Thinking about taking my son south in October, Aberdeen to Audley End. Having checked the National Rail site, the best option with a little flexibility seems to be a Super Off Peak Return. I then checked three 'discount' sites, all of which came up with the same ticket at the same price. Am I missing something?
Try 'split ticketing'. If the journey is A -> B -> C check the price if you buy a ticket from A -> B and a ticket from B -> C. The train must stop at B but there's no need to get off and back on again. If it stops at other stations then try the split at those.
I was going to suggest that, but
didn't want to play on that route (or to Stansted) and
seemed to work out about 400 notes ...
You are probably too late to be getting the best bargains since they get snapped up pretty close to the release date which is about three months before the journey. You probably have specific requirements to travel in October that would not be satisified by a journey in November or December but you could play with the ticketing sites around those dates to see what you might hope for next time.
Splitting your ticket sometimes helps too. This site
As with insurance and air travel, check out the price actually offered by the people who provide the cover or the journey. My next flight to Buenos Aires is much cheaper than any of the comparison websites could provide because I bought it direct from the airline on one of their own promotions. Similarly, whoever run the main sections of your rail journey (Scotrail? East Coast? - sorry, I've not booked tickets north of the border before) will be able to offer bigger discounts on the sections of the journey they actually run than on sections run by other train companies.
It's a lot of faffing around in the first place for what may turn out to be modest savings but once you get into the habit of searching this way, you tend to get a "nose" for how to sniff out the best deals.
Nick
It doesn't look like you are missing anything. I just compared nationalrail.co.uk with thetrainline.com. Same prices. Not much of a discount, eh! I have only ever used the National Rail site. IME once some of these add-on companies make money by selling contact details though I cannot say whether that's true of rail ticket companies or not.
FWIW eastcoast.co.uk show ?1 cheaper on one of the fares.
James
News wrote
Be aware that some of the 'cheap' sites charge for postage, which pretty much cancels out the lower price.
Eastcoast don't, and they give loyalty points that can be useful. Same system as trainline.com, but without the fees.
Also, find the site of the carrier who will be the bulk of the journey and look there. They often have better "exclusive" deals. You will need to limit yourself to a particular train for the best price. The more flexible the ticket, the more expensive it'll be.
Firstclass for 4 of us edinbourgh to london for 104 quid was best deal I've had. Included decent hot meal, and unlimited snacks and drinks.
Also, check out railcard options. If any are applicable to you then you can often save more than the railcard cost on a single long journey.
For travel in Oct you are about 2 months late for the best offers though :-) East coast offer alerts for their bits - I set up an alert to let me know when tickets for York were released for Oct and got an email. Booked within a couple of days - 4 of us, return (well, two singles, it's cheaper) from Folkestone to York for 145 quid.
Wife and daughter did Folkestone to cardiff return for 21 quid which is cheaper than a return to london. Although against the terms of the ticket if you stay in london they can't tell (you are allowed to break journey on return leg and you have to transit london :-). Also, Cross london tickets allow travel on HS1 in the southeast without paying the
+HS1 fee (as long as it's not explicitky excluded - unusual). Cross london tickets also include a tube journey. While supposed to be between the two terminus that you are using, they actually work anywhere (within reason!) so can be used to save on a tube fare if breaking journey in London and want to nip to westend for a meal or something. They won't let you back in to the tube though - it really is single use :-)Cashback - you can get a bit (few % a most) cashback from some of the companies via quidco (or similar). Worth remembering if you already use them, but probably not worth signing up for if not.
Finally, keep an eye on the train times once you travel. If it's more than
30 mins late you get money back. Search for delay repay... I was 31 mins late into edinburgh and got half the cash back. Surprising how often you can claim this. Split ticketing (someone else mentioned) is useful at peak times (only pay peak rates on the bit that you are travelling in peak time!) but makes delay repay complicated ;-)Yes, it's stupidly complex but there are really good deals out there. Good luck :-)
Darren
In article , News scribeth thus
Or
Fly Easyjet to Luton or Gatwick (Its a PITA that they don't fly to Stansted!) and get the connecting coach from there to Stansted and a short train or bus trip to Audley end I'd reckon it would prolly be cheaper.
Have you tried this?
With the exception of some train-company-specific offers (like East Coast's 10% off Advance tickets) and add-on fees for postage etc, all train companies and ticket agents like trainline sell the same tickets at the same prices.
Depending on age of son, either a Family or a Two Together railcard may be useful.
Owain
That's assuming Easy's flight isn't late or cancelled, both of which happened to us on a recent trip Lewes to Edinburgh. They could rebook us on a later flight but the train was quicker.
In article , Tim Streater scribeth thus
Unfortunate that then as are the wires down and all the trains backed up etc;!...
Eh?, When we went to Aberdeen last it was around 8 hours to get there by rail.
The plane was an hour back to Luton. OK the coach was around that back to Cambridge but all the same..
Unless you meant that the train was quicker to re-book
In message , snipped-for-privacy@gowanhill.com writes
Thanks for *all* the comments. Bottom line is, I have missed the boat for cheap three months in advance tickets, but will be aware, next time. Would prefer not to book specific trains, preferring a little flexibility, and certainly don't want to be routed via London.
Having said that, with our family rail card, ticket is £130 flexible return for both of us, which is cheaper than petrol, and I avoid driving, which is good news. I hate flying. Not the flying itself, but all the faffing and waiting around. I would possibly be tempted if we could fly Aberdeen to Stansted, but Luton is awful, even without Lorraine Chase. To be fair, Aberdeen airport is great - very laid back compared to those down south.
Nope
the "save 80%" (or whatever) adverts are achieved by selling you a normally available "advanced ticket, not by the company giving you any special discount unavailable any other way
But advanced tickets can run out quickly and unless you buy them 3 months ahead can be totally unavailable - oh, and if your travel planes change you are stuck - the ticket becomes worthless if you can't use it
tim
"Advance" tickets are valid on booked train only.
If you want flexibility then you may as well buy on the day of travel as the fares will be the same.
Owain
In message , at 18:58:16 on Wed, 3 Sep 2014, News remarked:
Slight conflict of interest there - it's only the *in*-flexible tickets which sell out. (and whether they sell out or not is *extremely* route and date specific - long distance mainline tickets on a Friday or Sunday evening the worst, shorter distance regional routes outside the rush hour can still be available the day before travel).
Also, for a very long trip like that it's much less likely that splitting tickets will help. Plus the best place to split is usually where you change train operators, or change from Intercity to regional, or where you can do one part of the trip on day-returns which I assume doesn't apply.
In this case, for Peterborough, a slight saving:
Aberdeen-Peterborough £134.50 Peterborough-Audley End £ 22.50
Versus Aberdeen-Audley End £166.50
Whereas splitting at Edinburgh adds around a tenner to the cost.
No, I mean that by train, we'd be stepping through the door at home sooner if returning to Lewes by train, than by getting a later Easy flight. Yuh gotta remember, all those others who got bumped off our flight, were also competing for later Easy flights. And we were staying at Dalmeny. So a quick train into Waverley, a Travelling Together railcard, and straight onto the next train to Kings X. I think the earliest later flight we could have got was an evening one. You then have to hope there's still a Gatwick-Lewes train available.
Yep,
Though if you want to sit together, or get a table etc. worth booking a bit in advance to give yourself chance of the sort of seat you want.
>
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It may not make the whole difference in this case but plane journey times are often misleading because they count just the flight time. A "one hour" plane journey often takes much longer because travellers have to be at the airport long before the flight.
James
In article , James Harris scribeth thus
Yep but in this case bus from Aberdeen city centre around an hour wait at Dyce airport then fast check in all quite quick in that instance..
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