Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

dzug1

InvernessIron wrote: »

I have to travel from London to Inverness on the 5th of August. I have a young person's rail card. Have tried splitting the fares but not seeming to get it cheaper than the direst £65 fare.

Splitting fares is not a panacea - it doesn't always work

There are various festivals in Edinburgh which may be restricting availability on the London-Edinburgh leg - ie the cheaper fares have sold out.

bcfc1710

Hi
Need to do Taunton to Blackpool going Friday 25th October and coming back Sunday 27th.

Will both days cheap tickets go onsale 12 weeks in advance.

Also any tips on where can slip and/or do group saver (4 of us traveling)

Cheers

wealdroam

bcfc1710 wrote: »

Hi
Need to do Taunton to Blackpool going Friday 25th October and coming back Sunday 27th.

Will both days cheap tickets go onsale 12 weeks in advance.

Also any tips on where can slip and/or do group saver (4 of us traveling)

Cheers

You may well find that the cheaper tickets for the Sunday might not be available until sometime after, maybe several weeks after, that 12 week target.

Fenboy

In the past I have successfully booked cheaper advance tickets for my regular trips between Ely, Cambs. and Menston, Leeds. My most recent attempt, through several website, produced a consistant fare of £48.40. Booking each of 3 stages myself, through the same sites, halved this.

What has happened to the websites?


John Clarke


Websites used:

Raileasy

The Train Line

National rail

p00hsticks

Fenboy wrote: »

In the past I have successfully booked cheaper advance tickets for my regular trips between Ely, Cambs. and Menston, Leeds. My most recent attempt, through several website, produced a consistant fare of £48.40. Booking each of 3 stages myself, through the same sites, halved this.

What has happened to the websites?


John Clarke


Websites used:

Raileasy

The Train Line

National rail

Generally - avoid booking via The trainline as it charges booking fees. I believe all rail operators websites effectively link to the same underlying booking system, so prices should be consistent from site to site (although some sites may occasionally have special offers on their own services).

Split ticketing is know to create savings in a number of instances ( there is another long-running thread on this board which discusses it).

As to why you are not able to get advance fares it's difficult to say without knowing which dates and times you are looking at - it could be you're too early (advance fares usually go on sale around 12 weeks before, although it may be much later at weekends and bank holdiays when engibeering scheduels are being finalised) or too late (there are only a set number of cheap tickets issued).

Fenboy

Thanks for yr quick response. I'm fairly familier with the systems and have these sites have automatically supplied split tickets in the past, but that seems to have stopped. Also, timing not the issue in this case, as the whole exercise was done at the same time. Website prices, consistant @ £48.40, individual booking of each of 3 stages, total, £22.50!

wealdroam

Fenboy wrote: »

Thanks for yr quick response. I'm fairly familier with the systems and have these sites have automatically supplied split tickets in the past, but that seems to have stopped. Also, timing not the issue in this case, as the whole exercise was done at the same time. Website prices, consistant @ £48.40, individual booking of each of 3 stages, total, £22.50!

I'm impressed that you seem to know of websites that "automatically supplied split tickets in the past".

Are you suggesting that Raileasy, Thetrainline and National Rail were all able to do that?

To the best of my knowledge, that has been a challenge that until very recently has not been overcome.
Even the recent solutions, like TicketySplit, still cannot manage to cope with Advance Singles.

geordieracer

Fenboy wrote: »

Thanks for yr quick response. I'm fairly familier with the systems and have these sites have automatically supplied split tickets in the past, but that seems to have stopped. Also, timing not the issue in this case, as the whole exercise was done at the same time. Website prices, consistant @ £48.40, individual booking of each of 3 stages, total, £22.50!

You will find that in some cases booking the 3 seperate journies will get a cheaper fare but the validity of the individual tickets may be different to the all in one fare that you have quoted - times you can travel and so on.

Fenboy

For past journeys, Raileasy automatically supplied 6 tickets - Ely / P'boro, P'boro / Leeds & Leeds/Menston, then reverse. The website even carried a note saying it had searched for singles option; this message is no longet shown.

geordieracer

Fenboy wrote: »

For past journeys, Raileasy automatically supplied 6 tickets - Ely / P'boro, P'boro / Leeds & Leeds/Menston, then reverse. The website even carried a note saying it had searched for singles option; this message is no longet shown.

Did they? They probably got their legs slapped for doing so and have stopped doing it.