TicketySplit feedback - official discussion

redux

redux wrote: »

I wonder if MSE could consider bringing back its tool.

Most of the split ticketing sites seem to be affiliate white labels of the same thing, and it doesn't find any savings on a route I tried and easily found a cheaper split myself, just by picking a significant station on the way (Truro to Basingstoke in a few days time, split Exeter). There might be cheaper still, but none of these would save anything, and some want to charge a fee for the privilege.

Example 2

Bournemouth to Stansted Airport, Sat 31st March (16 days from now)

Full fare £75.40
Advance fares £36.85 to £46.70
Splits website £33.50 to £47.77, plus £1 fee
I can find £12 to £14.10 (railcard £7.90 or £9.30)

bottletop

Yes, I too have been less than impressed with various sites out there and don't trust them to find the best deal. They also big-up the savings you are making by comparing their price to the dearest imaginable, when often anybody could easily find a better price.

redux

bottletop wrote: »

Yes, I too have been less than impressed with various sites out there and don't trust them to find the best deal. They also big-up the savings you are making by comparing their price to the dearest imaginable, when often anybody could easily find a better price.

Indeed. The pose of having done something clever is false.

You have chosen an advance ticket for £2.30. That's a saving of £16.60 or 87.83%, compared to buying an equivalent ticket on the day. This ticket is only valid on the specific booked train, unless you are delayed by an earlier train.

For this journey, we will charge you a booking fee of up to £2.50. The final amount will depend on the total cost of your tickets.

Misleading description, as they haven't done anything to earn their £2.50.

Effectively they are more than doubling what anyone could pay by choosing a certain operator.

This train leaves in a few minutes time, and anyone can buy this surprising advance fare bargain on the same day of travel, even only minutes ahead of the train. Indeed, it seems to be actually cheaper to buy on the same day than book the equivalent train a day or two ahead. £4.40 yesterday afternoon, £8 last night, now £2.30.

lutonlagerlout

managed to get 4 of us returns to blackpool from MKC for £140 a very handy tool ,thank you!
Tony :-)

ramblingsydrumpo

You ask for feedback about these two tools.

Trying to find best price for Stratford-on-Avon to Sawbridgeworth on evening of 16 May, for two, both with senior railcard. There should be an Advance through ticket using the 17:36 out of Stratford, at £14.50, but for some reason it's not showing on that day.
Best I can find manually is Stratford-Marylebone £7.30 (Advance) + Marylebone-Tottenham Hale £3.70 (Oyster offpeak) + Tottenham Hale-Sawbridgeworth £14.90 (Offpeak) = £25.90.

Trainsplit suggests a fare Stratford-zone3 £11.60 plus the same TOM-SAW fare, but its surcharge pushes the price up to £30.11 and Chiltern says the fare SAV-TOM is £13.20.

Ticketclever offers £38.50, which is less than impressive, but when I click through isn't showing anything cheaper than £78.20. Useless.

Wolfie59

Thank you Martin and MSE for your split ticketing info. I managed to get a split ticket fare that in total cost £160, against the GWR advertised price of £389 (as anytime return was the only fare they were offering for the specific timed trains we wanted). I got a split-ticket via Ticketclever.com for the outward journey for £85 (same train I wanted, even same seats, throughout the split-ticket journey) and single for the return leg through GWR (as ticketclever or trainsplit weren't offering the timed return train I wanted) for £75. So a total saving of £229 - fantastic. However, I found it pays to check all the split-ticket sites, because trainsplit.com weren't offering the outward train we wanted at a saving, but ticketclever were. Also, as Martin warns, check the restrictions. One of the trains which trainsplit were suggesting actually had a restriction which meant that (at the time we would be travelling) that train was not applicable, and the whole process took a while to navigate to ensure the trains proposed actually stopped at the split station, etc. but worth the effort in my particular case.. Ticketclever.com actually told you the seat numbers before you committed, so you could check that you wouldn't suddenly be uprouted mid-journey (when I know the route concerned has people standing in the aisles), whereas trainsplit.com didn't seem to confirm your seat numbers until after you'd committed to pay, so I wouldn't have proceeded with the booking even if they could have offered the trains/fares I wanted.
Thanks Martin and MSE, your help gratefully appreciated. I will definately use these tools again, as I do this journey frequently.

Picasso7

Oh, please bring back ticketty split! Both the tools recommended only give me the 'arrive before' or 'leave after' option for both journeys, but I am going for a meeting so I need to arrive before it starts and leave after it ends. I am finding it so hard to use these tools. They seem to change the information I put in so I have to go back and try again. My guess is that there isn't a suitable split ticket for me but I now have a headache...!!!

yorkie2

Picasso7 wrote: »

Oh, please bring back ticketty split! Both the tools recommended only give me the 'arrive before' or 'leave after' option for both journeys, but I am going for a meeting so I need to arrive before it starts and leave after it ends. I am finding it so hard to use these tools. They seem to change the information I put in so I have to go back and try again. My guess is that there isn't a suitable split ticket for me but I now have a headache...!!!

Without knowing your journey details it is impossible to give advice.


Tickety Split only offered one "split point", ie. a combination of two (and no more than two) fares. And it only offered Singles, not Returns.

ImaGiant

Both well over £100 for return from Huddersfield to Milton Keynes. Did it myself for £76 return [using split singles].

Exile_geordie

Picasso7 wrote: »

Oh, please bring back ticketty split! Both the tools recommended only give me the 'arrive before' or 'leave after' option for both journeys, but I am going for a meeting so I need to arrive before it starts and leave after it ends. I am finding it so hard to use these tools. They seem to change the information I put in so I have to go back and try again. My guess is that there isn't a suitable split ticket for me but I now have a headache...!!!

Trainsplit.com seems to be a much better tool for this - ive used it a few times to get places