Advance Ticket South Western Railway

YorkshireGenes

Hi.  I'm wondering if anyone has come across this issue before.
My understanding has always been that Advance tickets will be cheapest when first available, that prices go up as availability goes down.
In June I bought an Advance single with SWR on the day they became available, for £8.10, Salisbury to Woking, for a day in September. 
Yesterday I checked their website because they've implemented a restricted timetable for the West of England route and I wanted to see if my train was affected.  Which is when I spotted that an Advance single for the same train is now only £6.00. 
How can that happen?  I know it's only £2.10 but that's 35% more that I've paid for doing as they advise and booking early.

daveyjp

The system only partly works as you think.  With yield management the TOC may release a higer priced advance first (especially on routes with a history of that ticket being popular) and if sales aren't as expected they may then offer a lower priced advance nearer the time.

You can check all available fares from.

https://www.brfares.com/

and you may be surprised how many advance fares there are.

MSE_James

Advance tickets are sold in tiers of different prices, usually starting with the lowest tier. 

One thing that can happen is that if someone puts a low-price ticket in their shopping basket but doesn't ultimately buy it, it can take one or more tickets out of circulation for the next person who searches, who may be sold a more expensive ticket.

Then when the first person's basket times out, the cheaper ticket goes back on sale.

This can lead to someone who books later paying less than someone who booked before them.