Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

IanD

kavernchan wrote: »

A huge thank you to IanD and dzug1 for your quick responses.

One quick question again, I am just wondering if the advance tickets have limited seats or not ?

Thanks and your help is appreciated !

The cheapest "Advance" tickets are limited to a specific sevice and there are a limited number of such tickets available on each service - hence you can't always get the cheapest advertised price.

Most operators reseve a specific seat for you but some (London Midland included) just say you must travel on the train you have booked a ticket for but can sit anywhere.

So from Oxford to Liverpool you'd get a reserved seat between Oxford and Birmingham as that's a Cross Country Trains service but on the London Midland train you'd be able to pick your seat from those available (as it starts at Birmingham this shouldn't be a problem). Virgin Trains would also allocate a seat for you if any part of the journey involved using their services.

ChezBabeNo1

Don't know whether (in the 197 previous pages) anyone has posted this, so sorry if I'm duplicating.
Be careful if buying tickets through redspottedhanky if there's more than 2 of you travelling, as they don't offer Groupsave or any other group discounts, so if there are a few of you, probably better to buy from the station or appropriate train operating website. Have queried this with RSH, but only got a one-line response saying they don't offer group discounts. Seems to be against their lofty claims about being the cheapest and their 'Price Promise', but hey?

yorkie2

ChezBabeNo1 wrote: »

Don't know whether (in the 197 previous pages) anyone has posted this, so sorry if I'm duplicating.
Be careful if buying tickets through redspottedhanky if there's more than 2 of you travelling, as they don't offer Groupsave or any other group discounts, so if there are a few of you, probably better to buy from the station or appropriate train operating website. Have queried this with RSH, but only got a one-line response saying they don't offer group discounts. Seems to be against their lofty claims about being the cheapest and their 'Price Promise', but hey?

Online booking sites are, sadly, not bound by the rules of 'Impartial Retailing' so they do not have to offer the cheapest fare.

Stations are bound by Impartial Retailing rules (as defined by the Ticketing Settlement Agreement) however some online promotions are available on a particular website only (such as 10% off East Coast Advance tickets, or 34% off East Coast tickets if 3 or more travel on East Coast Advance tickets is available on the EC site only).

I think if someone was to end up paying more from RSH (or any other website) than they would at the station (which is quite possible on flows where GroupSave tickets are available), then they would have a strong case to complain to the ASA and perhaps take it even further.

argamemnon

Just wondering, but is there much difference between train tickets bought online and tickets bought at the station..?? cheers...

dzug1

argamemnon wrote: »

Just wondering, but is there much difference between train tickets bought online and tickets bought at the station..?? cheers...

In what way????

The simple answer is that there is not the slightest difference. Same price, same conditions.

As ever there are exceptions, but not very many.

garriec

Hi there, I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas if there's a cheaper way to get from Stoke on Trent to Crowborough and back. Cheapest I can get is £45, this is including a 16-25 railcard. Will be leaving around the 16th December but flexible on that, and return around the 6th Jan. Any help would be appreciated!

dzug1

garriec wrote: »

Hi there, I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas if there's a cheaper way to get from Stoke on Trent to Crowborough and back. Cheapest I can get is £45, this is including a 16-25 railcard. Will be leaving around the 16th December but flexible on that, and return around the 6th Jan. Any help would be appreciated!

A London Midland only superoffpeak return from Stoke to London - £15.50. An off peak return London to Crowborough - £14.45

Plus £4 each way on the underground or £2.30 each way on the bus* - though there are ways of reducing that - eg Oyster

All flexible buy on the day tickets

* may go up in January

girleight@

Sorry if someone asked this, the thread is a bit of a nightmare to search!
To go between York and Wakefield there is no such thing as a period return, only a day return. So you have to buy a single ticket each way to go on Friday and come back Saturday. Is there a way to buy a return to somewhere further that works out cheaper such that it is OK to stop short?

Thanks

IanD

Looks like you can get a return that costs £21.50 - 90p cheaper than 2 singles.

You could try an off peak return to Wakefield from Malton which costs £19.80 and I believe break of journey is allowed which means you can stop short/start late at York.

Or an anytime return from York to Sheffield valid via Wakefield/Leeds which allows break of journey so you could start/end short at Wakefield is £19.90.

All of these should be available on the day at the station so you could double check with the booking clerk. Or for definitive advice, try asking the same question on www.railforums.co.uk - the guys on there are experts in this area and may have better suggestions!

pompeyrich

Posted this in the cheap fares discussion but hoping for more advice here.

Cosham or Portsmouth to Hartlepool, return, 10th Dec back next day. YP railcard. Best found £87.05, valid on any off peak train, £76.30 splitting at London then using GC trains for the long bit.

Can knock a £ or 2 off using advanced singles but prefer a bit of flexibility as not 100% sure of times. Any help gratefully received, cheers, Rich