Cheap travel to and from London, Birmingham and Manchester with Virgin Trains

MSE_Martin

28 November 2006

What's the deal?

Virgin Trains is offering discounted travel for journeys to/from London Euston to or from Birmingham New Street or Manchester Piccadilly. This is in exchange for customers printing out their own tickets and providing feedback to Virgin about the new print@home trial.

Single tickets are reduced to £7 for journeys to/from London and Birmingham or £9 for a journey to/from London and Manchester.

Currently tickets can be booked in advance for travel up to Friday 15 December 2006.

What you need to do

To take part you must have an Inkjet or Laser printer (black and white or colour) and Adobe Acrobate Reader installed. If you don't have Adobe you can install it here.

How to get your ticket

Visit the Virgin Trains Website and using the search facility select your journey, the number of passengers travelling and if you want a single or return journey (you don't get any extra discount for a return journey; you'll simply buy two single tickets).

The next screen will show you every date that's available for your chosen journey. Tickets are subject to ability, so if you're lucky to find a suitable date and time select the appropriate 'available' green link.

You'll need to register an account with Virgin Trains using your name, telephone number and email address in order to purchase the tickets. Before purchasing any tickets, read Virgin's Website Terms and Conditions, National Conditions of Carriage and the Print@Home Ticket Terms and Conditions.

Once you've made your payment online, tickets will be stored in your registered Virgin account. Follow the instructions here to print your ticket. You can do this at any time; on the day you book or closer to your time of travel.

If you have any trouble printing your ticket, check the Virgin Help Section for tips.

For more details see Virgin's Frequently Asked Questions Page

Ts & Cs

Remember part of the agreement to receive tickets at this price is that you'll provide feedback about the service so you may be contacted pre and post-travel.

The lead passenger's name must be the same as the name on the credit card used to book the journey. This person must be travelling (alone or with others) and have the credit card used for payment with them.

Tickets are non refundable and changes can't be made to journey details.

Further Terms and Conditions are available on Virgin's site.

Martin

P.S. This discussion was originally started by the poster immediately below. This entry has been inserted so I can put an official, fully researched MoneySavingExpert.com explanation at the top. Thank you to alohahawaii for the top spot.

alohahawaii

Click the link below..

I was just about to book my ticket to london for £54.20 return as I'd missed out on cheap one ways.

I found this by some sort of miricle. smallest link ever!

£9 one way tickets :

Manchester to london
london to manchester
birmingham to london
london to birmingham


Only lasts till the end of the year
they are testing the print your own ticket thing
all you do is answer a survey before and after travel!


https://www.printtraintickets.com/virgin/selecttowns.aspx

I've got mine!
what a saving!
first thing i've found and posted..
hope you like!
x

niteflite01

No tickets to and from Liverpool though sadly

itsbeef

Nor Exeter to London.......TYPICAL!!!

alohahawaii

i live in warrington..
i just booked a ticket from warr to manchester
only 5.50 return. then my ticket from manc to lon

it will probably still be cheaper than a return from liv to lon at normal prices.

KatieKins

Great post thanks for the link

djm71

It's actually only £7 each way from Birmingham not £9 but unfortunately it's Monday to Friday only, not weekends, so will have to stick with the usual £15 return with Chiltern.

eileenfromplaistow

I too was horrified at the prospect of £57 return to London from Warrington, at what I considered off-peak!
As one of my days is a Sunday, couldn't use the £9 ticket, but had the brainwave moment of buying a £9 ticket from London to Manchester for the Friday, and adjusted my first journey on the Sunday to get the £13.50 single from Manchester.
Now all I have to do is schlepp to Piccadilly on a Sunday ,with I am sure engineering works on the line, so it'll be a coach service and I will have to allow lots of time.
Oh how I long for the days of weekend returns from my long ago student days

alohahawaii

eileenfromplaistow wrote:

I too was horrified at the prospect of £57 return to London from Warrington, at what I considered off-peak!
As one of my days is a Sunday, couldn't use the £9 ticket, but had the brainwave moment of buying a £9 ticket from London to Manchester for the Friday, and adjusted my first journey on the Sunday to get the £13.50 single from Manchester.
Now all I have to do is schlepp to Piccadilly on a Sunday ,with I am sure engineering works on the line, so it'll be a coach service and I will have to allow lots of time.
Oh how I long for the days of weekend returns from my long ago student days

what a saving!
now you can spend/do more when you get there.. like i will...
oh yeah money saving.. must rememeber

nice to see another warrington person on here.

alohahawaii

I really wouldn't bother with this if it isn't direct! I had hell trying to get to manchester yesterday from warrington!
Trains were delayed and cancelled. I gave myself lots of time in manchester to get a coffee etc. before the train to london. but i missed it.
the one i eventually caught was delayed. and I shouldn't have been on it as my ticket wasnt for that time.
thank god no one checked the tickets.
And on the way back i was told i could get on an early train as i'd been so messed about.. on the train i was asked for my ticket..
i was told i was abusing the system and he didnt belive me that someone had told me to get on this service. I was Questioned about the cost of my ticket!
and made to sound cheap for getting it this price..
I DID sign up for trail tickets.. arent I doing the company a favor.?!

So i was told i had to get off. Miles away from home in the dark late at night
As a young girl travelling alone, i wasn't happy.

So in all it took me 5 hours to get to london 4 hours back..

not recommended unless its going to be a direct journey for you..
i'd happily pay £54 for a 2.5 hour direct traiN from warrington thanks.

Didcot_Dynamo

The following might just be of interest to potential Virgin Train passengers ... read the small print though!

http://giveaway.virgintrains.co.uk/