Best way to book train tickets
- Thread starter rikwakefield
- Start date
Then Any Permitted ticket IS the standard fare You get a DISCOUNT for restricting yourself to a single TOC. It's hardly "a con".
Pay twice as much? Really......??
East Croydon to Brighton Off Peak Day Return FCC trains only £13.50
East Croydon to Brighton Off Peak Day Return Any Permitted £17.70
KGX to Peterborough Off Peak Day Return FCC trains only £25
KGX to Peterborough Off Peak Day Return Any Permitted £29.70
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
I think the general point is that you should just be able to buy a ticket whenever and get on a train. The price DOES vary horrendously. I went down to London in Sept it cost me about £70 but the same journey in November was £107. Ok it's not double but why the difference?
Oh FFS. You CAN do that. I keep saying you can do that. I don't know why you people keep saying you can't when YOU CAN!
Obviously you bought a different type of ticket the second time from the first.
@Bungle73 - can you calm down a bit? Not everyone is as well versed as you in the pricing of train tickets. Nor are they without a point when they wonder why the same journey can cost such wildly different amounts for little apparent reason. There's no need to rant at them.
Anyhow, on point, I've started booking most tickets through East Coast. The website is pretty good at presenting the ticket and pricing options, but it's fiddly and over-complicated and a pain to use. I wouldn't recommend it unless you use East Coast services regularly. If you do, however, it's worth persevering because of the Reward Points scheme, whereby you accumulate points in proportion to money spent. A lot of the 'rewards' are a bit nebulous - WiFi vouchers, passes for the first class lounge and so on - but if you accumulate enough points you can redeem them for free journeys on East Coast services. If you spend as much time travelling up and down the East Coast Main Line as I do these days that's well worth having. It's mildly irritating that the points don't appear to be redeemable for the 0700 Hull-London service, which I use a lot, but even factoring in the cost of a return to Doncaster that's still a peak-time Hull-London return trip for about £20.
Anyhow, on point, I've started booking most tickets through East Coast. The website is pretty good at presenting the ticket and pricing options, but it's fiddly and over-complicated and a pain to use. I wouldn't recommend it unless you use East Coast services regularly. If you do, however, it's worth persevering because of the Reward Points scheme, whereby you accumulate points in proportion to money spent. A lot of the 'rewards' are a bit nebulous - WiFi vouchers, passes for the first class lounge and so on - but if you accumulate enough points you can redeem them for free journeys on East Coast services. If you spend as much time travelling up and down the East Coast Main Line as I do these days that's well worth having. It's mildly irritating that the points don't appear to be redeemable for the 0700 Hull-London service, which I use a lot, but even factoring in the cost of a return to Doncaster that's still a peak-time Hull-London return trip for about £20.
Maybe I'll "calm down" when people stop posting the same bollocks over and over again when I've already said about a hundred times that it's not true.
Because on the railways one size does not fit all. Some people want the maximum flexibility and are prepared to pay whatever for it, while others want a cheaper ticket and are prepared to put up with a few restrictions to get that. That's why Advance tickets exist (or at least one of the reasons). Or are you saying I shouldn't be allowed to get a substantial discount for booking months in advance and restricting myself to one train?
That's OK if you use EC regularly, but for most people RSH's is a better deal because there isn't minimum fare to earn points - EC's is £22 (except for some EC only fares). The FC Lounge pass is great though, especially considering you have to pay £5 to get in if you're on an Advance ticket. The Pass lets you in whatever ticket you're on, and even if you are not travelling. And it last all day (if you get the day one). I've used quite a few of them. The Lounges are great with free drinks and snacks.Anyhow, on point, I've started booking most tickets through East Coast. The website is pretty good at presenting the ticket and pricing options, but it's fiddly and over-complicated and a pain to use. I wouldn't recommend it unless you use East Coast services regularly. If you do, however, it's worth persevering because of the Reward Points scheme, whereby you accumulate points in proportion to money spent. A lot of the 'rewards' are a bit nebulous - WiFi vouchers, passes for the first class lounge and so on - but if you accumulate enough points you can redeem them for free journeys on East Coast services. If you spend as much time travelling up and down the East Coast Main Line as I do these days that's well worth having. It's mildly irritating that the points don't appear to be redeemable for the 0700 Hull-London service, which I use a lot, but even factoring in the cost of a return to Doncaster that's still a peak-time Hull-London return trip for about £20.
The best general deal for tickets imo is using Southern, a) because if you do it through TopCashback you get 6.06% cashback (which is way more the the other two's points system), and b) because they have a "rainy day guarantee" which means you can get a full refund if you decide not to travel, except for certain tickets.[/quote]
No, that isn't what I was saying. This isn't really the place for a general discussion about train ticket pricing, but FWIW I think the system is far too complicated, that flexible and walk-up tickets are now far too expensive, and that the mechanisms for booking non-flexible and advance tickets (neither of which I have any problem with the principle of a discount for, within reason) are too complicated. It's no wonder people get lost with the system if they aren't well versed in it. You clearly have extensive knowledge of it and that's all to the good - but do you not think you might put that to better use by giving constructive advice as opposed to hectoring people not as clued up as yourself?
That Southern offer does sound good, and if I lived in their area that would very probably nudge me into using their website. RSH's also sounds handy. However, living in Hull, I use the East Coast Main Line frequently, and therefore free journeys with East Coast are a bonus well worth having...
bi0boy
Power User
Anyhow, on point, I've started booking most tickets through East Coast. The website is pretty good at presenting the ticket and pricing options, but it's fiddly and over-complicated and a pain to use. I wouldn't recommend it unless you use East Coast services regularly. If you do, however, it's worth persevering because of the Reward Points scheme, whereby you accumulate points in proportion to money spent. A lot of the 'rewards' are a bit nebulous - WiFi vouchers, passes for the first class lounge and so on - but if you accumulate enough points you can redeem them for free journeys on East Coast services. If you spend as much time travelling up and down the East Coast Main Line as I do these days that's well worth having. It's mildly irritating that the points don't appear to be redeemable for the 0700 Hull-London service, which I use a lot, but even factoring in the cost of a return to Doncaster that's still a peak-time Hull-London return trip for about £20.
I was quite annoyed when I cashed in my points for tickets and only then found that the tickets seemed only to be valid for travel at least a month in advance and on obscure services where advance singles were cheapest in any case.
So then I swapped points for M&S vouchers only to find out the M&S vouchers weren't valid in shops but only online.
I don't have "extensive knowledge" I'm just a regular use of the railways, and a frequenter of the RailUK forums
What's the use of giving advice when people clearly aren't taking the blindest bit of notice?
You don't need to live in the Southern area. ANY TOC website wil sell you a ticket from anywhere to anywhere else. They all sell exactly the same tickets (including thetrainline, despite some very misleading advetising). The only difference being that some TOCs (like EC for example) will give you a discount for booking their own tickets through their own website.
Please, whatever you do do not use thetrainline. They charge fees for the privilege of booking through them. Others, like the ones I mentioned, do, not.
You do know the system, though. Certainly you know it better than most people. Remember, most people don't have the slightest interest in railways, and still less the minutiae of a frankly labyrinthine ticket pricing structure. And you are giving advice on this thread - I'm just taking issue with your tone.
Of course. That's why I book through East Coast for the points, whilst often travelling with Hull Trains. It comes down to incentives in the end - and because I do use their services on occasion, East Coast's free journeys offer, for all its limitations, makes it worth using their infuriating website!
neonwilderness
What would Badgers do?
The system is very complicated. I recently turned up at Newcastle wanting to travel to Durham, but the machine offered me several different tickets which I had to then go through and check which were valid. It wasn't too much of a hassle, but still more complicated then turning up, buying a ticket and getting on a train.
Btw, I'm an ex-user of the RailUK forums and it does have a bit of reputation for being frequented by people who get slightly anal over ticketing
You need enough points.I use east coast for buying and travelling. Where is my free ticket?
They're supposed toe be slightly changing it any time soon so that instead of getting a free Return ticket you can get two Singles instead for more flexibility.
Judging from the emails I've been getting that's already the case, although your link in post #135 is still giving the 500 points for a return ticket offer. Whether you'll still be able to claim a return I don't know. I hope so, since otherwise a return journey will require 600 points in future. Greater flexibility, but inevitably at a price...
@quimcunx - you have to register for reward points, I think.
That's why assumed it hadn't been implemented yet
I don't think so, but you'll still be getting the same thing for the same amount of points, just with 2 Singles instead of a Return:
East Coast said:
Yes.
Ah. I read the initial email saying it would be 300 points for a single, but the one you quote was lurking amid the unread emails in my inbox. I'm all sorted with London tickets for the remainder of 2012, but I've reward points enough to claim a few freebies in the new year...
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
thetrainline charge you a booking fee on top of the ticket, so don't use them for starters!
(it's only a quid, but there's the principle of the thing!)
Use the website of the train company you're using. So search for your train on www.nationalrail.co.uk then click buy tickets on the one you want, which sends you on to the Virgin, FGW, East Coast or whoever website where you finish off the process.
Lets ignore your post and wait for Bungle73 shall we?
No alternative? There are literally thousands...well maybe not thousands, but certainly a lot...of websites selling train tickets.
Really? I just always use thetrainline.
He's right. thetrainline charge may be only £1 (unless you choose to use a CC in which case they charge even more), but if you tend to book a lot of tickets, like me, it soon adds up.
I always book using Southern's website (used to use RSH's until I found the better deal) because of the cashback, unless the particular TOC I'm using has their own offers for booking direct, eg EC.
It doesn't really matter who you book with apart from that tbh; just avoid sites like thetrainine that want to charge you for it.
What for? Why pay when there are plenty of alternatives that provide exactly the same service for free? I'm afraid you seem to have been taken in by their misleading advertising.
Really? I don't have a telly or listen to commercial radio? Maybe they had a poster or something. My uncle used to drive for South West Trains and never said a thing about this.
Still, a quid is not bad really is it?
So you enjoy throwing money away?
I got into this massive argument on here last time thetrainline came up and I told people not to use it, and why. Yet people kept defending using it like they were in some kind of cult with it.
