Discrepancy when buying Thameslink tickets from boundary of zone 6

katejo

I  quite often travel from St Pancras on Thameslink, usually to Gatwick but occasionally to Brighton. Today I went to Brighton. I tried to buy an off peak return from the boundary of zone 6 (because I have the Oyster 60+ card). I was told today that the Thameslink ticket prices didn't allow for this and would charge me £18. I was sold a ticket  for the whole route from St Pancras which was just under £16. I pointed out that I had previously bought tickets to/from East Croydon (to correspond with end of zone 6) but the guy tried to say that I would have to get out at East Croydon (which I knew to be wrong). I paid the fare from St Pancras today but later checked the fare from East Croydon which was £13. (These figures are all for tickets with a senior railcard). Why doesn't Thameslink allow zone  boundary savings?  I checked the fares paid on my last trip to Gatwick (to and from either boundary of zone 6 or East Croydon) and the amounts were identical. 

I have also posted on the RailUK forum.

soolin

katejo said:

I  quite often travel from St Pancras on Thameslink, usually to Gatwick but occasionally to Brighton. Today I went to Brighton. I tried to buy an off peak return from the boundary of zone 6 (because I have the Oyster 60+ card). I was told today that the Thameslink ticket prices didn't allow for this and would charge me £18. I was sold a ticket  for the whole route from St Pancras which was just under £16. I pointed out that I had previously bought tickets to/from East Croydon (to correspond with end of zone 6) but the guy tried to say that I would have to get out at East Croydon (which I knew to be wrong). I paid the fare from St Pancras today but later checked the fare from East Croydon which was £13. (These figures are all for tickets with a senior railcard). Why doesn't Thameslink allow zone  boundary savings?  I checked the fares paid on my last trip to Gatwick (to and from either boundary of zone 6 or East Croydon) and the amounts were identical. 

I’m struggling a lot recently with manned ticket offices refusing to sell ‘add on ‘ tickets. I’ve been told various excuses, to the extent I now bypass the manned rocket windows and use the machines instead. 

Locally I know the boundary stations , but I’m also finding if I travel an unusual route I’m struggling to even get a consensus as to which is the boundary station. I recently went to Luton airport and had such issues that I eventually gave up and just bought a return from Farringdon to Luton airport. 

katejo

soolin said:

katejo said:

I  quite often travel from St Pancras on Thameslink, usually to Gatwick but occasionally to Brighton. Today I went to Brighton. I tried to buy an off peak return from the boundary of zone 6 (because I have the Oyster 60+ card). I was told today that the Thameslink ticket prices didn't allow for this and would charge me £18. I was sold a ticket  for the whole route from St Pancras which was just under £16. I pointed out that I had previously bought tickets to/from East Croydon (to correspond with end of zone 6) but the guy tried to say that I would have to get out at East Croydon (which I knew to be wrong). I paid the fare from St Pancras today but later checked the fare from East Croydon which was £13. (These figures are all for tickets with a senior railcard). Why doesn't Thameslink allow zone  boundary savings?  I checked the fares paid on my last trip to Gatwick (to and from either boundary of zone 6 or East Croydon) and the amounts were identical. 

I’m struggling a lot recently with manned ticket offices refusing to sell ‘add on ‘ tickets. I’ve been told various excuses, to the extent I now bypass the manned rocket windows and use the machines instead. 

Locally I know the boundary stations , but I’m also finding if I travel an unusual route I’m struggling to even get a consensus as to which is the boundary station. I recently went to Luton airport and had such issues that I eventually gave up and just bought a return from Farringdon to Luton airport. 

Yesterday evening I looked the same journey up on a machine. For Boundary of zone 6 to Brighton, it gave £18 and for East Croydon to Brighton it gave £13.90! 

Nonesuch_xx

C2C and Avanti websites have boundary option for purchase and etickets. Other tocs do not e.g. swr, se, ga

Brfares.com helpful to see when a boundary fare is available (only for journeys wholly within the network railcard area, a legacy quirk which embeds much unfairness, e.g. boundary available to kings Lynn and Weymouth and Sudbury Suffolk, which is similar or futher than Norwich or bury st edmunds.

MSE_James

Trainsplit also lets you tell it what tickets you already hold when planning a journey in order to be offered boundary fares:

Nonesuch_xx

MSE_James said:

Trainsplit also lets you tell it what tickets you already hold when planning a journey in order to be offered boundary fares:

Indeed it does, but useful to know which ToC sites offer it for fee-free booking.

It would help if this became the norm for nationalised companies (and ultimately a centralised GBR booking website/app), also 3rd parties

It will be interesting when ChatGPT, perplexity etc. start offering the ability to complete a route search and purchase on your behalf; in beta for normal e-commerce currently

2childmum2

I often use boundary zone 6 tickets on Thameslink trains, both to Cambridge and to Brighton from London Bridge. According to the Avanti website they are both cheaper than the fare from London Bridge.
I usually check the fares on Avanti then buy from our local station ticket office, (in zone 4, from where I travel to London Bridge then onwards) where they are happy to sell me a boundary zone 6 tickets, or from the ticket machine, where you can choose the leaving from a different station option and then boundary zone 6.

katejo

2childmum2 said:

I often use boundary zone 6 tickets on Thameslink trains, both to Cambridge and to Brighton from London Bridge. According to the Avanti website they are both cheaper than the fare from London Bridge.
I usually check the fares on Avanti then buy from our local station ticket office, (in zone 4, from where I travel to London Bridge then onwards) where they are happy to sell me a boundary zone 6 tickets, or from the ticket machine, where you can choose the leaving from a different station option and then boundary zone 6.

I got a detailed answer to this on another forum. It seems that the Brighton line is an exception to the rule. An off peak day return to Brighton is only £13.90 (with senior Railcard) from East Croydon but costs £18 from the zone 6 boundary. 

Yarmy

Hi,

I came across this website a few years back which maybe of help to you...

https://oysterfares.com