Half price train tickets sale

Sapindus

I was excited to hear about it this morning.  Went on the website at lunchtime, checked my journey was included, clicked on "buy tickets".  Was redirected to train company's website where I re-entered the journey details... but could see no sign of any half price tickets.  Tried various days and times - nothing.

No idea if they have already sold out, very limited days and times, or if I'm missing something...

RandomDan

I had similar issues until I read the fine print.  It is only for single tickets, so searching for a return won't show any results. Also, only valid for trips until 27th May, so if you were searching later than that, no results.

Bit of a con really.  For the journey I wanted, having to buy two single tickets (for specific times) bought me close to what I would usually pay for an open return.

kuepper

only just found about this, when was it publicised?

Chomeur

Doesn't even work for single tickets so far as I can see. I go to nationrail.co.uk and they tell me I can get a single ticket London to Southampton for £7.30. Click through onto the links they provide for booking and it's £15.20. Maybe the promotion is over, I don't know. But it seems a waste of time.

Brie

not available during prime commuting times of course.  

I heard about it this morning on the radio which is when I believe it was first announced (or maybe it was late last night) but I didn't hear anything about it being for singles only.  All the blather was about enticing people back onto the trains, green transport etc.  But how often does one only need a single ticket?  A return is certainly the norm as far as I am aware.  Of course maybe someone going into London for work could pay a full price single in and get a half price one home again.  Not sure it's a saving or too much fuss for a small return.

spenderdave

It is effectively the same as normal advanced fares, ie restricted to the train you book and sold as two separate singles. In this case the trains it is available on is very restricted, there are none for instance on my Reading to Waterloo service, so to use it I have to buy the singles to my final destination and add the normal fares to Waterloo/Reading and the tube. Too complicated and the overall savings minimal. However I did find some of the special fares on the SWR website (for the routes they are available for) so they have got into the main booking sites.

andrea12345678

I have searched various routes but no cheap tickets as advertised single or return.

ikr2

Can you exchange existing (more expensive) advanced fare tickets with no penalties? I was unusually organised and sorted some advanced tickets out next week to London and the outbound "sale" fare is a bit cheaper. If the idea is to save regular travellers money then we should be allowed to exchange advanced tickets purchased before the sale came into force.

Of course it can't be a last minute back of the envelope idea by this government with little or no thought as to what the aims of the scheme are or how they will practically work out? That never happens.

soolin

I’ve done very well , got 4 sets of tickets to various places around the country, half price plus a further saving for using a railcard. Just over £40 for 1st class return tickets London to York which is one of my favourite trips. It’s only for tickets Mon- Thursday until May 27th and I didn’t look for peak morning and just went for trains leaving London at around 10am .

I’ve got my eye on another trip at the moment but I’m running out of free days to do it all in. There’s plenty of tickets I can see , but I’m only looking at leaving and returning to London and as above, around 10am .

I booked 3 sets direct on the different train sites, one was LNER , however I found some of the sites very difficult as they weren’t showing all the options, so ended up using Trainline (which I don’t like) for the 4 th set and had to pay a 90p transaction fee. 

Looking at the aims of this scheme though I am definitely not their target audience. I’m travelling only with my OH, he is retired and I work very part time as I’m self employed , and we are going on just very long day trips . We travel anyway , these extra trips are just a few extras , basically a longish day out with lunch . 

MSE_James

ikr2 said:

Can you exchange existing (more expensive) advanced fare tickets with no penalties? I was unusually organised and sorted some advanced tickets out next week to London and the outbound "sale" fare is a bit cheaper. If the idea is to save regular travellers money then we should be allowed to exchange advanced tickets purchased before the sale came into force.

The 'Book with Confidence' scheme might be of help here - it's recently been extended and should allow you to at least get your more expensive ticket converted into voucher credit

soolin

I did my first trip yesterday and our train failed part of the way home and we had to wait for a replacement. The conductor told us we could make a delay repay claim as we would be late, so I have put my claims in this morning, even though the amount was very small. 

3 more return trips to go!