How far in advance do they release cheap train tickets

RedBern

I'm looking for tickets for 10/11 November Newport Gwent - London - and they are still standard prices of £51 - there's no cheaper ones on offer - although on the day before I can get £11 each way .... any idea when they release the different deals??

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle

They're usually released about 8 weeks in advance but it does vary from company to company. The problem is that now all the franchises are changing hands, it's going to be a tad clusterf**k from the middle of October onwards.

dzug

Your dates are a weekend - so they could be released much later, once any engineering work has been confirmed.

They don't appear to have been released AFTER that weekend though, so that isn't the only possibility.

anewman

Maybe try prices return Newport -> manchester piccadily, then manchester piccadily -> london. According to an article on this site that can sometimes reduce the cost

dzug

anewman wrote: »

Maybe try prices return Newport -> manchester piccadily, then manchester piccadily -> london. According to an article on this site that can sometimes reduce the cost

???? That entails an overall journey of something like 6 hours for a journey that can take as little as 2 hours direct. Does that really make sense? Have you got the right Newport????

anewman

dzug wrote: »

???? That entails an overall journey of something like 6 hours for a journey that can take as little as 2 hours direct. Does that really make sense? Have you got the right Newport????

Newport in Gwent (A County in Wales) I have been on the train which goes from Newport (Gwent) to London to get off at Manchester Piccadily, then on to Leeds. I just thought as Manchester is likely to be the most major station between Newport and London that this may reduce the price.

Here's the article I mentioned. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets

dzug

anewman wrote: »

Newport in Gwent (A County in Wales) I have been on the train which goes from Newport (Gwent) to London to get off at Manchester Piccadily, then on to Leeds. I just thought as Manchester is likely to be the most major station between Newport and London that this may reduce the price.

Here's the article I mentioned. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets

Yes, I've read the article. It says nothing about Manchester being between Newport and London. It would be a bit like saying Glasgow is between Leeds and London.

I can see where the confusion lies now though

You did go on a train that goes (or went - don't know if it still runs, pretty sure it doesn't) from London (Waterloo) to Manchester via Salisbury, Bristol, Newport, Hereford, etc. It went once a day calling at just about every station and no-one in their right mind would do the whole journey on it. But when you got it to go to Manchester it was travelling away from London, not towards.

Lukas

I too am looking for cheaper single fares on the route between York and London outgoing 23/11 coming back 26/11. Here's what I've noticed:

Tickets first became available on Friday 31/8. At that time there were outgoing £11 singles available but none on the return journey where the cheapest was £73. So I waited.

On 1/9 there were no cheap singles outgoing or coming back - outgoing had risen to apx £40 return was still at £73. Same applied on 2/9.

Today on the 3/9 £11 singles outgoing reappeared so I bought one. But the return journey is still at £73 so I'm waiting on that one.

My thoughts: I think they removed the cheap outgoing fares over the weekend (or get them in batches and had sold out) as that's when most people book. I think they are keeping the return fares high as they expect more people to travel from York to London over a weekend and think that if they keep the return fares high initially some will be forced to pay over the odds if they want to book in advance (as a result of articles which tell them to book early like on this website).

Therefore I'm gambling on this and will wait until cheaper fares appear. Thing is I can't see any reason why there shouldn't be £11 return singles available. There are for weekends in October... so why should the 26/11 be any different?

But I'd love to hear anyone else's theories.

RedBern who started this thread is in the same position as me I guess... I think the advice to wait until 8 weeks ahead is probably sound. I can't see the £73 tickets in my case selling out any time soon anyway.

dzug

The saver single - at £73.80 - won't sell out at all. You can buy it on the day if you want. Subject to time restrictions (which look quite severe) it can be used on any train.

As to why 26/11 cheap tickets are not available - it's too far ahead. As

a it's not a weekend (so unaffected by engineering work)
b) the previous Friday's cheap tickets are there - as indeed are the weekend itself - so the engineering theory is out: I doubt if it will be too long before the 26th becomes available. I don't know if they are released a day at a time - or a week? But it shouldn't be long.

As to why the £11 (£11.25 do you mean?) disappeared over the weekend, that's a puzzle. You may be right about them withdrawing them over the weekend, or releasing a further batch - on the other hand maybe a glitch with the booking engine (it does seem to work rather eccentricly at times) that needed a member of the day staff to come in on Monday and put right could equally well explain it.

anewman

Ok may have caught a different train that takes a bad route, but got me where I wanted to go But am pretty sure the train I got was going on to London. But the point of the article stands, look for intermediate stations and try split the journey as it can reduce the overall cost.

Lukas

dzug wrote: »

As to why the £11 (£11.25 do you mean?) disappeared over the weekend, that's a puzzle. You may be right about them withdrawing them over the weekend, or releasing a further batch - on the other hand maybe a glitch with the booking engine (it does seem to work rather eccentricly at times) that needed a member of the day staff to come in on Monday and put right could equally well explain it.

I think it was 11.25 I was approximating.

Well I go with the batch theory. I think they get batches of cheap singles and sell them that way. Or they artificially drip feed them. Not all times were available at £11 on the 23rd even now - only certain times. I can't believe any time has sold out yet though - it's too soon and it's not like that weekend is special in the sense of some major sporting event or a public holiday.

So my theory is that they drip feed them in batches to maximize their profits. Which would tend to suggest if they don't have what you want and it's still way ahead of travel time it probably pays to keep checking until they do have what you want.

This of course is annoying since you don't want to spend your life using their klunky interface - however, that's also what they are relying on to make you spend more then you need to.

The odd thing is going direct through GNER for example also shows the same gaps in tickets - which suggests they may be using the same database and this may be an across the board scheme for maximizing profits.