Minor difference in prices between Southern and LNER websites for the same tickets

[dmncf]

I'm buying a standard class Super Off-Peak Day Return from West Ham to Southend Central for 2 adults and 2 children with a Family & Friends Railcard.
Southern website offers the tickets for £23.20; 2 adults at £9.00 each and 2 children at £2.60 each.
LNER website offers the tickets for £23.00; 2 adults at £8.95 each and 2 children at £2.55 each. Trainsplit also offers this £23.00 price.

The journey will be operated by c2c, so this isn't a case of a train operator discounting its own fares. Why am I seeing a difference in prices for the same tickets? I thought that the conditions for ticket retailers did not allow this scenario.

 

[swt_passenger]

I'm buying a standard class Super Off-Peak Day Return from West Ham to Southend Central for 2 adults and 2 children with a Family & Friends Railcard.
Southern website offers the tickets for £23.20; 2 adults at £9.00 each and 2 children at £2.60 each.
LNER website offers the tickets for £23.00; 2 adults at £8.95 each and 2 children at £2.55 each. Trainsplit also offers this £23.00 price.

The journey will be operated by c2c, so this isn't a case of a train operator discounting its own fares. Why am I seeing a difference in prices for the same tickets? I thought that the conditions for ticket retailers did not allow this scenario.

It’s probably just to do with whether they round the railcard discount percentage to 10p or 5p minimum steps. I think it got mentioned recently that different issuing systems calculated rounding differently...

 

[Wolfie]

I'm buying a standard class Super Off-Peak Day Return from West Ham to Southend Central for 2 adults and 2 children with a Family & Friends Railcard.
Southern website offers the tickets for £23.20; 2 adults at £9.00 each and 2 children at £2.60 each.
LNER website offers the tickets for £23.00; 2 adults at £8.95 each and 2 children at £2.55 each. Trainsplit also offers this £23.00 price.

The journey will be operated by c2c, so this isn't a case of a train operator discounting its own fares. Why am I seeing a difference in prices for the same tickets? I thought that the conditions for ticket retailers did not allow this scenario.

This sparked my interest, not least as l'm about to travel on the same line.

The National Rail website also gives the £23.00 fare. Interestingly the C2C website quotes £29.10 for travel today for the ticket type that you quote. Go figure....

c2c

tickets.c2c-online.co.uk

 

[pelli]

Interestingly the C2C website quotes £29.10 for travel today for the ticket type that you quote. Go figure....

I also got £29.10 but then I realised that when you select "Family & Friends Railcard" you also have to input how many people are on it below. The default is 1 Adult and 1 Child, so for the £29.10 if you click "fare breakdown" you see that you're being offered

Family & Friends Railcard adult £8.95
No Railcard adult £13.60
Family & Friends Railcard child £2.55
Kids Flat Fare child £4.00

Total:£29.10

Going back and inputting 2 Adults and 2 Children on the F&F Railcard yields £23.00 as expected.

 

[Haywain]

This sparked my interest, not least as l'm about to travel on the same line.

The National Rail website also gives the £23.00 fare. Interestingly the C2C website quotes £29.10 for travel today for the ticket type that you quote. Go figure....

c2c

tickets.c2c-online.co.uk

NRE and LNER get the fares from the same source, so the same answer would be expected.

 

[Paul Kelly]

NRE and LNER get the fares from the same source, so the same answer would be expected.

But doesn't the Southern site use the same source too (I'm guessing you mean IPTIS)?

 

[Wallsendmag]

There was a recent change in rounding, I believe we are correctly applying the discount

 

[Haywain]

But doesn't the Southern site use the same source too (I'm guessing you mean IPTIS)?

I do mean IPTIS, but I don't know if that's what the Southern site uses.

 

[alistairlees]

I do mean IPTIS, but I don't know if that's what the Southern site uses.

It does

 

[Haywain]

It does

Possibly a slight difference in which version is currently being used then.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I think the issue is that as various sites go through periodic re-accreditation, RDG is enforcing the new rounding rules which make certain fares 5p cheaper in the customer's favour (I'm presuming here that the Southern site hasn't been re-accredited for a while). I decided recently to change the BR Fares site to also use the new rounding rules, as my feeling was a critical mass of other systems were now also using them and it keeps everything as consistent as possible.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I think the issue is that as various sites go through periodic re-accreditation, RDG is enforcing the new rounding rules which make certain fares 5p cheaper in the customer's favour (I'm presuming here that the Southern site hasn't been re-accredited for a while). I decided recently to change the BR Fares site to also use the new rounding rules, as my feeling was a critical mass of other systems were now also using them and it keeps everything as consistent as possible.

Problems come when you have several systems from different suppliers and they are all at different stages of thier accreditation cycle. With four accredited retail system to keep in line and try and get them all to give the same answer isn't as simple as some may think.