Collecting train tickets from 'FastTicket' machines

gizmoleeds

This is probably a really simple question but can someone just confirm it for me:

I have purchased some tickets from thetrainline.com and chose to collect them at a 'FastTicket' machine. Am I okay to collect the tickets on the day of travel?

I presumed this would be the case but at the bottom of the confirmation page with my fastticket reference it says

If you fail to receive your tickets 1 day prior to your journey, please call customer services...

Is that just a standard line refering to people who get their tickets through the post?

Thanks in advance.

cannyscot_2

Yes you can collect 5 mins before if it suits you or anytime before even from another fastticket machine. Just need the ref and the card you paid with -something I sometimes forget.

isasmurf

cannyscot wrote:

Yes you can collect 5 mins before if it suits you or anytime before even from another fastticket machine. Just need the ref and the card you paid with -something I sometimes forget.

You don't need the card you paid with. Any card that matches the name on the card you paid with will do.

Voyager2002

isasmurf wrote:

You don't need the card you paid with. Any card that matches the name on the card you paid with will do.

Not always. I have tried to collect using a different card (also in my name) and been refused, then collected the tickets using the card with which I bought them.

OP, you know that thetrainline charges a credit card fee while other sites dont't? The booking engines and selection of fares on the Virgin trains and First Great Western sites are exactly the same as thetrainline, but there is no card fee.

Sam_Bee

cannyscot wrote:

Yes you can collect 5 mins before if it suits you or anytime before even from another fastticket machine. Just need the ref and the card you paid with -something I sometimes forget.

Don't leave it 5 minutes before - because that's the day half of them are broken, and the rest have massive queues. Trust me on this one

Bargain_Rzl

Another thing to be aware of is that Fastticket machines don't like slightly non-standard cards - I know people who have had trouble with Mint cards (you know, with one corner rounded) and I once had my card swallowed at Euston because the machine didn't like my Amex (the new, transparent design). I had to wait 20 minutes for an operator to come and fish my card out of the machine, and then another 15 minutes at the customer services window to collect my tickets over the counter. Good thing I'd left plenty of time.

(Of course, when the operator retrieved my card from the machine, he said "Oh no, they don't like the transparent Amexes" :rolleyes: - you'd think they might put a sign on the machine to that effect, right?)

mallard

Never had any problems with them and have used the fastticket service lots of times - except the queue of humans!!