eTickets on Southern - how to use?

[grove]

Am I expecting too much with eTickets from Southern?

Purchased an eTicket which duly arrived by email, but there does not seem to be a way of adding that ticket to Gooogle Wallet (on Android). Has anyone else managed to do this? If so, are there some instructions, as the Southern website simply says "add it to the wallet app on your phone"? Clicking the link takes you to the ticket purchase page again and no further instructions.

Is there a separate app you need to install that actually works? The fallback is to print the PDF, but that defeats the object and is not really an e-ticket.

Thanks.

 

[Haywain]

Am I expecting too much with eTickets from Southern?

Purchased an eTicket which duly arrived by email, but there does not seem to be a way of adding that ticket to Gooogle Wallet (on Android). Has anyone else managed to do this? If so, are there some instructions, as the Southern website simply says "add it to the wallet app on your phone"? Clicking the link takes you to the ticket purchase page again and no further instructions.

Is there a separate app you need to install that actually works? The fallback is to print the PDF, but that defeats the object and is not really an e-ticket.

Thanks.

You just open the pdf on your phone, no need to print it out. You can open it from the email or save it in the files folder. Not all retailers support the appropriate format for saving to Google Wallet.

 

[grove]

You just open the pdf on your phone, no need to print it out. You can open it from the email or save it in the files folder. Not all retailers support the appropriate format for saving to Google Wallet.

It seems the ticket format that Southern use is pkpass, which was designed for Apple devices. However, there are a number of Android apps that do support it, including WalletPasses and PassWallet. I've installed WalletPasses and it instantly recognised my downloaded tickets and imported them. Google Wallet simply does not work.

 

[Haywain]

Google Wallet simply does not work.

Google Wallet works perfectly well for tickets that have the relevant format applied to them. For those that don't I can't see what the difference is between adding yet another app or just opening the pdf.

 

[DailyCommuter]

Am I expecting too much with eTickets from Southern?

Other retailers like LNER and Chiltern Railways allow tickets to be saved to Google Wallet, so it's not a problem with eTickets generally. It's convenience like this which factors into my decision of which ticket retailer to use.

 

[HarryF]

TrainSplit supports Google Wallet too

 

[grove]

Other retailers like LNER and Chiltern Railways allow tickets to be saved to Google Wallet, so it's not a problem with eTickets generally. It's convenience like this which factors into my decision of which ticket retailer to use.

Thank you for that, I know where to buy my tickets next time!

 

[Bletchleyite]

I've never wholly understood why Google don't support pkpass. It's not a patented format, it's just a ZIP file containing an XML of the ticket details and 2d barcode data plus a logo image in PNG format.

 

[grove]

Here's an update on a new incident with Southern's tickets, but related to the original question.

I purchased two, one for myself and one for another travelling with me. Simple single journey - Horsham to Epsom. My ticket I held in my Android phone the other was printed on paper. Both tickets worked at the gate line at Horsham and Epsom. However, mine on my phone failed to be recognised during an on-train ticket check - "Unrecognised bar code". I was asked where I purchased the ticket - "Southern's website". The inspector carried on his way down the train.

Why is Southern's eTicketing so flaky? It's another reason why customers are going to be reluctant to use new ticketing solutions on the wake of ticket office closures.

 

[OscarH]

However, mine on my phone failed to be recognised during an on-train ticket check - "Unrecognised bar code". I was asked where I purchased the ticket - "Southern's website". The inspector carried on his way down the train.

That's very poor if the barcode actually is invalid

Maybe best not to post it publicly, but I'd be interested in seeing it to see if it scans for me/if the fault is obvious, if you were comfortable sharing the barcode by DM (no worries if not!)

I missed they worked the gateline, sounds like the app on the OBS's phone was in some way out of date or broken

 

[Adam Williams]

However, mine on my phone failed to be recognised during an on-train ticket check - "Unrecognised bar code".

Did you try and use WalletPasses? It is fundamentally broken.

 

[mikeg]

Could be a decryption failure? I experienced one myself a few years ago on tpe, caused by the ticket machines decryption keys not being kept up to date.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Could be a decryption failure? I experienced one myself a few years ago on tpe, caused by the ticket machines decryption keys not being kept up to date.

If the paper ticket was read it would point to something on the phone

 

[greatkingrat]

If the paper ticket was read it would point to something on the phone

That doesn't explain why the barriers had no problem with it though.

 

[Wallsendmag]

That doesn't explain why the barriers had no problem with it though.

It does if the gates were in “Accept All” mode

 

[Bletchleyite]

I have been on Southern today and got a rejection like sound from the OBS's scanner but he accepted it anyway - does seem like they have issues.

 

[OscarH]

I have been on Southern today and got a rejection like sound from the OBS's scanner but he accepted it anyway - does seem like they have issues.

If there is an issue its handheld device end, or doesn't affect every ticket (but likely the former given it worked gatelines). A Lichfield Trent Valley to Lichfield City from their site decoded fine in TTK (test mode), which I think GTR use? When I decoded it the fields all looked sensible too (bar one being used for something I don't think it should, but didn't cause anything weird).

Its hard to infer anything from yours as it was just a rejection sound, they quite often just move on after checking it visually (or sometimes not even that), so tricky to know if that was the same decoding failed error.

I'd lean towards OP's was an issue with whatever was used to display it if it wasn't shown as the PDF to be honest

Could be a decryption failure? I experienced one myself a few years ago on tpe, caused by the ticket machines decryption keys not being kept up to date.

I did wonder, but just checked and GTR's key hasn't changed recently

 

[HarryF]

Have Avanti changed their keys recently? I was on Southern last week and the on board person scanned my ticket, looked at it confused and then said they “hadn’t seen a ticket starting with PI before” but accepted it without any question.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Have Avanti changed their keys recently? I was on Southern last week and the on board person scanned my ticket, looked at it confused and then said they “hadn’t seen a ticket starting with PI before” but accepted it without any question.

PI is presumably the prefix for Pico (used by both Avanti and c2c, due to the involvement of Trenitalia), though Avanti have now switched back to Avocet for their Ticket Office machines.

 

[OscarH]

Have Avanti changed their keys recently? I was on Southern last week and the on board person scanned my ticket, looked at it confused and then said they “hadn’t seen a ticket starting with PI before” but accepted it without any question.

The PI prefix has existed for Pico online for a number of years, its not new. Perhaps its just rare someone actually managed to get a Pico site to sell them a ticket