Great Ticket Sale courtesy of Grant Shapps

[Starmill]

If you're looking for an Advance sale fare the best option is to look at the trains where the cheapest Advance tickets would usually be available.

 

[yorkie]

TrainSplit have been selling them for a few days, probably by accident. I've picked up a £2.70 single from Victoria to Gatwick for next week and booked it last Wednesday.

I'm told GTR accidentally released some early, which were soon pulled from sale.

Surely they shouldn't have been doing that

GTR shouldn't have released them early, agreed.

A load of rubbish, here is why I say that.

I go on to to the Great British Rail Sale website and type in Reading to Birmingham New Street.

I am told that tickets are available for £12. I am then directed to the XC website.

I then type in the journey (Reading to Birmingham), try various dates and times, only to find the cheapest tickets are £30.60 single (£61.20 return).

I also do the same for Reading to Cardiff Central.

Again, the Great British Rail Sale website tells me tickets are £20.

I go onto the GWR website, try various dates and times. The cheapest I can find is £38.90 single (£77.80 return)

Why is it always so difficult to find these promotional prices?

What days/times are you looking for exactly? Have you tried a split ticket provider?

If you use a TOC website, it will only work if the origin and destination combination (i.e the flow) you are specifically looking at has promotional fares. But they may be available for intermediate parts of the journey.

 

[stephen rp]

Has anyone had any luck with Thameslink or Great Northern?

I'm looking for a late evening journey from Kings Cross to Cambridge North.

Can't see any discount on Thameslink, just the quirk that not leaving London terminal stations before 0929 means you can still travel from the Underground (or eg Farringdon) to STP then get trains from STP or KGX with an offpeak ticket that wouldn't be valid from KGX or STP!

 

[Mark J]

Unfortunately not - need to buy before the day of travel.


Haha! But yes, seems that it's particularly worth looking for split tickets on journeys involving CrossCountry - A few searches I've done today on Trainsplit have given advances on other TOCs either side of a short, more expensive, CrossCountry leg.

Crosscountry are hideously expensive.

Reading > Birmingham New Street (return) is £64.40, even on a weekend.

Split ticket (On a weekend)

Reading > Banbury - £9.70 (Network discount)
Banbury > Birmingham Moor St (Chiltern) - £17.20

= £26.90 - a 58% saving.

Even on a normal weekday, savings can still be had just by splitting at Banbury.

CrossCountry also seem to be one of the worst for these ticket promotions. You can rarely find the advertised promotional prices on their site.

I'm told GTR accidentally released some early, which were soon pulled from sale.

GTR shouldn't have released them early, agreed.


What days/times are you looking for exactly? Have you tried a split ticket provider?

If you use a TOC website, it will only work if the origin and destination combination (i.e the flow) you are specifically looking at has promotional fares. But they may be available for intermediate parts of the journey.

I am simply just looking for the advertised prices on the Ticket Sale website.

£12 single to Birmingham would be nice, if I could actually find a ticket for that price. Hopefully a ticket for the same price coming back.

Failing that, the spilt ticket options aren't that more expensive anyway - as detailed above.

 

[Andy Pacer]

I am simply just looking for the advertised prices on the Ticket Sale website.

£12 single to Birmingham would be nice, if I could actually find a ticket for that price. Hopefully a ticket for the same price coming back.

Failing that, the spilt ticket options aren't that more expensive anyway - as detailed above.

When I was booking some tickets early this morning a lot of journeys were showing "only 2 tickets left at this price" (etc) so some of the lowest priced tickets may have been snapped up very quickly.

 

[JonathanH]

CrossCountry also seem to be one of the worst for these ticket promotions. You can rarely find the advertised promotional prices on their site.

CrossCountry suffer the twin edged sword of not having enough capacity for promotions and not drawing in enough revenue to justify a capacity increase.

£12 single to Birmingham would be nice, if I could actually find a ticket for that price. Hopefully a ticket for the same price coming back.

There seems to be a Reading to Birmingham ticket for £12 at 2015 next Thursday

https://ticket.thameslinkrailway.co...ionalRoutes=no&showCheapest=no&tocSpecific=no

 

[Wallsendmag]

Fares are sold in accordance with what RCS permits, what's encoded in the fares data and what TOCs make available in RARS2.

RCS shouldn't have anything to do with it. RARS2 shouldn't have any availability before today.

 

[1D54]

Some of these rail sale "deals" are so poor (Cross Country in particular) that the prices are the equivalent of one person travelling for the price of two!

And some are really good. Just booked Leicester Ely return for a tenner then Ely - Norwich (EMR) for £6.20 return.

 

[trainophile]

Something seems to have crashed the ticket booking database! Errors returned on TPE and Trainsplit just now.

 

[rg177]

I've managed to get myself back home from Sheffield to Newcastle on Monday for £6.55 (£1.50 Sheffield to Leeds, £1.50 to York, £2.55 on TPE from York) with a railcard, so a nice saving compared to usual.

If you've got time to spare and don't mind a slow and scenic route there's some bargains on Northern. I've done Newcastle to Sheffield via the Tyne Valley and S&C for £1.50 per train- £4.50 in total! That was on a Sunday morning/afternoon too.

 

[Starmill]

Something seems to have crashed the ticket booking database! Errors returned on TPE and Trainsplit just now.

It seems very very slow to return search results.

 

[Adam Williams]

RCS shouldn't have anything to do with it.

Sure, they should all be permitted in RCS for the sale. I was just pointing out the industry rules are followed and only fares that third-party investor licensees can sell are sold

RARS2 shouldn't have any availability before today.

Shouldn't, but I'd bet you £20 that there's nothing in RARS2 to actually technically enforce that invariant for the rail sale ticket types - and so the TOCs just do what they want and the data quality is poor as a result. It's the same reason the quality of the seat maps is a joke.

 

[Horizon22]

Managed to get two single tickets Victoria-Gatwick for Monday for our flights for less than £5. Advance was cheaper than my associated Priv discount!

 

[[.n]]

Found nothing in SWR (only seems to be for advances to Waterloo), searched multiple days

 

[BeccaOnATrain]

Some cracking deals with Northern.. though I feel like I've travelled so much on them over the past year.
I've got trips to Derby, Rugby and Holyhead booked from Manchester Piccadilly for next weekend.

I've got another 2 days free off work around that weekend too - Saturday and the Tuesday.. trying to see if I can get somewhere Like Swindon, Reading or Didcot Parkway on the cheap but struggling with anything on GWR/CrossCountry/Avanti.

 

[Sleepy]

I suppose £50 for 1st class London - Cornwall on bank holiday weekend & start of half term for Friday 27th May afternoon services isn't too bad. ( Bank hols actually Thurs & Friday this year)

 

[danielcanning]

If you read the posts plenty of people are reporting their bargains. I've already spent too much money this morning and had bought most of mine before the alleged 10am start.

Bargains on extremely restrictive Advance purchase tickets that would likely be at the most a couple of pounds more expensive without this ‘sale’? I’ll look again when the TOC’s decide to meaningfully discount anytime fares…

 

[Fiyero]

Found nothing in SWR (only seems to be for advances to Waterloo), searched multiple days

Me neither. I have 2 trips planned (but not booked) in the window of opportunity and nothing, not even one at an inconvenient time!

 

[tommy2215]

Bargains on extremely restrictive Advance purchase tickets that would likely be at the most a couple of pounds more expensive without this ‘sale’? I’ll look again when the TOC’s decide to meaningfully discount anytime fares…

I booked a day trip for next Tuesday to London for £18. When I look at the price in June for the same trains, the trip would cost me £74. Meaning of a saving of a bit more than a couple of pounds. And got a trip to Newcastle for almost half the usual price.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I booked a day trip for next Tuesday to London for £18. When I look at the price in June for the same trains, the trip would cost me £74. Meaning of a saving of a bit more than a couple of pounds. And got a trip to Newcastle for almost half the usual price.

That'll be because Advances for the trains in June won't have been released yet.

 

[Haywain]

I’ll look again when the TOC’s decide to meaningfully discount anytime fares…

You're going to have a very long wait.

That'll be because Advances for the trains in June won't have been released yet.

LNER reservations are open through to September.

 

[tommy2215]

That'll be because Advances for the trains in June won't have been released yet.

I do have eyes, they most definitely are with EMR....

 

[Horizon22]

You're going to have a very long wait.

I do find this a tad odd. Whilst I understand why, its somewhat warped logic certainly on some routes where peak fares apply either going into the major city/town and passenger numbers remain supressed, or departing/arriving into the major city in the morning/evening (which has always been lower). Getting some more bums on seats in this regard has to be better than carrying fresh air. I would have thought there might be some emphasis on this in the sale, even if it wasn't the primary focus.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I do find this a tad odd. Whilst I understand why, its somewhat warped logic certainly on some routes where peak fares apply either going into the major city/town and passenger numbers remain supressed, or departing/arriving into the major city in the morning/evening (which has always been lower). Getting some more bums on seats in this regard has to be better than carrying fresh air. I would have thought there might be some emphasis on this in the sale, even if it wasn't the primary focus.

I think it's clear what they want with this - headlines, not good customer service. Because what it's doing is only going to appeal to part of the market - the part that plans well in advance. It's doing nothing for anyone else.

OK, most InterCity journeys are Advances, but the number of people booking (and willing to book) stuff like MKC-London in advance is very close to zero. They might use an Advance fare, but only on the day having seen the weather etc.

 

[yorksrob]

I see that it's still impossible to get from Leeds to Whitby for a day trip for a reasonable price.

I think that this is because the train that gets you between Leeds and Middlesborough for a mid day arrival in Whitby falls within the peak (in spite of not being anywhere near well loaded).

This would be a good service for a positive easement.

 

[Horizon22]

I think it's clear what they want with this - headlines, not good customer service. Because what it's doing is only going to appeal to part of the market - the part that plans well in advance. It's doing nothing for anyone else.

OK, most InterCity journeys are Advances, but the number of people booking (and willing to book) stuff like MKC-London in advance is very close to zero. They might use an Advance fare, but only on the day having seen the weather etc.

I agree, although there's already a lot of people digging into the headlines and claiming what this will do for the average commuter or worker. People who can't afford a day trip out anyway.

It is useful for those wanting to plan something away with no concrete plans yet as there are bargins to be had and it will probably fill a few seats that wouldn't have been anyway, but its something of a drop in the ocean and a bit of a missed opportunity.

 

[jamesontheroad]

When?

Can't see any discount on Thameslink, just the quirk that not leaving London terminal stations before 0929 means you can still travel from the Underground (or eg Farringdon) to STP then get trains from STP or KGX with an offpeak ticket that wouldn't be valid from KGX or STP!

Thameslink KGX to Cambridge North on the evening of 3 May, departing after 21.30.

Can't use Advance since we're arriving on a flight. Was intrigued to see if, in the absence of discounted Advance fares, there'd be any cheap Off-Peak Single.

 

[Deltic1961]

You're going to have a very long wait.


LNER reservations are open through to September.

We're trying to book a return from Aberdeen to London in September but LNER reservations only go uo to July at present.

 

[miklcct]

Me neither. I have 2 trips planned (but not booked) in the window of opportunity and nothing, not even one at an inconvenient time!

Me neither. Nothing cheap found for Bournemouth - Waterloo on both weekdays and weekends early May.

 

[PTR 444]

Me neither. Nothing cheap found for Bournemouth - Waterloo on both weekdays and weekends early May.

£9.30 each way according to this, although I do agree it is a shame that SWR have no discounted advances available for journeys to places other than London Waterloo.