Is it not possible to buy 'anytime' rail tickets any more?

coffeehound

Is it not possible to buy a generic rail ticket between A and B any more?  

The station ticket machines, and now the online booking sites it would seem, try to force you to select exact services.  I can't see a way to buy e.g. a basic advance return.

Next question is, if you do choose a particular service and then miss your connection, does the ticket transform into a piece of rubbish?

Thanks

basill

I have noticed this, they dont seem keen to sell flexible tickets on line.  All the cheaper fares are for specific services.   After you have entered your chosen date and time, the Trainline website has a link to all ticket types at the bottom of the page. There you can buy off peak and peak tickets valid for any train.   The train company sites ( well southeastern at least) have a tick box for open returns.

daveyjp

You may not have heard but there's something called coronovirus around at the moment.  

Rail operators are having to manage bookings and limit passenger numbers far more tightly than previously and booking on specific services with seat bookings allows them to do this.

If you are restricted to a specific service with a connection you miss due to a delay you can get the next available service and claim delay repay if applicable.

JGB1955

I've bought anytime tickets for 1 July from GWR. The outward ticket is valid for 5 days and the return for the whole of July.  These were bought several weeks ago. Perhaps it was possible as the journey is after 21 June?

martindow

basill said:

... the Trainline website ...

is best avoided as you can buy directly on rail company sites without have to pay an extra fee.

yorkie2

What journey(s) are you making?

jbuchanangb

It is still possible to buy "Anytime" tickets. But you have asked about a "basic advance return". "Advance" tickets are sold for travel on specific trains, so they are not "Anytime" tickets. If you mean can you buy a ticket in advance for travel on any train on the day of purchase (or chosen day of travel), then that is also possible. The online booking sites are however designed around selecting a date and time of travel, and some station ticket machines are like that too.

The reason for this is to attempt to offer you the cheapest fare for the journey you wish to make. For example, you may wish to travel from A to B and back on the same day. There will be an "Anytime" fare which allows you to board any train out and any train back. The booking system will offer you this, let's say if you say you want to go out at 7am and come back at 6pm. It will also offer it to you if you want to go out at 11.30am and come back at 7.30pm. But for the latter journey you may be offered a "Super Off-Peak Return" at a much lower price. Not valid before 11.30am outbound or between 4.30pm and 7pm return.

So by telling the system when you want to travel, you may be able to choose a lower fare, but let's say you intended to travel at 7am and return 6pm, and bought a ticket on that basis, but overslept and didn't travel until 11.30am, then worked late and came home at 8pm, no problem your ticket would be perfectly valid.

Referring back to "Advance" tickets. These are usually for longer journeys, and are for specific trains, which can involve connections. At the start of your journey, if you miss the specific train because you overslept, or for any non-railway related reason, then your ticket indeed transforms into a piece of rubbish. You will need to buy the next best available ticket for that part of the journey. However if you are on your specified train, and it is delayed such that you miss a connecting service, the rules are that the ticket is valid on the next service of the same train operating company. Under these circumstances "Delay repay" comes into effect as well, entitling you to claim a percentage of the ticket cost back from the train company whose train was delayed.

Mids_Costcutter

I agree with the OP and Basill: booking flexible tickets (valid for a number of different services) seems to be impossible with some train operators. I tried to book a BHI LAN off-peak return for a 09.55 weekday service with Avanti West Coast. During booking (on the AWC web site) the message "seat reservations are mandatory for this journey. Please reserve a seat" was shown. Then when I tried to reserve I received the message "there are no more seats available to reserve for your chosen ticket on the outward / return service".

I understand that train operators are reducing capacity to maintain social distancing, but if all seats need to be reserved then they shouldn't offer any flexible tickets i.e. anytime / off-peak for sale.

Do any forumites have experience boarding AWC services recently without a reservation? Were you refused boarding by the guard (sorry, train manager) as (reduced) capacity had been reduced? Would be grateful for any advice.

martindow

I've had similar messages buying from GWR.  However going to the ticket office, they were quite happy to sell tickets without reservations for super off-peak returns telling me that I could use the trains i wanted although they could not issue reservations.

There were no issues getting on the trains and when tickets were checked, no reservation tickets were asked for.

JGB1955

martindow said:

I've had similar messages buying from GWR.  However going to the ticket office, they were quite happy to sell tickets without reservations for super off-peak returns telling me that I could use the trains i wanted although they could not issue reservations.

There were no issues getting on the trains and when tickets were checked, no reservation tickets were asked for.

That reassures me - I'm travelling the length of Cornwall, but couldn't reserve a seat.... was a bit worried I might be chucked off the train at Bodmin Parkway!

Mids_Costcutter

Anyone have any recent experience with AWC?