OK, simple question if you have done it before...
If you book and pay for tickets online, via trainlink, how do you get hold of the tickets please?
Can they just be collected at a local station by proving who you are?
Harry Bloomfield expressed precisely :
Sorry that should be
When I purchased tickets recently there was the option to print your own tickets. Previously there was a choice to either have them sent by post, at extra cost, of collect from the starting stations ticket machine.
If collecting make sure you have the card that you used to pay for them with you. The machine will want it...
I have a feeling it might depend on the tickets/line/train company as to whether you can print out (you wouldn't want to print out tickets included a London travelcard anyway for example as they wouldn't go through the machines)
You should be able to choose to collect the tickets from any station with a ticket machine or from a manned ticket office. You need the card you purchased the tickets with - or maybe just booking reference will do.
You use a bank card to buy them and to identify yourself to the annoying platform dalek machine that issues the tickets. The confirmation email gives you a magic code that you have to type in.
If buying in plenty of time they will send them too you by post.
I expect you can get them from a human at the ticket window if the station is manned and the journey is during office hours.
I used to just insert the bank card I'd used to book the ticket, and the tickets popped out, but lately they've also required the reference number.
In message , Chris French writes
Yup, I just looked as I need to purchase some tickets and I wasn't offered the print at home option (Eastcoast and a couple of local trains)
Often worth checking the website of the train company direct as well. Buying the tickets via the Eastcoast website was a little bit cheaper for this journey.
EastCoast website doesn't charge a booking fee.
+1
And if you're going to be picking up the tickets immediately before starting your journey, consider what to do if you find that the machine isn't working.
I found the machine pretty friendly. Couldn't read the tickets but, hey
Actually I think it only wants any bank card with your name on it.
It won't for example take the other card off a joint bank account, but ISTR it will accept a different credit card belonging to you.
BTW Pay by debit card or you incur extra charges over and above £1.50 "processing".
No booking or other charges if you use eastcoast.co.uk Can't remember if they charge postage or not because I pick my tickets up at the station (where I always take the card I paid with - other cards may work but why take other cards?)
Nick
In message , at 09:04:25 on Tue, 14 Oct 2014, S Viemeister remarked:
The requirement for the reference number has been around for many years, except sometimes they don't ask for it and just give you the tickets.
And within the much more recent past some machines only require a card probably with your name[1] coded in the magstripe (which all bank cards do), plus the reference number, and don't require the *exact* same card as you booked with.
Despite much swapping of notes on specialist fora, the exact rule/ geographic pattern/ticket value/machine type/phase of the moon for these different behaviours hasn't been successfully identified. (I've had all three at different times at my local station for example).
[1] I've experimented with several, and this seems to fit my observations.In message , at 10:10:14 on Tue, 14 Oct 2014, Martin Brown remarked:
Sites run by the train companies themselves will have the same tickets available at the same price (and sometimes a little cheaper for their own trains) and I've yet to find one that charged a booking or collection fee.
I grant you that they don't shout "exterminate" very often... (and they are often in a better mood than the ticket office staff)
In message , at 10:20:46 on Tue, 14 Oct 2014, Nick Odell remarked:
It's helpful if you forgot to take the card you booked with, which is sometimes to be found on your desk next to the computer.
Find another machine? There is normally more than one. If that is down I think youa can go to the manned ticket office, assuming there is one. Ticket pickup can be from a remote unmanned station...
This were a phone camera is handy take a shot of non-working machine to show ticket inspector on train.
Cards, simpler to take the one you used to pay rather tha hope A.N.Other one will work. But Don't people carry their cards as a matter of course?
I'm working on a project to streamline travel expenses for my employer, and have learned that apparently (?) you don't need the *actual* card to collect the tickets. Just "a" card to trigger the machine into asking for the booking details (which are the key to the tickets).
It certain how we plan on making bookings for staff who won't have the booking card to hand ....
That's because they don't read the card ...
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.