Virgin Trains less advance fares at peak times?

dk7

I wandered if i'm alone in noticing the reduction in the availability of advance fare tickets on virgin trains - particulary at peak times and specifically between London and Stoke-on-Trent?

I used to be able to get an advance fare for a 9am or 9.20am departure up till a day or two before (unfortunately i usually can't plan ahead much more than this) at prices less than the walk up fare, but recently there are non available. Forcing me to either pay more than £100 or wait till the off peak service at 10am.

For instance. Looking today for travel on Monday 3rd Oct there are no advance tickets available for any departure pre 10am. This is 6 days in advance.

Have Virgin reduced the percentage of advance tickets available in order to grab more revenue? Its getting silly when driving (despite ever rising petrol costs) is significantly cheaper!

wealdroam

dk7 wrote: »

Have Virgin reduced the percentage of advance tickets available in order to grab more revenue?

I think you've got it. Well done.

Virgin's, or any train company's, objective is to make a profit.

Clearly they do not have to offer cheaper tickets to fill a train if there are plenty of people willing to pay the walkup fare.

And there are plenty of people willing to pay the walkup fare... peak time trains are invariably full.