Rail ticket prices different on different sites

20aday

I visited London on the 6th November and should've been returning on the 21:15pm service from London St. Pancras International back to East Midlands Parkway.

Had had enough of walking around in the cold and wet so thought I'd use MSE's Ticketysplit to see if I could save money on the EMT quoted price of £60.00 (one way).

Site said they couldn't find me a cheaper option so looked at thetrainline.com and managed to save myself nearly £20.00 by splitting the ticket from London > Kettering and Kettering > East Midlands.

yorkie2

ColinB wrote: »

Looking to travel from Dorking to Bath, today 13 Nov (one-way ticket for 2 people using two together railcard). Both Trainline & National Rail say the only option for early pm is the 1338 at cost £82.60. That sounded a bit high, so I tried the GWR website (who actually operate the service), which says there's a train at 1332 for cost of £36.60, so I bought that one instead (there is a rail replacement bus for part of the trip but that shouldn't affect the price). Neither of the two big sites mention that option. This looks like a deliberate attempt to rip off potential customers by steering them towards a more expensive option by hiding cheaper fares. I've not come across this kind of gross discrepancy before, it just seems to underline the hopeless minefield that is buying rail tickets these days.

Trainsplit also finds a fare of around £36 for next Sunday at 1332.

There are many reasons why booking engines may charge different amounts, here is a summary:

Mojo_on_Railforums.co.uk wrote:

...1. Different booking engines interpret rules differently from each other.
2. Different booking engines may suggest you change at a different station.
3. Different booking engines may offer a totally different itinerary.
4. Different booking engines recommend different tickets for the same itinerary.....

The detail can be found here: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=2529085#post2529085

ColinB wrote: »

Just finished the journey (using the GWR option) which cost £45 less and took an hour less than the alleged "best route and price" available on the two mainstream sites. I've complained to both sites, we'll see what happens.

I bet they fob you off, and the customer relations staff probably won't escalate the complaint to the website developers or pricing managers, so it'll probably never get fixed.

Do you have details of the itinerary provided by the other sites?

20aday wrote: »

I visited London on the 6th November and should've been returning on the 21:15pm service from London St. Pancras International back to East Midlands Parkway.

Had had enough of walking around in the cold and wet so thought I'd use MSE's Ticketysplit to see if I could save money on the EMT quoted price of £60.00 (one way).

Site said they couldn't find me a cheaper option so looked at thetrainline.com and managed to save myself nearly £20.00 by splitting the ticket from London > Kettering and Kettering > East Midlands.

Is Ticketysplit actually being developed any more? It doesn't work very well.

Yes, London to Est Midlands Parkway is £60 for a single at super off peak times, and London to Kettering is £27 for a super off peak day single, and Kettering to East Midlands Parkway is £18.90 for an off peak single, so you paid a more reasonable £46.40

On weekdays the £27 fare isn't available, so that particular split wouldn't work, but on a Sunday that's pretty good.

For some journeys, you need more than two tickets to get the best deal. Ticketysplit has a maximum of two tickets (or one "splitting" point), while Trainsplit allows many splitting points, and will give you a through itinerary and sell them in one transaction, so that's worth a go.