MoneySavingExpert.com Cheap Train Tickets Article Discussion

jazabelle

My mum is travelling from Colchester to Canterbury on the 10th of October. She hoped to leave as early as possible - from 8, but can leave on an off-peak time if needed.

I'm trying to find cheap rail tickets but not having much luck. The best I've found is £23.90 single at 10:03am but it doesn't arrive until around 1:30pm.

Can anyone find anything cheaper please?

I also looked up the coach, but it's £23.60 and a six hour journey. Yuck!

ticketcollector

jazabelle wrote: »

My mum is travelling from Colchester to Canterbury on the 10th of October. She hoped to leave as early as possible - from 8, but can leave on an off-peak time if needed.

I'm trying to find cheap rail tickets but not having much luck. The best I've found is £23.90 single at 10:03am but it doesn't arrive until around 1:30pm.

Can anyone find anything cheaper please?

I also looked up the coach, but it's £23.60 and a six hour journey. Yuck!

The cheapest I can find on the system is 36.20
CDS - OFF-PEAK DAY S XEA
00000 - +ANY PERMITTED

1 Adult @£ 36.20 = £ 36.20

dzug1

someone wrote: »

Hi, I have just been looking at tickets for Manchester to Birmingham so me a few others can go The National Work Placement Exhibition @ NEC on the 30th.

The return fair is £58 but with split ticketing it goes down to £28 (splitting at Stafford). I haven't been able to find any advance fairs when looking and was wondering do they release them in one go or trickle them out

As far as I know, each rail company issues all its cheap fares in one go for any one date. Different companies may do so on different dates though

moonrakerz

Some months ago I commented about how the new "simplified" fares structure seemed to be a great way of hiding price increases, one way or another.

This does indeed seem to be the case. Before the simplification I could get an Apex ret to Waterloo for £18.16, book 7 days in advance - these were nearly always available - I can't remember not being able to get one.
The "simplified" fare structure now offers me two singles at £9 each, book up to 1800 the day before. The only problem is that these tickets are like the proverbial rocking horse manure! unless you book many weeks in advance.
The cheapest fare available at the moment for when I want to travel, 9 days away is £22 each way.

Looks like the M3 again !

BusyDee

Hi all

I did get a great deal of help on a previous Thread I posted but have just found this one and want to update my problem.

I want to travel to Edinburgh from Mcr Picc 15 December and return 19th December. No changes if possible.

I have been checking the National Rail, Trainline and Virgin sites none stop waiting for the advance for that week to come online. They did but I only could find £58 return, nothing less.

I went to my small local station yesterday and asked about cheap prices, the ticket man offered to have a look for me and I returned this morning. He says he can get £15.50 single on 15th and the standard £29 return. I still can't find the £15.50 so my question, do some of the cheap fares never hit the internet? Would you go with what he has found?

This is really getting me down; my fingers are down to the knuckle from keep trying the sites :embarasse

bigjvj

The first 200000 people to register here- http://www.fgw5pounds.co.uk/ -will get a £5 discount off their next journey with First Great Western trains. Bargain! :beer: :money:
Promotion runs 07/10/2008 – 06/11/2008, but you can travel after this date as long as you booked your ticket in this time frame.

robt_2

bigjvj wrote: »

The first 200000 people to register here- http://www.fgw5pounds.co.uk/ -will get a £5 discount off their next journey with First Great Western trains. Bargain! :beer: :money:
Promotion runs 07/10/2008 – 06/11/2008, but you can travel after this date as long as you booked your ticket in this time frame.

I think I should point out the following from the T&C's. Note the part in bold

The Discount only applies to transactions involving the purchase of single (one ticket for a one-way journey) or return (one or more tickets for outward and return journeys) tickets available through the internet and telesales channels. specified on this web site. It can be used on tickets for journeys on train companies other than First Great Western.

bigjvj

Well spotted! I missed that. Not actually going to use the promotion myself so didn't read the T&C's that thoroughly. I just saw it advertised and instantly thought MSE! :money:

Hallelujah

A warning to all - the customer service provided by Trainline.com Limited is WOEFUL. I had to change a booking over the phone, and they mistakenly cancelled my entire booking. I received no email confirmation so did not realise this until we arrived at the station with heavy cases only to be told there was no ticket. I furiously rang them back and was told to buy new tickets, send them to thetrainline.com and I would receive a refund. THREE MONTHS ON and they do not even return my emails. It looks as though I will be forced to go through the Small Claims Court to retrieve my refund of £65.

The moral of the tale? GO DIRECTLY TO THE SERVICE PROVIDERS. There is no degree of removal between you and the ticket, and they have a far greater customer service provision. By all means use Trainline.com to find the journey, but DO NOT BOOK THROUGH THEM. Not only do they charge a fee, but should you have a problem with the booking, they are clearly not equipped to deal with the issue.

Anyone else had a similar issue with them?

Hx

Aaron

bigjvj wrote: »

The first 200000 people to register here- http://www.fgw5pounds.co.uk/ -will get a £5 discount off their next journey with First Great Western trains.

I think the above is a scam. It seems that if you are registered with trainline.com (that is, if you have ever bought tickets online through them, FGW or other operators that they power), then you will be refused the above offer.

I suspect this involves a privacy violation because:-
1. I've asked FGW to delete my details because of their defective email marketing;
2. trainline.com's privacy policy says they don't share my details (which they have because I still book online) for things like this;
3. fgw5pounds is a FGW website;
4. fgw5pounds thinks I am registered.
Conclusion: either FGW didn't delete my details as instructed, or FGW's website is checking trainline.com's database.

Anyone else having trouble with this offer? I've seen some grumbles on other sites already.