Best way to book train tickets

[teuchter]

I took he family down to brighton for the marathon, was delayed one way by 15 minutes and got six quid off each ticket.
In fact, even though it's a bit cheeky, if you have a regular ticket that is not bound to a specific journey (or you don't remember) it might be worth checking Home Page - Recent Train Times which shows all the eligible delays.

Worth noting that this (claiming that you traveled on a different train from the one you actually took) counts as fraud and they are starting to try and prosecute people for it. With the advent of online purchasing and e-tickets and so on, there are certain scenarios where they can tell which train you used, or spot suspicious patterns, so be careful.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Worth noting that this (claiming that you traveled on a different train from the one you actually took) counts as fraud and they are starting to try and prosecute people for it. With the advent of online purchasing and e-tickets and so on, there are certain scenarios where they can tell which train you used, or spot suspicious patterns, so be careful.

Of course. But I'm a paper ticket guy. As it happens, I am usually on a delayed train anyway. There is enough of them.

Back in the pre covid times I would have a season ticket. The trains were regularly fucked at the same times in the morning and evening. I made so many (genuine) claims at one point that they accused me of fraud and said they would not process any more. I explained that I travelled at the same time, to the same destination and that it was their time table and service that was fraudulent. Every fucking day, running from platform to platform as they cancelled trains, ran them with reduced carriages or stopped due to signal failure. Fuck um.
They did concide that my claims were genuine on my appeal btw.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Back in the pre covid times I would have a season ticket.

ah yes, the joys of commuting. when i worked in london, putting my delay claim/s together was usually somewhere on the standard weekend agenda...

 

[hash tag]

7 days interrailing by first class £413. Manchester to London return an eye watering £535

Sea swims, sensational Scandinavian food - and the odd disagreement: Interrailing with my 75-year-old mum

Taking the train from Manchester to Oslo led to 10 action-packed days me and my Zumba-going mum would never forget

www.theguardian.com

 

[T & P]

7 days interrailing by first class £413. Manchester to London return an eye watering £535

Sea swims, sensational Scandinavian food - and the odd disagreement: Interrailing with my 75-year-old mum

Taking the train from Manchester to Oslo led to 10 action-packed days me and my Zumba-going mum would never forget

www.theguardian.com

 

[T & P]

Seriously, £535. The fucking shameless cunts.

 

[teuchter]

Surely we should welcome extracting the maximum revenue possible out of wealthy people who want to travel 1st class and can't be bothered to check the best value option for their journey. It's cross-subsidy for other ticket types.

 

[T & P]

Surely we should welcome extracting the maximum revenue possible out of wealthy people who want to travel 1st class and can't be bothered to check the best value option for their journey. It's cross-subsidy for other ticket types.

That might apply to air travel, but not to the trains, for various obvious reasons.

 

[ska invita]

I'll never get over the mysteries of booking train tickets

Can someone explain this to me please:
Date is arbitrary, Ive picked
Wednesday 30th October 2024


Hastings to St Pancras - one change at London Bridge onto Thameslink- leaving at 6pm - £16


Crowhurst to St Pancras - one change at London Bridge onto Thameslink- leaving at 6pm - £38
Crowhurst is on that same line, three stops up from Hastings, a shorter journey I would expect to be cheaper
This is the exact same train

 

[lazythursday]

I'll never get over the mysteries of booking train tickets

Can someone explain this to me please:
Date is arbitrary, Ive picked
Wednesday 30th October 2024


Hastings to St Pancras - one change at London Bridge onto Thameslink- leaving at 6pm - £16
View attachment 447371

Crowhurst to St Pancras - one change at London Bridge onto Thameslink- leaving at 6pm - £38
Crowhurst is on that same line, three stops up from Hastings, a shorter journey I would expect to be cheaper
This is the same train
View attachment 447370

The single prices you are being quoted - I assume these are 'advance singles'? (from Hastings anyway)

The way the system seems to work is there are a fixed number of cheaper advance singles from particular destinations to other destinations. Likely the ones from Crowhurst have been allocated already, or it has a much smaller or zero allocation.

I'm sure the standard non-advance single price (use on any train) will be cheaper from Crowhurst.

 

[ska invita]

The single prices you are being quoted - I assume these are 'advance singles'?

The way the system seems to work is there are a fixed number of cheaper advance singles from particular destinations to other destinations. Likely the ones from Crowhurst have been allocated already, or it has a much smaller or zero allocation.

I'm sure the standard non-advance single price (use on any train) will be cheaper from Crowhurst.

thanks for replying
im booking an advance ticket so i guess that is a advanced single
whats a nonadvance single? how do you book that?

also if I click add Network Railcard on those journey the price doesn't change - I thought it was meant to save you 1/3rd??

 

[lazythursday]

thanks for replying
im booking an advance ticket so i guess that is a advanced single
whats a nonadvance single? how do you book that?

also if I click add Network Railcard on those journey the price doesn't change - I thought it was meant to save you 1/3rd??

Dunno about network railcard as we don't have those up here.

A non advance single is a single you can use on any train that day. It will be more expensive. Usually in the booking process there will be an option where you can see alternative tickets for same journey - but it depends on what app or website you're using, they're all different.

 

[ska invita]

Dunno about network railcard as we don't have those up here.

A non advance single is a single you can use on any train that day. It will be more expensive. Usually in the booking process there will be an option where you can see alternative tickets for same journey - but it depends on what app or website you're using, they're all different.

im using national rail website

and look at this, this is the same journey as above from crowhurst but without the 4 stop change at london rbidge to st pancras, a journey which on its own cost about £4, now ammended to stop at London Bridge only, the price has dropped from £36 to £11
This whole thing is broken

 

[lazythursday]

im using national rail website

and look at this, this is the same journey as above from crowhurst but without the 4 stop change at london rbidge to st pancras, a journey which on its own cost about £4, now ammended to stop at London Bridge only, the price has dropped from £36 to £11
This whole thing is broken

View attachment 447372

The system is shit yes. But you're getting all these different prices because of the complete randomness of advance, cheaper tickets.

I wouldn't use the national rail website. It doesn't tend to be the easiest to understand and cos 'competition' you can't actually buy train tickets through it (I think, not used for ages). Use one of the train company sites, doesn't matter which, I like the virgin app personally.

 

[ska invita]

The system is shit yes. But you're getting all these different prices because of the complete randomness of advance, cheaper tickets.

I wouldn't use the national rail website. It doesn't tend to be the easiest to understand and cos 'competition' you can't actually buy train tickets through it (I think, not used for ages). Use one of the train company sites, doesn't matter which, I like the virgin app personally.

okay thanks i'll try a different one...I thought national rail was a way of avoiding using the competition sites...ive heard advice on hear don't use Trailine... Its ludicrous all this

 

[lazythursday]

okay thanks i'll try a different one...I thought national rail was a way of avoiding using the competition sites...ive heard advice on hear don't use Trailine... Its ludicrous all this

Trainline used to charge a booking fee, I don't know if they still do.

The virgin trains app has split ticketing built in so sometimes finds cheaper prices.

Theoretically they all access the same data so should give the same results but not always the case. Some are just easier to use. It is bonkers, there should be one system.

 

[ska invita]

Yes thank you, using SouthEastern page (who run those trains) seems to not be throwing up those £36 anomalies

Does anyone know why Network Railcard isnt applying a discount though? These are off peak journeys...

 

[teuchter]

I recommend using Split Ticketing with TrainSplit | Mobile App | Save up to 90%

 

[ska invita]

I recommend using Split Ticketing with TrainSplit | Mobile App | Save up to 90%

FYI that comes up £1 more expensive than buying from SE trains direct
Im sure in some cases its cheaper thought

 

[teuchter]

Does anyone know why Network Railcard isnt applying a discount though? These are off peak journeys...

For the £11ish tickets? This will be because of the £13 minimum fare that applies to Network Railcard tickets Monday to Friday.

 

[ska invita]

For the £11ish tickets? This will be because of the £13 minimum fare that applies to Network Railcard tickets Monday to Friday.

I wonder if I bought a more expensive no advance ticket and then got a third off that if it would be cheaper than the advance

Still not seen that no advance option tbh

 

[ska invita]

For the £11ish tickets? This will be because of the £13 minimum fare that applies to Network Railcard tickets Monday to Friday.

The fare to st pancras is £16 and still no discount

Drives me to despair all this

 

[lazythursday]

I wonder if I bought a more expensive no advance ticket and then got a third off that if it would be cheaper than the advance

Still not seen that no advance option tbh

On the south eastern site, when you do your search and get the list of trains / prices up, underneath the main quoted price there's a link that says 'Other fares available '. This will let you see what the normal single price is.

Sometimes the advance singles save so little they aren't worth the hassle compared to convenience of being able to get any train.

 

[teuchter]

FYI that comes up £1 more expensive than buying from SE trains direct
Im sure in some cases its cheaper thought

Is that for a ticket Crowhurst to London Bridge? I get £11.50 on both sites.

The fare to st pancras is £16 and still no discount

What fare specifically is that?

 

[ska invita]

On the south eastern site, when you do your search and get the list of trains / prices up, underneath the main quoted price there's a link that says 'Other fares available '. This will let you see what the normal single price is.

Sometimes the advance singles save so little they aren't worth the hassle compared to convenience of being able to get any train.

Thank you great advice

 

[ska invita]

Okay got to work now, will come back to this at some point, thanks both

 

[teuchter]

Searching for Crowhurst-St Pancras illustrates one reason why Trainsplit is better than most other sites.

On southeastern it comes up with a £25 fare. This is a £37.75 Anytime single discounted with Network Railcard. The ticket is Crowhurst to London St Pancras. It doesn't find any advance fares probably because Southeastern doesn't offer Advance fares to St P (while it does to LBG).

On Trainsplit it finds a £14.50 advance fare. This is because it knows to look for tickets to "London Underground Zone 1" as well as "London St Pancras". Southeastern do offer an advance fare to LU Zone 1 so it finds this.

Trainsplit is generally better than other sites even if it's not offering a split ticket option, because of things like this. I find it's very rare that it fails to find something cheaper or as good as other sites.

It means it'll often give you a wider bunch of options to choose from. The SE site gives you 5 tickets to choose between:



Trainsplit gives you 13:



That includes a better option if you don't want to be restricted to a certain train with an Advance ticket -

It offers a Super off peak single for £22.30 for example, which the SE site doesn't. It also offers you an off-peak return at £27.35. That's useful to know if you are planning to do the return journey within one month because if so that's almost certainly a better option than the £25 advance. It knows to offer this to you even though you've chosen a single journey rather than a return. Other sites will only show you this if you've specifically asked for a return fare.

 

[ska invita]

Searching for Crowhurst-St Pancras illustrates one reason why Trainsplit is better than most other sites.

On southeastern it comes up with a £25 fare. This is a £37.75 Anytime single discounted with Network Railcard. The ticket is Crowhurst to London St Pancras. It doesn't find any advance fares probably because Southeastern doesn't offer Advance fares to St P (while it does to LBG).

On Trainsplit it finds a £14.50 advance fare. This is because it knows to look for tickets to "London Underground Zone 1" as well as "London St Pancras". Southeastern do offer an advance fare to LU Zone 1 so it finds this.

Trainsplit is generally better than other sites even if it's not offering a split ticket option, because of things like this. I find it's very rare that it fails to find something cheaper or as good as other sites.

It means it'll often give you a wider bunch of options to choose from. The SE site gives you 5 tickets to choose between:

View attachment 447384

Trainsplit gives you 13:

View attachment 447385

That includes a better option if you don't want to be restricted to a certain train with an Advance ticket -

It offers a Super off peak single for £22.30 for example, which the SE site doesn't. It also offers you an off-peak return at £27.35. That's useful to know if you are planning to do the return journey within one month because if so that's almost certainly a better option than the £25 advance. It knows to offer this to you even though you've chosen a single journey rather than a return. Other sites will only show you this if you've specifically asked for a return fare.

I got £16 for that journey??

 

[teuchter]

I got £16 for that journey??

On what site & for what train?

 

[ska invita]

On the south eastern site, when you do your search and get the list of trains / prices up, underneath the main quoted price there's a link that says 'Other fares available '. This will let you see what the normal single price is.

Ive downloaded the Southeastern app and had a go at this...I get


So £12.80 for a fixed time ticket, and presumably the anytime one is what you referred to? 3 times as much...so cant do that.