Buying rail tickets early might not be the best

markw5

I travel Weymouth to Reading regularly & buy my tickets well ahead.
However, on my latest look to book (with our Senior Rail Cards) I was only offered £79 return for two people.
I could get two singles for c.£22 to get there but the single return was more than £69 ish.
I had to wait another 3 weeks before the return fare dropped to a similar level & the total for two people for the return journey was arround £49.
Additionally, I can never understand why the same (return singles) journey at similar times of the day are different. It always costs more to travel to Reading than it does from Reading, using the same route and companies.

agrinnall

As you haven't said how far ahead you are trying to book it's difficult to give an accurate comment, but it could be that the return was initially more than 12 weeks away so cheaper tickets had not been released.

daveyjp

Buying too early can be expensive. Dates of travel are key as I suspect your return is more than 12 weeks away.

In my experience as soon as the 12 week date comes there is a greater chance of grabbing a really cheap fare. Exception is Virgin East Coast as they release some tickets 26 weeks ahead.