Bizarre prices from Birmingham

[enginedin]

One of my colleagues spotted these prices (admittedly via the travel agency we have to use for work; I don't what date they were searching for) - can anyone explain

1. the £809 fare(!)
2. the rationale for the £512 difference between University and New Street, for the 6 minute journey that actually connects with the train from New Street

 

[JonathanH]

One of my colleagues spotted these prices (admittedly via the travel agency we use via work; I don't what date they were searching for) - can anyone explain

1. the £809 fare(!)
2. the rationale for the £512 difference between University and New Street, for the 6 minute journey that actually connects with the train from New Street

Difference between the walk up fare of £809 for two people, and an advance fare valid only on the direct CrossCountry train.

The connection from University doesn't have first class, although that shouldn't necessarily cause an issue.

 

[Merseysider]

Perhaps related - £404.50 is the price of a single and £809 matches 2x that exactly…

Difference between the walk up fare of £809 for two people, and an advance fare valid only on the direct CrossCountry train.

Your updated post hits the nail on the head, albeit it’s Avanti

Websites such as trainsplit.com are able to offer substantial savings in situations like this.

 

[Kite159]

Difference between the walk up fare of £809 for two people, and an advance fare valid only on the direct CrossCountry train.

Although in this case the 14:07 service is Avanti, and I presume the connection from University is on the XC service from Cardiff to Nottingham (rather than a WMR).

Just shows the benefits of split ticketing, even with a simple split at Birmingham New Street will save a bit of money

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The £809 fare seems to be 2 x £404.50 Anytime 1st Class singles.

The £297 fare seems to be 2 x £143.50 1st Class Advances (routed AWC&Connections) so booked trains only.

 

[enginedin]

Websites such as trainsplit.com are able to offer substantial savings in situations like this.

Yeh, I use split tickets for all my journeys, I just couldn't work out what was going on here (but also hadn't spotted the 1st price was for 2 people...)

The £297 fare seems to be 2 x £143.50

now looking closely, the extra confusion is that the 1st screenshot shows a "+1" for an additional person, but the 2nd screenshot doesn't...

 

[Merseysider]

Yeh, I use split tickets for all my journeys, I just couldn't work out what was going on here (but also hadn't spotted the 1st price was for 2 people...)


now looking closely, the extra confusion is that the 1st screenshot shows a "+1" for an additional person, but the 2nd screenshot doesn't...

Think that +1 just means it’s CrossCountry +1 other company

 

[enginedin]

Think that +1 just means it’s CrossCountry +1 other company

ohh! Well deduced!

So ok, my other observation is that it's weird (and I'm sure other people agree) that the ticketing algorithms can't deal with just adding an anytime first class single for the UNI-BHM leg - is there a good reason for this that I haven't thought of? Probably something to do with there are no advanced tickets available for that leg and you can't mix ticket types? (I have another example of this, I might make a new thread to separate them out)

 

[plugwash]

now looking closely, the extra confusion is that the 1st screenshot shows a "+1" for an additional person, but the 2nd screenshot doesn't...

I think the +1 is "crosscountry and one other operator" rather than representing an extra person.

2. the rationale for the £512 difference between University and New Street, for the 6 minute journey that actually connects with the train from New Street

Two key things to understand.

1. Rail ticketing sites were traditionally built around selling the passenger ONE ticket for their whole journey wherever possible. More recently "splittling" sites have appeared which try to find cheaper combinations of tickets, but such sites are still the exception not the rule.
2. Advance tickets can only be sold against reservable trains if quota is available.

It used to be that most local services were not reservable, but in recent times more and more have been made reservable as local operators have started to offer advance tickets.

If the quota "sells out" for the local service, or if no suitable quota was allocated in the first place, then the reailers can't sell an advance ticket against that itinerary. A retailer that does splitting may offer a split ticket, but most retailers will simply fall back to selling the user flexible tickets.

 

[paul1609]

Just saying:
Easyjet Prices for tomorrow/friday

 

[enginedin]

Easyjet Prices

Don't forget AVTUR is nil rated for tax tho, which is one of massively frustrating things about trying to compare flights and rail

 

[TUC]

Don't forget AVTUR is nil rated for tax tho, which is one of massively frustrating things about trying to compare flights and rail

The price difference is much more than 20% though.

 

[paul1609]

The price difference is much more than 20% though.

Rail only pays something like 11 pence tax per litre on Diesel so the difference on price based on fuel should be negligable.

 

[Watershed]

Don't forget AVTUR is nil rated for tax tho, which is one of massively frustrating things about trying to compare flights and rail

VAT is paid on AVTUR for domestic flights (5% for deliveries under 2,300 litres, 20% for deliveries above that - wouldn't surprise me if there's some tankering that takes place to avoid the 20% rate). Obviously still nowhere near representing the full negative externalities of AVTUR but it's not quite as bad as the situation for international flights.