Beware when buying Day Returns on the train!

misscutiepie1984

unfortunately i do work for a train company selling tickets and i can assure you its not as easy as it looks. As you have yourself worked out its complicated, there are plenty of different tickets types and different railcards!!!

It all depends on what time of the day your travelling as to what ticket you can and can't buy. If your travelling before 9am you can pretty much guarantee your fare is gonna be a hefty one... if you can travel outside of these times then you can get the saver tickets which are a lot cheaper.

That said if you know well in advance when your travelling ie date and time then you may be better off buying advance purchase single tickets.... but these can ONLY be used on the specified trains.

Hope this helps

(and i know the system sucks, i get shouted/ sworn at on a daily basis)

Amy

AP

The reason why you need a Standard Day Return from Leeds to Manchester instead of a Saver Return is because the following restriction on the Saver Return ticket exists for this journey:

Restriction : 2M
Available as listed below
MONDAYS TO FRIDAYS - (By any
train on other days).


OUTWARD TRAVEL
By any train due to arrive at
Manchester STNS (Deansgate,
Piccadilly, Oxford Road or
Victoria) before 0930.

RETURN TRAVEL
By any train.

System

misscutiepie1984 wrote: »

unfortunately i do work for a train company selling tickets and i can assure you its not as easy as it looks. As you have yourself worked out its complicated, there are plenty of different tickets types and different railcards!!!

It all depends on what time of the day your travelling as to what ticket you can and can't buy. If your travelling before 9am you can pretty much guarantee your fare is gonna be a hefty one... if you can travel outside of these times then you can get the saver tickets which are a lot cheaper.

That said if you know well in advance when your travelling ie date and time then you may be better off buying advance purchase single tickets.... but these can ONLY be used on the specified trains.

Hope this helps

(and i know the system sucks, i get shouted/ sworn at on a daily basis)

Amy

Cheers Amy and I'm sorry you get shouted & sworn at daily! I certainly never take it out on you guys but I can also understand the frustrations of the people who shout and swear as I'm sure you can! Do the staff complain about the system up through their management? Is there any chance of it being simplified at any point?

As usual with things like this the people who can afford to travel first class and buy whatever ticket they like don't suffer the stress, frustration and confusion that us skint minnions have to go through.

I seem to be in the worst possible situation of travelling relatively infrequently so monthly tickets don't help and at the worst times at short notice. I generally don't know in advance at what time I'll return anyway so getting fixed tickets isn't really an option either...

photome

It is in the conductors interest to steer you towards a higher price ticket as they are on commission.

I believe it is 10% in the Anglia region

System

AP wrote: »

The reason why you need a Standard Day Return from Leeds to Manchester instead of a Saver Return is because the following restriction on the Saver Return ticket exists for this journey:

Restriction : 2M
Available as listed below
MONDAYS TO FRIDAYS - (By any
train on other days).


OUTWARD TRAVEL
By any train due to arrive at
Manchester STNS (Deansgate,
Piccadilly, Oxford Road or
Victoria) before 0930.

RETURN TRAVEL
By any train.

I generally always arrive after 9:30 usually around 10-11 but I've never been offered a Saver Return. Asking for it always works though. If you're travelling at 11am say and you just ask for a return to Manchester the conductor will ask if you're coming back today. If you say yes he'll sell you the more expensive STD Return even though the cheaper Saver Return is valid and available. That's not fair!

I just ask for the Saver Return now and I've never been refused one...I had up until now been buying another on the way home (same day) and using the 2 return portions (one each way) the next time that I travel but it seems there's no need for me to do that even...

System

photome wrote: »

It is in the conductors interest to steer you towards a higher price ticket as they are on commission.

I believe it is 10% in the Anglia region

That's disgraceful!

...and explains a lot!

I'm in the process of complaining to GNER...whether it's them or not I should be complaining to (that's another baffling thing...who's responsible for what!) I'll certainly use that as ammo when I'm next in touch with them.

Cheers!

misscutiepie1984

I have been there for about 3 years now and they don't listen to us LITTLE people.... it will only be looked into letters written in by customers, and no matter how many times i try to stress this to the customers they just wont have it. They seem to reckon that if they all shout at me on a daily basis it might help matters.

The train companies rely on people wanting to travel peak because this is what brings in the money, but if people all started to travel off peak they would soon click, they like their profits as do all companies.

Geography is not my strong point and i cant think off the top of my head where the train you travel on stops at, i say this because it may work out cheaper to buy it as a day return to somewhere like half way and then another return ticket to continue on

.... especially if you can think of a little local station it may also stop at, they do tend to bump up prices because you are using a larger more popular station, sometimes this makes an unbelievable difference it may be worth having a fiddle around with diff stations on the computer.

System

misscutiepie1984 wrote: »

I have been there for about 3 years now and they don't listen to us LITTLE people.... it will only be looked into letters written in by customers, and no matter how many times i try to stress this to the customers they just wont have it. They seem to reckon that if they all shout at me on a daily basis it might help matters.

The train companies rely on people wanting to travel peak because this is what brings in the money, but if people all started to travel off peak they would soon click, they like their profits as do all companies.

Geography is not my strong point and i cant think off the top of my head where the train you travel on stops at, i say this because it may work out cheaper to buy it as a day return to somewhere like half way and then another return ticket to continue on

.... especially if you can think of a little local station it may also stop at, they do tend to bump up prices because you are using a larger more popular station, sometimes this makes an unbelievable difference it may be worth having a fiddle around with diff stations on the computer.

Thanks again!

You've been really helpful.

I travel Headingley (small local station near Leeds) to Leeds Central (big popular station) then get on the Manchester Airport train to Manchester Piccadilly (big popular)...and it stops at Dewsbury and Huddersfield (medium town stations) usually...so maybe a return to Dewsbury (Saver should still be possible) and a cheaper ticket from Dewsbury?! I'll look into it...so so crazy!

I've got an idea for you. Why not draft out a letter complaining about the crazy ticketing policy, photocopy a load of them and hand them to customers everytime they complain. Get them to sign it with their name and address and hopefully with the inundation of complaints they'll start to listen!!! Watch you don't get fired doing it though!!!

misscutiepie1984

i wish i was on 10% commission wouldn't mind doing 6k annual tickets so much then lol

misscutiepie1984

any luck?????????????