redspottedhanky for train tickets - expensive?

ET1976

The journey I'm looking at is coming up at £63 on redspottedhanky.com, but is only £50 on nationalrail.co.uk or if I buy it direct at the ticket office (same train times).

I've never used RSH before - is it common for them to be more expensive like this or am I missing something in the search criteria which means I'm not seeing the cheapest fare?

Thanks!

TeaCake

Ive never heard of red spotted hanky before and I travel around by train quite a lot. I normally check Train Line, National Rail, Virgin, Chiltern and or East Coast when looking for the cheapest tickets.

wealdroam

ET1976 wrote: »

The journey I'm looking at is coming up at £63 on redspottedhanky.com, but is only £50 on nationalrail.co.uk or if I buy it direct at the ticket office (same train times).

I've never used RSH before - is it common for them to be more expensive like this or am I missing something in the search criteria which means I'm not seeing the cheapest fare?

Thanks!

ET1976, what is your journey? What type of ticket?

All ticket sellers are usually competitive.

wealdroam

TeaCake wrote: »

Ive never heard of red spotted hanky before and I travel around by train quite a lot. I normally check Train Line, National Rail, Virgin, Chiltern and or East Coast when looking for the cheapest tickets.

RSH are relatively new.

They do get a mention in MSE's Cheap Train & Coach Deals article though.

More details here.

Can use Tesco's Clubcard points with them.

ET1976

wealdroam wrote: »

ET1976, what is your journey? What type of ticket?

All ticket sellers are usually competitive.

Cambridge to Heathrow (underground), return within 1 month, off peak, 2 adults with Network Railcard.

wealdroam

RSH are showing me a Off Peak Return Cambridge to Heathrow Underground at £48.80.
That's total for two people who both have a Network Railcard.

National Rail Enquiries show me the same.

To get those fares specify 'via Tottenham Hale'.

Without that restriction, it's £50.20 on both websites.

Edited to add...
I can see the £63.10 fare when I specify just one railcard.

bb21

Redspottedhanky are run by ATOS Origin, whose WebTIS system is one of the ticket booking engines that are currently used. The TOCs that use WebTIS for their own websites include London Midland, East Coast, Southern and Southeastern, amongst others. ATOS Origin have decided to run their own retailing activities in addition to supporting the TOCs's websites.

Under the same conditions, you should not get different fares for the same itinerary as all booking engines use the same central reservation system. However what might happen sometimes is that different websites will have different default settings when fares are displayed which can give an impression that one website offers a cheaper alternative to another. These options can be changed so that alternative fares are shown and these should be the same from any website.

Some train companies offer an online discount for certain tickets purchased from their own website and this is the only legitimate reason I am aware of that causes journeys to be cheaper when the ticket is sold from the operator's own website.

Third-party sellers such as thetrainline and raileasy can never offer a cheaper ticket than the websites of train operating companies, as they rip passengers off by charging booking fees and credit card fees which the TOCs are not allowed to do according to their franchise agreements.

ET1976

wealdroam wrote: »

RSH are showing me a Off Peak Return Cambridge to Heathrow Underground at £48.80.
That's total for two people who both have a Network Railcard.

National Rail Enquiries show me the same.

To get those fares specify 'via Tottenham Hale'.

I saw the Tottenham Hale fare, but can't see how it's possible to travel from Cambridge to Heathrow via Tottenham Hale?!

ET1976

wealdroam wrote: »

I can see the £63.10 fare when I specify just one railcard.

RSH website must not be taking account of railcard conditions properly then, as 2 adults can definitely travel at the £50 fare on 1 railcard (I have bought this exact same journey a couple of months ago from the ticket office and they have confirmed this is still the case now).

TeaCake

ET1976 wrote: »

I saw the Tottenham Hale fare, but can't see how it's possible to travel from Cambridge to Heathrow via Tottenham Hale?!

Cambridge to Tottenham Hale on the Rail then underground Tottenham to Green Park, change for the Piccadilly line to Heathrow.

wealdroam

ET1976 wrote: »

RSH website must not be taking account of railcard conditions properly then, as 2 adults can definitely travel at the £50 fare on 1 railcard (I have bought this exact same journey a couple of months ago from the ticket office and they have confirmed this is still the case now).

I was wrong earlier when I said...

wealdroam wrote: »

I can see the £63.10 fare when I specify just one railcard.

What I should've said was "I can see the £63.10 fare when I specify just one person using the railcard."

You need to make sure you put a '2' in the second Adults box...


A bit fiddly, but does work.