12 weeks before travel date ?

deejaybee

Hi all

Just wanted to check if it is 12 weeks ahead that cheapest train fares are usually available ?

We are looking at Totnes to Edinburgh, Waverley - travelling up on 18th August, and returning on 4th September.

Have costed it at around £290 return for 2 adults and a 13yr old, using a family and friends railcard.

Its a reasonable price imho, but as it is more than 12 weeks to potential travel dates, i am wondering whether its possible that even cheaper prices may be available at the 12 week mark ?

Thanks

wealdroam

deejaybee wrote: »

Hi all

Just wanted to check if it is 12 weeks ahead that cheapest train fares are usually available ?

We are looking at Totnes to Edinburgh, Waverley - travelling up on 18th August, and returning on 4th September.

Have costed it at around £290 return for 2 adults and a 13yr old, using a family and friends railcard.

Its a reasonable price imho, but as it is more than 12 weeks to potential travel dates, i am wondering whether its possible that even cheaper prices may be available at the 12 week mark ?

Thanks

Yes, even cheaper prices may become available at around the twelve week mark.
Twelve weeks is not set in stone.
It may well be less than twelve weeks before travel that the cheaper tickets become available, particularly at weekends when engineering works get in the way.

It might be an idea to see what price tickets are available at (say) ten weeks from now.
That should give you an idea of what prices may become available on your travel dates.

Have you read MSE's Cheap Train Tickets article?


Edited to add:
That fare you have found, £293.40, is for fully flexible tickets and will be available at that price on the day of travel.

I've just looked at out on 14 July and return on 31 July and on those dates it can be done for £229.50. Those are Advance tickets so you must travel on the booked trains.

Trainsplit.com will do that trip on those July dates for £179.15. That's using exactly the same trains as above, but split ticketing.

My suggestion is to wait until you can see those £179.15 tickets for your dates.
Keep checking every day from the twelve week mark, and if nothing becomes available then you can still get those £293.40 tickets anyway.

deejaybee

many thanks for your comprehensive and very useful feedback, much appreciated !


<edit> just thought of query regarding split ticketing...

When i have booked train travel in past ( usually with trainline ) i request a table seat - and almost always get one. With split ticketing is there a risk that we would have to move seats every so often ?
Or would it keep me in same seats ( if available) for all the different segments of journey, as long as i booked them all in same online transaction ?

wealdroam

deejaybee wrote: »

many thanks for your comprehensive and very useful feedback, much appreciated !


<edit> just thought of query regarding split ticketing...

When i have booked train travel in past ( usually with trainline ) i request a table seat - and almost always get one. With split ticketing is there a risk that we would have to move seats every so often ?
Or would it keep me in same seats ( if available) for all the different segments of journey, as long as i booked them all in same online transaction ?

Sorry, don't know the answer to your question but I am wondering why you usually book through thetrainline?

Do you realise that thetrainline charge easily avoidable fees?

That MSE article I linked to earlier has all sorts of suggestions on how to reduce the cost of train travel, and avoiding buying from thetrainline et al is one of them.

Kite2010

I believe if you book via Crosscountry's own website you can select your seats, so useful to ensuring you don't have to play musical chairs, although every ticket gets its own reference number when you come to pick them up (which gets annoying after a while inserting card, typing number/letter, insert card etc)

Or I believe Trainsplit do it for you

dzug1

My experience is that split ticketing normally results in different seat numbers for different sectors of the journey. Occasionally they can be the same or very close. You can try booking another ticket in the same transaction to see if you can get closer - then delete the unwanted ones before paying.


I've never been offered actual seat numbers to book - just airline or table, etc. I usually book on the GWR site for Cross Country trains

nickcc

I booked Redruth to Bristol Parkway with Crosscountry the evening before travel and had reserved seat without asking or paying extra. Normal single fare was £84 but cheap rate was £35 which I obviously went for.

dggar

nickcc wrote: »

I booked Redruth to Bristol Parkway with Crosscountry the evening before travel and had reserved seat without asking or paying extra. Normal single fare was £84 but cheap rate was £35 which I obviously went for.

The nature of advance tickets( I assume the £35 was for an advance ticket) is that they are for a specific train. This is done by allocation a seat on that train if the TOC offers seat reservations.

nickcc

dggar wrote: »

The nature of advance tickets( I assume the £35 was for an advance ticket) is that they are for a specific train. This is done by allocation a seat on that train if the TOC offers seat reservations.

I suppose if an advanced ticket included booking 11 hours before travel then yes it was an advanced ticket and yes it was a specific train that I had to travel on as the seat reservation was on that train.

My reply was aimed at the comment regarding wether reserved seats were included at no extra cost on Crosscountry trains, which in my case it was.

wealdroam

nickcc wrote: »

My reply was aimed at the comment regarding wether reserved seats were included at no extra cost on Crosscountry trains, which in my case it was.

That question was never asked.

nickcc

wealdroam wrote: »

That question was never asked.

But it was referred to in posts 5 & 6 so just supplied info that I had gained, like almost everyone who answers posts.