Offering the cheapest rail ticket - any rules?

Tulyar

Ranger tickets are not sold online due to the potential for fraudulent use, you can usually by on the train - but some TOC's don't carry full range on portable machines it seems.

East Coast use Mixingdeck suite for train times & fares and more are following them National Rail & Trainline use Jeppeson, and others also exist. Mixing deck is easiest to use, and includes ability to store preferred seat types/cycle reservations.

East Coast have also offered a 10% discount on East Coast Only fares booked on-line, reflecting the fact that they don't pay themselves the 9% (typical) handling fee for selling their own tickets.

One trick Martin misses is to check on the option of TOC -exclusive fares for various routes. Typically you save around 50% on the all services, all routes fares. Check out London-Birmingham with Chiltern, or London Midland only, or London-Peterborough with FCC.

A season ticket between Edinburgh and Glasgow costs £3612 but 250 days (50 working weeks) using Cross Country trains at £10.30 anytime returns (valid for 1 day) costs £2575, saving £1000 per year but with a more limited choice of trains. Alternatively make the time critical trip to work by train (£8 single £2000/year) and use a 10-journey carnet for the coach (£39 x 25) home at night - with free wifi (not yet available on the trains)

cosmojohnson

Tulyar wrote: »

Ranger tickets are not sold online due to the potential for fraudulent use, you can usually by on the train - but some TOC's don't carry full range on portable machines it seems.

First Great Western's site now sells some rovers and rangers online.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Tulyar wrote: »

A season ticket between Edinburgh and Glasgow costs £3612 but 250 days (50 working weeks) using Cross Country trains at £10.30 anytime returns (valid for 1 day) costs £2575, saving £1000 per year but with a more limited choice of trains. Alternatively make the time critical trip to work by train (£8 single £2000/year) and use a 10-journey carnet for the coach (£39 x 25) home at night - with free wifi (not yet available on the trains)

Thats not right. The anytime day return for that flow is priced by Scotrail and is priced at £21.80 for an adult and £10.90 for a child.

There are XC advances available but they are not anytime fares and i cant find one in the system to show that price. Would you tell me where you found this price please.

Owain_Moneysaver

Anytime Crosscountry fare - ironically shown on the Scotrail booking system (based on Webtis)

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Bit of a misnomer them saying its an anytime fare as it quite clearly isnt given so very few trains its valid on.

not even showing up on BRFares either http://www.brfares.com/#fares?orig=EDB&dest=0433&rlc=

EDIT : just to add that Crosscountry website does not even offer it for travel on monday morning.

callum9999

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Bit of a misnomer them saying its an anytime fare as it quite clearly isnt given so very few trains its valid on.

not even showing up on BRFares either http://www.brfares.com/#fares?orig=EDB&dest=0433&rlc=

EDIT : just to add that Crosscountry website does not even offer it for travel on monday morning.

It's valid anytime on Crosscountry trains - presumably the ones hidden as not available are from other operators.

callum9999

macliam wrote: »

Overall, train booking online is about as non-transparent as any other part of the UK Transport fiasco.

It seems many now charge a "booking fee" - National Express, the Trainline, etc. -with the Trainline going one better by charging you a for using a CC too (a la Ryanair).

Red Spotted Hanky don't charge a booking fee - but beware, they don't necessarily give the best fares either. I just booked a return direct with Greater Anglia for £10. RSH said the cheapest deal for this journey would be £23. The Trainline had the £10 deal, but would actually have charged me £14.50 for the same ticket!

Caveat Emptor!!:(

Firstly, train booking online is perfectly transparent. There are plenty of train operators who don't charge a booking fee and don't charge a credit card surcharge.

Secondly, I don't believe that for a second. I'm willing to wager that you just couldn't find the ticket on the RSH website - if the Trainline had it as an option then so would RSH. They sell the same tickets. The only time RSH can be beaten that I'm aware of is when the individual train operators have special offers on their own website (e.g. Crosscountry do 10% off all their advance tickets) - which isn't very often.

photome

Why do pepps start threads and then not update on the outcome:D.

Op has been active on the forum through december

macliam

callum9999 wrote: »

Firstly, train booking online is perfectly transparent. There are plenty of train operators who don't charge a booking fee and don't charge a credit card surcharge.

Secondly, I don't believe that for a second. I'm willing to wager that you just couldn't find the ticket on the RSH website - if the Trainline had it as an option then so would RSH. They sell the same tickets. The only time RSH can be beaten that I'm aware of is when the individual train operators have special offers on their own website (e.g. Crosscountry do 10% off all their advance tickets) - which isn't very often.

Thank you. I don't like being called a liar - particularly by someone who has no evidence to support it.
I have actually used RSH regularly since they came on the scene and tried them first for this offer - so I have plenty of experience with using their site.
Unfortunately, my wife had already been told about the £10 deal (which WAS a special) .... that's why I tried the Trainline.
So everything I said was true - except in your opinion.......

WickedWolfie

sghughes42 wrote: »

I have a vague memory that a while back there was a committment by ATOC that it's members now had to offer the cheapest ticket for any rail journey. Is that the case, and if so, does it apply to rover / day ranger tickets?

I was travelling Stockport to Coventry recently. The direct fare was quite high so I'd tried splitting the ticket. I'd managed to get one website to offer me a West Midlands Day Ranger for the Stoke to Coventry bit, but I couldn't get it to offer a sensible ticket for Stockport to Stoke. It was getting late on the night before and with an early start I just wanted to get something booked, so I used the East Midlands Trains site (for the cashback) and just booked the separate tickets.

I put in a complaint about this as if I'd been able to buy the Day Ranger ticket it would have saved me around £30. Their reply was that they are only obliged to offer point-to-point tickets, even if a Ranger is valid for the journey and is cheaper.

Is this allowable?

Also, the info about the ranger was quite well hidden - as I wasn't actually changing trains at Stoke I thought I wouldn't be able to get one but it appears they are available on-train so I could have just bought one on the day.

EMT are refusing to take this any further, assuming there is a case to answer, who else can I appeal to?

The moral of the story of course is to always check relevant rover and ranger tickets as they can offer savings as well as other tricks such as splitting the journey.

Only ticket offices, not websites, are obliged to offer what is referred to as "impartial retailing". Even then they are obliged only to offer you what you ask for (eg a ticket from A to Z) and not conduct comprehensive searchs for options which might be cheaper (eg A to Z via M, or A to B to ....to Z, or indeed A to Y then a Ranger). It is down to you to do the bulk of the research I am afraid.

Websites, and indeed ticket machines, may not offer all types of tickets at all times.