On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 14:55:41 -0700 (PDT), CJB
wrote:

AND when I go to Luton (or places north of the boundary of zone 6 - the outermost zone covered by my Freedom Pass) I need to purchase a/ an extension from zone 6, and b/ with a Senior Railcard discount. NO machine offers these. I usually get mine from the Blackfriars ThamesLink ticket office without problems. The staff at the ThamesLink ticket office at St.Pancras are useless and frequently sell me the wrong tickets then have to cancel them, and then re-issue what I requested in the first place. Frankly a ticket machine would be better - except they don't offer the extension tickets I need. CJB

Blackfriars is the only station I've found -- so far -- where boundary
zone tickets are available from the machines. The same machines at,
for instance, Farringdon, don't do them. So, many of my travels have
to be via Blackfriars! Indeed, I think two zone boundaries (six
and... four?) are the *only* "tickets from somewhere else" options on
those particular machines, unlike those at other stations.

Richard.