Buying advance rail tickets

[Notters]

What is a rail ticket you have to purchase ?

 

[Pinkie Brown]

Those advance tickets can sometimes be a false economy. Although not in Sussex atm, I only bothered with the £5, or £8 one way tickets if literally making a one way journey from home, not returning that day. If going to London for the day, a super off peak travelcard was around £15 and a few pennies. Getting the the £5 tickets was near impossible and you have to take into account the cost of using an oyster card in London.

The super off peak travelcard has full flexibility at the weekend. If travelling from up north or flying into Heathrow, having one of those advanced cheap tickets tied to a definite train is risky.

 

[TheJasperCo]

I always try splitting any journeys I make. It doesn't always work for shorter, direct routes but in the case of longer trips it is worth looking at. I also use a cashback site so I get up to 5% of my fare paid back a few weeks later.

 

[8ace]

Nice one, thanks. Getting cheap train tickets is like a full time job in itself. Singles rather than returns, breaking up the journey...etc etc. Beats me why it can't all be simplified, but that would be too easy I suppose, or more likely cost the operators too much money in lost revenue from generally shafting people.

£5 tickets on sale now for the date you wanted.

 

[Ernest]

£5 tickets on sale now for the date you wanted.

First class ?

 

[1066familyman]

£5 tickets on sale now for the date you wanted.

Thanks. Will get on it and hope I get some joy.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

I've been doing it for a few years now so it doesn't take me that long these days.
One thing I would say is don't use that useless Southern website, I tend to use this one:

https://www.buytickets.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/advancedsearch.aspx

Same tkts / price etc just a simpler website that works

Well i have used Southern before,simply because they never charged a fee or postage and was buying the Travelcard,however can't even find the travelcard option on their site anymore,so back to the Trainline.

 

[Cosmic Joker]

Well i have used Southern before,simply because they never charged a fee or postage and was buying the Travelcard,however can't even find the travelcard option on their site anymore,so back to the Trainline.

Don't use the Trainline, as you will have to pay the fee every time. None of the sites run by Train Operating Companies charge a fee. I agree the Southern site has been crap and full of errors since they updated it a few months ago. But to avoid paying a fee just use another train operator site like the East Midlands one that [MENTION=588]8ace[/MENTION] linked to or Virgin. It's still worth checking the Southern site for journeys on Southern as they have some "route Southern only" fares which don't appear on any other sites, whether that's another train company or a third party like Trainline.

Travelcards should be there on the Southern site, but a bit of experimenting has shown that they aren't always coming up depending on time of journey - and not just down to off-peak/super-off peak restrictions.

 

[1066familyman]

£5 tickets on sale now for the date you wanted.

Thanks. Will get on it and hope I get some joy.

Right, after a bit of teeth pulling, I did find some fares for £5, and amazingly, going both ways as singles!, so could potentially have got three adult tickets there and back for £30. Unfortunately, all of the return tickets come out at £105 or £96 for the times that would be needed The £5 ones are miles too early to be of any use.

Oh well, at least I've now seen with my own eyes that these £5 deals actually are available, so thanks for that. I shall just end up buying them a group save instead from our tourist office or look at what's available as super off peak travlecard.

 

[Gazwag]

Right, after a bit of teeth pulling, I did find some fares for £5, and amazingly, going both ways as singles!, so could potentially have got three adult tickets there and back for £30. Unfortunately, all of the return tickets come out at £105 or £96 for the times that would be needed The £5 ones are miles too early to be of any use.

Oh well, at least I've now seen with my own eyes that these £5 deals actually are available, so thanks for that. I shall just end up buying them a group save instead from our tourist office or look at what's available as super off peak travlecard.

You can never get cheap return tickets only singles

 

[1066familyman]

You can never get cheap return tickets only singles

Yeah, I know, sorry if my post didn't make that clear. I thought I'd only get the Victoria to Hastings deal, but was surprised to see I could get each leg on a £5 deal (booked as singles). Unfortunately the singles for Victoria back to Hastings were all the crazy prices I mentioned for the late trains.

Just gone and booked 3 x Super Off Peak Travelcard returns for £46.50 all in. Giving nice flexibilty for the late trains too, so I'm more than happy with that.

 

[Vatican Citys No.2 Keeper]

Took advantage of this yesterday as I'm in London for a few days for some gigs next week. Advance single from Durrington to Victoria on Thursday and same going the other way on Saturday with a young person's railcard for £6.60 all together. Usually I'd just get the Zones 1-6 Travelcard, but in this case it works out much better.

Also, heads up for anyone planning to use Virgin Train services on the West Coast Main line, they are doing a spring sale of tickets up until Thursday. Contemplated buying a £20ish return to Nottingham for the Forest game, but chose to wait in case it got changed for TV, so got lucky there. Period you can buy tickets covers both the trips to Birmingham and Forest depending on what train you pick, with some singles as low as £4 https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/sale

 

[Pinkie Brown]

Don't use the Trainline, as you will have to pay the fee every time. None of the sites run by Train Operating Companies charge a fee. I agree the Southern site has been crap and full of errors since they updated it a few months ago. But to avoid paying a fee just use another train operator site like the East Midlands one that [MENTION=588]8ace[/MENTION] linked to or Virgin. It's still worth checking the Southern site for journeys on Southern as they have some "route Southern only" fares which don't appear on any other sites, whether that's another train company or a third party like Trainline.

Travelcards should be there on the Southern site, but a bit of experimenting has shown that they aren't always coming up depending on time of journey - and not just down to off-peak/super-off peak restrictions.

I'm glad its not just me then! I can't even get normal return journeys up, let alone a travelcard. All I get offered is singles. The new booking site is totally unfit for purpose - or a pile of ****, just like the rest of Southern.

Its obviously been a problem for a while but they haven't sorted it. They aren't even SASTA. Do I really need a stupid map taking half the page to show me the way from Eastbourne to Victoria? It wasn't broken so why fix it? Grrrrrrrrrrrr