Split Ticketing: Report successful routes here

evesham1988la

boqq wrote:

Any suggestions on how to split this route? Have always flown over so far so no idea as to train journey.

Singles from £15, if booked in advance.

protector

Before reading this, please bear in mind that a few suggestions for even cheaper travel were made in posts following this one.
The suggestions were a Virgin Value Advance Single C each way from Manchester to Edinburgh at £12 each way. A considerable saving over what I've achieved, but unfortunately not an option that was available to me when I was booking.

Also, https://www.megatrain.com was suggested. A good idea but again it wasn't available when I came to book. Not sure why, but such is life.

Having said that, read on to see how I split and saved on this route. It might come in useful if you miss out on the Value Advance C tickets for £12 each way like I did. Thanks to Alanrowell and Voyager2002 for their input.



TheTrainLine prices this journey at £73.10 for a Saver Return and £153 for a Standard Open Return.
I'm traveling on a Saturday, returning on Sunday. Booking quite a way in advance (about 6 weeks)

The two routes thetrainline offers for this journey are:
Manchester-York-Edinburgh (change of train at York)
Manchester-Darlington-Edinburgh (change of train at Darlington)

There are other routes at other times, but these are the only two that came up around the time I'm traveling.


I went for the obvious and selected the change of train as my split station.


Manchester - York - Manchester
Trans Pennine Express Standard Advance B £14 (Return)

York - Edinburgh
Virgin Value Advance £11 (Each way)


Total Journey cost
£36
Total saving
£37.10 (over Saver Return)
£117 (over Standard Open Return)


(Splitting at Darlington left me with a split price of £45 - not as big a saving, so York it is)


When booking I was taking a while to make sure I got my journeys right so I didn't miss a train or end up at the wrong station, and in doing so I missed out on the Standard Advance B for the Manchester to York leg, which meant I've had to get the Standard Advance A instead at a total cost of £4 extra.


So for me...
Saver Return.. £73.10
Split Price...... £40
Saving.......... £33.10

To put that in perspective - National Express for the same journey costs just under £30. The journey is about 10 hours each way, with less comfort, and demands really awkward journey times. £10 well spent when you gain so much extra time at each end too.

I should point out that I made no attempt to reduce the price further than I did by splitting at York. It might be possible to reduce the price even further by splitting one or both of the legs either side of York. I'd spend enough time already though - I didn't fancy spending longer to try and save much more as I was happy with the price I had found.


Great technique and I wish I'd thought of it sooner. I'll be doing this any time I'm getting tickets from now on.
Thanks

jayarr_2

i do this several times a week, but have come across some people at bradford ticket office who are really unhelpful-even went so far to tell me that what i was doing was illegal, and that i could be turned off the train for doing it..as a student-whos journeys arent eligible for a saving on a rail card, the £3-4 a day i save makes a huge difference, but i was also made to feel like a criminal

jdeagles

I'm saving a good few quid on early trains from Liverpool to London, though I suspect Runcorn and Crewe could pull the same stunt: I split at Nuneaton. This works with the 05:45 or the 06:28 from Lime Street (but not the 07:07 after that)

Lime Street -> Nuneaton: Saver Return £31
Nuneaton -> London Euston: ADVANCE STANDARD A £42
London Euston -> Nuneaton: Saver Single £29.50

Total £102.50, a saving of £58.70 on the cheapest singles travelling back off-peak, or saving £102.50 travelling back at peak time!

If you pay on the day, you can get the nuneaton -> London leg for £51 - an extra £9 but still a decent saving. You may be able to get that leg cheaper if you book earlier.

alanrowell

Why not just pay £12 for Virgin Value advance single C tickets on a train DIRECT to Edinburgh?

Total cost £24 which is a saving of £12 over your indirect route

Also consider Manchester to Glasgow then getting the Citylink or Megabus coaches to Edinburgh

Cullumpster

Hiya,
does anyone know the best route to get from Brighton - kettering
My brother is coming up to see me at Easter but he's a student and it costs him loads on the train.

I've tried to look for one but i cant seem to find anything

Voyager2002

protector wrote:

TheTrainLine prices this journey at £73.10 for a Saver Return and £153 for a Standard Open Return.
I'm traveling on a Saturday, returning on Sunday. Booking quite a way in advance (about 6 weeks)

The two routes thetrainline offers for this journey are:
Manchester-York-Edinburgh (change of train at York)
Manchester-Darlington-Edinburgh (change of train at Darlington)

There are other routes at other times, but these are the only two that came up around the time I'm traveling.


I went for the obvious and selected the change of train as my split station.


Manchester - York - Manchester
Trans Pennine Express Standard Advance B £14 (Return)

York - Edinburgh
Virgin Value Advance £11 (Each way)


Total Journey cost
£36
Total saving
£37.10 (over Saver Return)
£117 (over Standard Open Return)


(Splitting at Darlington left me with a split price of £45 - not as big a saving, so York it is)


When booking I was taking a while to make sure I got my journeys right so I didn't miss a train or end up at the wrong station, and in doing so I missed out on the Standard Advance B for the Manchester to York leg, which meant I've had to get the Standard Advance A instead at a total cost of £4 extra.


So for me...
Saver Return.. £73.10
Split Price...... £40
Saving.......... £33.10

To put that in perspective - National Express for the same journey costs just under £30. The journey is about 10 hours each way, with less comfort, and demands really awkward journey times. £10 well spent when you gain so much extra time at each end too.

I should point out that I made no attempt to reduce the price further than I did by splitting at York. It might be possible to reduce the price even further by splitting one or both of the legs either side of York. I'd spend enough time already though - I didn't fancy spending longer to try and save much more as I was happy with the price I had found.


Great technique and I wish I'd thought of it sooner. I'll be doing this any time I'm getting tickets from now on.
Thanks

Remember that Manchester-Edinburgh is a Megatrain route.

Voyager2002

jayarr wrote:

i do this several times a week, but have come across some people at bradford ticket office who are really unhelpful-even went so far to tell me that what i was doing was illegal, and that i could be turned off the train for doing it..as a student-whos journeys arent eligible for a saving on a rail card, the £3-4 a day i save makes a huge difference, but i was also made to feel like a criminal

I think you should complain.

So long as you travel on trains that stop at the 'split' station then what you are doing is perfectly legal. Really they are the people who should be ashamed of themselves for charging such ridiculous fares, and for increasing the cost per mile if you travel further (logically, you would expect them to make split tickets more expensive rather than less).

Voyager2002

For journeys from the London area to the west country (perhaps also to Wales), Pewsey is a good place to split.

melstone

Hello all...this is my first post, yay!

After a lot of tinkering i manage to get the best price for a 2 day trip to Scarborough.
Normal open return from BTM-Scarborough is £94.60.
However....
BTM-Birm New St single = £11.50
BNS-York single = £13.50
York-Scar single =£10.90
total £35.90

The return trip booked as single ticket cost £33.20. Thats a total of £69.10 a saving of £25.50. Unfortunately i couldnt pay by Electron so i jotted down all timings and completely annoyed the guy who served me at BTM!