Virgin Fares Double For Railcard Holders On Peak Trains

BlueEyedGirl

News today...

"Virgin fares double for railcard holders on peak trains as 'off peak price' deal is axed"

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/virgin-fares-double-railcard-holders-9897766

katecheshire

Q: What does this mean to me?A: If you buy an Off-Peak ticket for a Peak time train using a Railcard discount before 6 September, this change will not affect you. If you're looking to buy tickets after 6 September, don't worry, you can still get great value Advance tickets with your Railcard for Peak time travel. We have just completed refurbishments on our Pendolino fleet to create an extra 5,500 Standard class seats a day, so there are plenty of seats available on board our services.


Not entirely clear to me whether I can buy a discounted ticket before 6th for use on on or after the 6th. Is it just me?

mathsus

Double? More like quadruple! A flexible peak ticket to London will now cost me £200+ instead of £53.85 at present. Back to the Advance fares rather than flexibility. Boo hiss to Virgin.

katecheshire

katecheshire wrote: »

Not entirely clear to me whether I can buy a discounted ticket before 6th for use on on or after the 6th. Is it just me?

I have emailed Virgin Trains to get their clarification and will update when I get a response.

kaneap

My colleagues have benefited from this deal for a few years because they're over 60, I just knew that it would be withdrawn before I would qualify. It's now becoming prohibitively expensive to go down to London for business - driving or flying aren't good options either. Can't help feeling like an exploited Northerner!

mathsus

"The easement stops on the 6th. So it doesn't matter when you brought your ticket you will not be able to travel on the peak time service. The ticket will be valid on the off peak only."

If you go on the Virgin website you can still book a peak ticket for an off peak price with a railcard for after Sept 6th. Are you saying they won't honour it?

wealdroam

kaneap wrote: »

My colleagues have benefited from this deal for a few years because they're over 60, I just knew that it would be withdrawn before I would qualify. It's now becoming prohibitively expensive to go down to London for business - driving or flying aren't good options either. Can't help feeling like an exploited Northerner!

I guess you haven't considered the 'exploited southerners' who will suffer the same consequence when travelling to Liverpool, Manchester, etc.

notakid

mathsus wrote: »

"The easement stops on the 6th. So it doesn't matter when you brought your ticket you will not be able to travel on the peak time service. The ticket will be valid on the off peak only."

If you go on the Virgin website you can still book a peak ticket for an off peak price with a railcard for after Sept 6th. Are you saying they won't honour it?

Actually reading back what I posted it reads wrongly I should have gone into more detail. I've deleted my post and here is the detail.

It is on the web site that the railcard easement is no longer valid however there will be a grace period until the 13th of sept for people unware of the change to purchase discounted railcard tickets.

Also customers who purchased their tickets before the 6th of Sept will have to the 12th of Oct to travel.

mathsus

notakid wrote: »

Actually reading back what I posted it reads wrongly I should have gone into more detail. I've deleted my post and here is the detail.

It is on the web site that the railcard easement is no longer valid however there will be a grace period until the 13th of sept for people unware of the change to purchase discounted railcard tickets.

Also customers who purchased their tickets before the 6th of Sept will have to the 12th of Oct to travel.

Thanks! I will book quickly. I've had 6 months of the benefits of this Virgin 'easement' - I need to be able to get from Manchester to London quickly at little notice to see ageing ps so it has been a boon to me since I turned 60. May have to resort to the car again if I can't get Advance fares. Ugh. :(

dekaspace

What happens say about people using JC discount cards? theres a off peak price I can get to visit relatives but its available all day currently, peak is more than double.

mathsus

FYI everyone - the virgin website still quotes off peak prices for peak journeys with a Senior Railcard well beyond Oct 12th! (Though I haven't gone past the first page and on to actual payment.) If they let me book a seat on an actual peak train, surely they would have to honour it??