Virgin Trains - Value Advance Tickets?

Stu666

Does anybody know when the value advance tickets begin to appear on the Virgin Trains online booking system?

In the past when I have used it I've got some cracking deals booking in advance. I am currently trying to book a return trip to Euston from Crewe on 3rd April, but I'm not seeing any value advance tickets. Has Virgin changed anything?

chuckley

2 months i think.

virgin change things without notice all the time. it really annoys me!

stumpjumper

Be careful at the moment - arriva trains have purchased some trains and certain routes and time slots from Virgin - meaning that the trains are running at about the same time as the virgin trains, and they are still painted in the Virgin Trains livery BUT Virgin Value tickets are not valid on the Arriva trains, and the conductors have been instructed to charge those with virgin value tickets a full price single ticket for their journey.

We had this coming back from Birmingham last weekend - we'd bought 2 singles - went down on a virgin train, the return train was an arriva (it turned out) - and the train was running 5 mins later than the virgin train... but the virgin train was running late... and no body knew WHICH train had arrived at the platform as the 'next train info' board kept changing - a couple of people who got on found that their tickets were not vaild.
Thankfully the conductor didnt agree with company policy and told them that the Virgin Train would be stopping at Brum New Street on the opposite platform, so they could get on their correct service and not have to buy a new ticket.

Stu666

Thank you both for the info.

It would be nice if there was a definate time that the advance tickets become available from.

My journey is over two months off, but I'm only seeing full price tickets.

chuckley

stumpjumper wrote: »

Be careful at the moment - arriva trains have purchased some trains and certain routes and time slots from Virgin - meaning that the trains are running at about the same time as the virgin trains, and they are still painted in the Virgin Trains livery BUT Virgin Value tickets are not valid on the Arriva trains, and the conductors have been instructed to charge those with virgin value tickets a full price single ticket for their journey.

We had this coming back from Birmingham last weekend - we'd bought 2 singles - went down on a virgin train, the return train was an arriva (it turned out) - and the train was running 5 mins later than the virgin train... but the virgin train was running late... and no body knew WHICH train had arrived at the platform as the 'next train info' board kept changing - a couple of people who got on found that their tickets were not vaild.
Thankfully the conductor didnt agree with company policy and told them that the Virgin Train would be stopping at Brum New Street on the opposite platform, so they could get on their correct service and not have to buy a new ticket.

so there r virgin trains run by arriva?? ie, arriva using virgin trains?

dzug

There's a link on this site:

http://www.atoctravelagents.org/

that tells you what companies have released what tickets. Virgin is up to 2 March (weekdays) at present.