Booking rail tickets online

black-saturn

Wheres the best place to book your rail tickets? Are there any sites cheaper than others?

Also when you book a rail ticket online do you have to print your own ticket out or do they send them to you? I havn't got a printer so if you need to print them out yourself it will be no good for me.

All useful replies will be thanked :beer: :j :beer: :j :beer:

gingerdad

i foundwith virgin some fares were only available when i phoned up.. but other wise i have used https://www.thetrainline.co.uk and usually pick my tickets up on the fast ticket machine at the station

black-saturn

gingerdad wrote:

i foundwith virgin some fares were only available when i phoned up.. but other wise i have used https://www.thetrainline.co.uk and usually pick my tickets up on the fast ticket machine at the station

Thanks. I don't think we have one of those machines at our little station.

lamnicholas

black-saturn wrote:

Wheres the best place to book your rail tickets? Are there any sites cheaper than others?

Also when you book a rail ticket online do you have to print your own ticket out or do they send them to you? I havn't got a printer so if you need to print them out yourself it will be no good for me.

All useful replies will be thanked :beer: :j :beer: :j :beer:

The National Rail site and any train company site should all show the same fares for the same journeys as they are based on a centralised system.

Tickets are posted to you free or made available for collection from machines at major stations.

The only thing I would suggest is to avoid using https://www.thetrainline.com as they charge a credit card fee. Instead use a train company site to book your tickets e.g. https://www.gner.co.uk as they don't charge such a fee and you should be able to book any ticket (even to/from destinations not served by the company).

johnnytee

Iv'e used https://www.thetrainline.com for years and never had any problems whatsoever. I have on occasion compared it to Virgin trains site and the fares they offer seem to be identical.I prefer to use the fast ticket machine, but I had to travel from a smaller station the other day that didn't have that facility so had the tickets delivered by first class post. They arrived 9 o'clock the next morning.

The previous poster was correct about th charges for credit cards.However, there is no charge for debit cards, switch/maestro.

Book your tickets as early as you can when fares are at there lowest. Like cheap airlines when the plane/train fills up fares can get silly. If you book early enough there are some real bargins out there.

Bargain_Rzl

A word of warning as an aside ... If you pay with one of the new, funky-looking transparent Amex cards, the Fastticket machines don't like them much ... Last time I tried, my card was swallowed by the machine and I had to wait 20 mins for somebody to release my card, then another 20 mins for the customer service advisor to sort out my tickets manually ... It was a good job I'd left plenty of time to catch my train, as in true MSE style, I'd booked a cheapie fare which meant I had to catch a particular train! (I was on my way to visit another MSEer ) ... I'm told that Mint cards, with their cut-off corner design, aren't compatible with Fastticket machines either - so instead of getting your "Fast" ticket you might find yourself waiting in a long queue for a ticket desk and missing your train as a result!

the_devil_made_me_do_it

The only problem I find when booking train tickets is they don't book far enough in advance. I'm planning a trip to Glasgow late November. The trainline website won't allow me to book that far ahead, silly really I think.

isasmurf

Bargain_Rzl wrote:

A word of warning as an aside ... If you pay with one of the new, funky-looking transparent Amex cards, the Fastticket machines don't like them much ... Last time I tried, my card was swallowed by the machine and I had to wait 20 mins for somebody to release my card, then another 20 mins for the customer service advisor to sort out my tickets manually ...

Use your debit or another credit card at the fast ticket machines. When you collect your tickets at the fastticket machines you don't have to use the same card you used to buy your tickets.

waster_2

gingerdad wrote:

i foundwith virgin some fares were only available when i phoned up.. but other wise i have used https://www.thetrainline.co.uk and usually pick my tickets up on the fast ticket machine at the station

I think I'm right in saying that Virgin actually own The Trainline.com.

bunking_off

waster wrote:

I think I'm right in saying that Virgin actually own The Trainline.com.

You are...and when I've tested the two sites give exactly the same results and seem to be using the same underlying booking engine (just a different user front end)

bunking_off

isasmurf wrote:

Use your debit or another credit card at the fast ticket machines. When you collect your tickets at the fastticket machines you don't have to use the same card you used to buy your tickets.

That's a new one on me.

What I have found is that since going from Amex (magnetic strip) to Egg (chipped), I find the fast ticket machines never ask me for the passcode anymore. Anything that saves having to type in 8 digits of random alphabetic gobbledegook at 6am as the train's rolling in is fine by me...