Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

jonnyb1978

hjd wrote: »

Anyone know the cheapest tickets for my daughter (aged 17) and me please? We live near Woking and are going to Edinburgh (university open day) on Thurs 6 Sept any time, returning Fri 7 Sept. Not yet sure what time we will be returning but will probably be leaving Edinburgh 3.30 or later.
I have a Family railcard but she is too old to qualify.

You will beed to buy 2 adult tickets. As you are not going until September its impossible to give you a cheapest price. You can get a Saver Return. This is a walk up ticket. (Buy on the day). My advice is to go online or contact Virgin trains (Any station can do this aswell) when you are willing to buy the ticket. As you could get a cheap one tonight but its gone tomorrow as these advanced tickets are based on a first come first served basis on once gone there is another level of pricing.

jonnyb1978

atpug wrote: »

can anyone else verify this info please before i start making plans and booking tickets? (as i was going to buy the family railcard using the £5 voucher from daily mail)

Go through the methods of buying your ticket and you should find out. If you have to put in CC details before hand you will not need the railcard. If it asks you to give the railcard number before the CC details then you have your answer. Im sure this is the case tho.

diddlydum

You'll need to buy two adult tickets as the family railcard's not valid if not used to travel with a child under the age of 16.

A Young Person's railcard is £20 for the year, so it would probably be worth getting one for your daughter, as the saving would probably pay for it in one journey.

You can now search for the cheapest tickets for a journey on the National Rail website here so have a look and see what's best for you.

PS: I've never had to put in my railcard details when buying online.

diddlydum

I don't know if these have ever been mentioned before, but if you're doing a repetitive journey in one area of the country (e.g. Newcastle-Sheffield, Manchester-Carlisle), and you don't mind travelling after 9am, there's a little known type of ticket called a Rail Rover. They're split up into different regions, or you can buy an all-line rover, and the all-line rover doesn't have time restrictions.

They usually provide savings for repeat journeys, and can sometimes be cheaper for one-off journeys too. Railcard discounts apply, and you can buy them on the day of travel.

I do apologise if they've been mentioned before, but it's a good enough trick to be repeated.

frisbee

Hi, we are not big train travellers, there are 5 of us, 2 adults and 3 children, we are wanting to travel from bradford, west yorkshire to didcot near oxford, on saturday 28th july and returning monday 30th july, which would be the cheapest way to do this.

dzug

I too can confirm that I have never had to quote a railcard number when booking on line.

Also when booking at a station or buying on the train the railcard number has never been printed on the ticket - but thay have always wanted to to see it

dzug

frisbee wrote: »

Hi, we are not big train travellers, there are 5 of us, 2 adults and 3 children, we are wanting to travel from bradford, west yorkshire to didcot near oxford, on saturday 28th july and returning monday 30th july, which would be the cheapest way to do this.

If there are any left, Virgin Value singles will be cheapest.

If you are forced into a full priced ticket (which will be a saver) then a family railcard will probably pay for itself on this trip - maybe even with the value tickets

At the moment the line is closed by flooding at Banbury so you wouldn't be able to make the trip (except via London) anyway

Applecider_2

Hi I am going to the V festival on the 17th august from holyhead to stafford and comin back 21st aug. I have found £44 fare does anyone know of any codes or even a cheaper website? thanks:D


ps vote for me in the comp its nearly ended!!!

www.maxfreshphoto.com

we are on the 2nd page at the bottom gallery 2 girls in front of a sunset!! Thanks xxx:T

richt71

You can try Martin's tip of buying different legs on the same train. So check holyhead to the next major station...that station to the next one. Obviously if it stops loads you'll probably only need 3 tickets to get the cheapest fair. I've used this tip to save about 15% of the cheapest return between york and liverpool before. By the way if you buy your tickets at a station they can get funny with you for doing this. As far as I'm aware they can't stop you though.

dzug

An advance standard A fare is £20 each way - if you choose the right trains you can get it on your dates.

A saver return - buy on the day - is £43.50, so that's 50p saved on your fare. Heaven knows where you got it from. It's not listed anywhere I know.

Try the rebooking as well - it may or may not work. It doesn't always.