness to Darlington only, then try buying from the East Coast website as you will get a 10% online discount on their advance tickets. This will bring the price down to £25.55 each way (£51.50 Return) saving around £17.50 on the price of a Super Off peak return but you do lose flexibility.

If you don't mind changing at Edinburgh then the price falls to £19.85 each way.

Torialou78

I was just going to say check which train company u are using and check their own website. if u go through several different train companies its often cheaper to buy more than one ticket for when u change train.

NEH

Livingthedream wrote: »

If you want to travel just on the direct service from Inverness to Darlington only, then try buying from the East Coast website as you will get a 10% online discount on their advance tickets. This will bring the price down to £25.55 each way (£51.50 Return) saving around £17.50 on the price of a Super Off peak return but you do lose flexibility.

If you don't mind changing at Edinburgh then the price falls to £19.85 each way.

That's the website I used and the cheapest was £30 singles. How did you get that result?

I prefer the direct route as it's less tiring for me when i've got limited energy anyway.