Heathrow, TfL Rail and Railcards

[paulravuslante]

Seems that there is a bit of an anomaly at Heathrow now that all the Hex ticket offices have closed.

It doesn’t appear that there is any facility to purchase TfL Rail tickets with a railcard discount or to have this added to an Oyster (unless you go to the tube station I guess by which time you might as well take the Pic line).

The new ticket machines have a note which states full fare National Rail tickets only.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Seems that there is a bit of an anomaly at Heathrow now that all the Hex ticket offices have closed.

It doesn’t appear that there is any facility to purchase TfL Rail tickets with a railcard discount or to have this added to an Oyster (unless you go to the tube station I guess by which time you might as well take the Pic line).

The new ticket machines have a note which states full fare National Rail tickets only.

That seems a bit bizarre.

I suppose there's always the option of buying online and collecting the tickets - the new TfL Rail machines are equipped for TOD, and there are some other ticket machines at Heathrow installed a couple of years ago for the purpose of TOD collection.

How do HEx now sell their tickets with the ticket offiices closed - is it just sales people milling around the concourses?

 

[jon0844]

How do HEx now sell their tickets with the ticket offiices closed - is it just sales people milling around the concourses?

Probably. At times, it seems like 50% of the people at the airport are trying to sell HEX tickets (and sweet talk people into upgrading to first class with well used lines to convince anyone in a suit that they 'deserve' to go first (hey, it's probably on expenses), or are in some way failures if they don't)!!

 

[paulravuslante]

How do HEx now sell their tickets with the ticket offiices closed - is it just sales people milling around the concourses?

The usual commission based staff at the terminals and entrance to the station.

Within the station there are Hex staff (non commission based) who can help with the Hex ticket machines and sell railcard discounted Hex tickets. Gateline and platform staff will be moving to an operation called Heathrow Rail which will techically be separate from Hex but still owned by the airport.
Not sure whether it is due to staff shortages but T4 also has HAL staff helping distribute the free tickets for transfer around the airport terminals and TfL Rail staff are sometimes based here too.

That seems a bit bizarre.

I suppose there's always the option of buying online and collecting the tickets - the new TfL Rail machines are equipped for TOD, and there are some other ticket machines at Heathrow installed a couple of years ago for the purpose of TOD collection.

Yes, some of the old TOD machines have been reprogammed to be Hex ticket machines. To add to the confusion I have just noticed at T4 the other type of machine which was also installed before for National Rail fares has a sticker which says it can sell railcard discounted tickets!

All very bizarre!

 

[Joe Paxton]

Probably. At times, it seems like 50% of the people at the airport are trying to sell HEX tickets (and sweet talk people into upgrading to first class with well used lines to convince anyone in a suit that they 'deserve' to go first (hey, it's probably on expenses), or are in some way failures if they don't)!!

I wonder what the future plan is for this mob, when HEx starts accepting Oyster & contactless in September - whilst one could imagine their function becomes redundant, I'd think HEx/HAL would still want to sell the HEx service. Perhaps the Oyster/contactless fare will be more expensive, and so buying a ticket from the wandering sales bods would still make sense.

 

[Starmill]

I seem to recall that it is possible to purchase a Zones 1-6 Travelcard with a Railcard from the machines at Heathrow? It definitely is from the LU ones. This can be used on TfL Rail.

 

[paulravuslante]

I seem to recall that it is possible to purchase a Zones 1-6 Travelcard with a Railcard from the machines at Heathrow? It definitely is from the LU ones. This can be used on TfL Rail.

They have changed the machines in most of the railway stations there.