Cheap Train Fares guide discussion

Mimi2011

I think Takethetrain.com are misleading customers on their site as they claim they deliver the tickets for free. They don't. You have to pay £1 and it takes up to 5 days to deliver. I emailed them and got a very fast reply back saying they only delivered free to the fast machines at stations. I'm sorry but "delivery" surely means delivery direct to a person - not to a machine so you have to go and physically collect them? The charges are fair enough, but you don't find out til you get to the end of the booking that they ARE going to charge you to post them out!

Could Moneysavingexpert point this out in the cheap fairs guide?

wealdroam

Mimi2011 wrote: »

I think Takethetrain.com are misleading customers on their site as they claim they deliver the tickets for free. They don't. You have to pay £1 and it takes up to 5 days to deliver. I emailed them and got a very fast reply back saying they only delivered free to the fast machines at stations. I'm sorry but "delivery" surely means delivery direct to a person - not to a machine so you have to go and physically collect them? The charges are fair enough, but you don't find out til you get to the end of the booking that they ARE going to charge you to post them out!

Could Moneysavingexpert point this out in the cheap fairs guide?

Doesn't the MSE guide already make that clear?

In the section entitled Use the top UK train booking sites, on the Takethetrain.co.uk line is says no in the column headed Free ticket postage.

miller

50% discount on Off-Peak Day Retruns on South West Trains during half term. Conditions apply, see website for further detalis:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/halfterm-terms-conditions.aspx

CarysOx

I'm trying to purchase tickets between Liverpool and Edinburgh for the end of August, and have looked on Trainline and found advance tickets for £74.50 for two people travelling first class (with TT railcard). However, I have Rail Travel vouchers from a previous journey that was severely delayed so want to use these. I phoned up the Trainline and they said the option to use rail vouchers was blanked out. They couldn't really give a valid reason for this (the guys kept on going on about needing 14 working days, and as I'm booking about 2 months in advance this shouldn't be an issue). I went along to a train station instead to try to buy these, and the lady there said they weren't available, but instead would only be available 4-6 weeks in advance. Surely if you can buy the tickets online, the same availability should be on the phone or at the stations? Is this a restrictions on the rail travel vouchers themselves? The tickets do use two providers, so would this work if I tried to purchase each leg separately? The lady at the station said to try again next week but obviously tickets will potentially sell out between now and then.

miller

East Coast telesales used to let you post in Rail Travel Vouchers then would send the tickets out (not sure if that arrangement has changed now Virgin have taken over).

First Great Western telesales would charge the amount to your card then refund the value of the Rail Travel Vouchers later.

I can see the £74.50 tickets you are talking about routed "AP TPE & Connect". They are the highest priced 1st advance tier and I can see plenty of availability on the services I am currently looking at so no panic just yet.

Bottom line, you should have been able to book them at the station, but why not try the telesales lines above and let us know how you get on?

miller

I've found the First Great Western number for you off their website

FGW_website wrote:

Telesales 0345 7000 125 (7am – 10pm Monday - Friday; 8am – 7pm Saturday & Sunday; for bookings, group bookings, season ticket renewals and reservations)

I can't find the VT East Coast one, but you're probably better off trying FGW first anyway.

(NB telesales should be able to sell tickets for other operators not just their own, in case you are wondering! In any case the £74.50 tickets are priced by First TransPennine so it shouldn't be a big deal anyway).

CarysOx

miller wrote: »

I've found the First Great Western number for you off their website



I can't find the VT East Coast one, but you're probably better off trying FGW first anyway.

(NB telesales should be able to sell tickets for other operators not just their own, in case you are wondering! In any case the £74.50 tickets are priced by First TransPennine so it shouldn't be a big deal anyway).

Thank you for this. I called First TransPennine, and absolutely no problem buying the tickets with them. I've posted the vouchers off, and they'll be in touch to sort out the balance. The guy was really pleasant, and very thorough in telling me where to post it all and what details to include. Lesson for me, phone the operator in the first place! I still think it's bad there were restrictions at the station on purchasing advance tickets, as I would imagine there are still a lot of people that would go here as a first point of call.

miller

Good that First TPE offer this... not sure if they are in the same call centre as First Great Western, but either way it's useful info.

JoJoB

Having done everything I can think of (splitting tickets, railcard etc) the cheapest fare I can find from Morecambe to Ramsgate on Sunday 13th September is £174! For 2 adults and 1 child.

This seems very steep, especially since midweek I managed to get a single fare for us all to Blackpool from Ramsgate for £31.

Having checked out various different dates for morecambe trains I haven't come across ANY saver advance tickets - just the £174 flat fare (£289 without a railcard!).

Do some destinations on the network just not have the cheap advance tickets at all?

wealdroam

JoJoB wrote: »

Having done everything I can think of (splitting tickets, railcard etc) the cheapest fare I can find from Morecambe to Ramsgate on Sunday 13th September is £174! For 2 adults and 1 child.

This seems very steep, especially since midweek I managed to get a single fare for us all to Blackpool from Ramsgate for £31.

Having checked out various different dates for morecambe trains I haven't come across ANY saver advance tickets - just the £174 flat fare (£289 without a railcard!).

Do some destinations on the network just not have the cheap advance tickets at all?

Looks like you can get a £30+ fare for a Sunday in mid-August.
You will need to split, and you are probably just a little bit too early. Keep trying for the next few weeks.