Veterans Railcard - can passengers be confident they're sold the cheapest fare?

[Adam Williams]

I've been testing this railcard recently with 2 adults, 1 child. I'd expect the child to receive 60% discount, the adults to both receive 34% off. Looking at SDS, Leamington Spa - Coventry Arena.

This seems to be .. variably handled across accredited booking sites.

Assertis ("Railsmartr") - fail, not offered in the list


Trainline - Pass, works correctly, but naturally slaps an 80p booking fee on top



GWR - Fail, tries to persuade me to apply Groupsave instead (more expensive than my desired fare), then fails to apply railcard discount properly to the second adult or the child if I choose not to. Pax overcharged between £4-5??




LNER - Pass, correctly calculates fare



Avanti/PICO4UK - Fail, doesn't apply discount to companion and child. Describes the fare breakdown as a "breakup"



TrainSplit - Pass, calculates fare prices correctly



Southen (GTR/OTR) - Pass, calculates fare prices correctly

 

[Haywain]

The set-up of this railcard is a mess, and is the subject of some discussion in RDG. The problem is that there is no clear distinction between a railcard issued for one adult and a railcard issued for two adults. In the circumstances, right and wrong answers are not necessarily obvious or correctly identified.

 

[plymothian]

GWR and Avanti you have to quantify how many are travelling on a railcard.
Adding Veterans and then you say 2 adults and 1 child are using it gives the correct price.

 

[Adam Williams]

GWR and Avanti you have to qualify how many are travelling on a railcard.
Adding Veterans and then you say 2 adults and 1 child are using it gives the correct price.

You're right, I'm not a fan of this - if the one Railcard is valid for the passengers that the customer has said are travelling together, it feels like the best default from a usability perspective should be apply it to all of them unless the user indicates a preference otherwise.

Interestingly on GWR's site on mobile, but not desktop, it then displays a GroupSave badge above the non-GroupSave fare. I guess it's trying to say it's an option for the journey but it would be a foolish one to select.



On Avanti's site, it'll let you specify "0 adults and 0 children" to apply the railcard to which doesn't apply it to all passengers (seemingly just one of them) - which is what I did initially! Following a few attempts where I tried and repeatedly failed to apply it to my search, it seems quite flaky, I did eventually get it to display the correct fare.

 

[Haywain]

- if the one Railcard is valid for the passengers that the customer has said are travelling together, it feels like the best default from a usability perspective should be apply it to all of them unless the user indicates a preference otherwise

The problem with the correct result (LNER, for example) is that ir could be wrong if the railcard is for one adult.

 

[Adam Williams]

The problem with the correct result (LNER, for example) is that ir could be wrong if the railcard is for one adult

I think ideally you need to mandate that the TIS asks the user to confirm if the second adult is the named companion or not