Nicholas wrote:

On 8 Oct 2006 10:14:02 -0700, "Mizter T" wrote:

Nicholas wrote:
I should just add that I've finally received written confirmation from
London Underground that Gold Card holders are entitled to buy
discounted Day Travelcards (from LU ticket offices) for use
themselves. Which is something that has always been the case but
unfortunatly the LU ticket office staff don't all seem to be aware of,
for example insisting to me that I could only buy them for people
travelling with me!

Well done for doing that - is it an email/letter from TfL/LU? Perhaps
you might like to copy and paste it here so if people ask about this in
the future they can find/be referred back to the official answer.

It's a letter. I originally wrote last December and was told
(incorrectly) that I could NOT buy a discounted Day Travelcard for
myself. I then wrote back attaching the relavant page of the ATOC
fares manual and a print out of the page with the Gold Card benefits
mentioned in this thread. The reply from the Customer Service Centre
stated:

"I have just double checked the position and as per the papers you
provided, you can buy a discounted Zones 1-6 Off-Peak Travelcards, as
well, at the same rate as any adults you might be helping, i.e. at the
current rate of £4.80. " [apologies for the error in previous
letter]...


Hmm. It looks like the original erroneous letter you received from them
has just been dismissed as a foul up in LU's customer services
department. I don't know wherther your original letter spoke of your
past problems buying a discounted Day Travelcard from LU ticket
office(s), but that extract doesn't sound like anything would be done
to disseminate the correct information to LU ticket offices staff -
perhaps the rest of the letter does say something like that.

...then depending upon what zones your Gold Card Travelcard covers in
many cases it'll be cheaper to just use your Oyster card to cover the
excess fare. Example below...

Indeed, thanks. I actually have a paper National Rail issued Zone 2
only Annual Travelcard which morphed itself into Zones 2&3 at no
extra charge when I got the South West Trains ticket office to replace
it as the print had faded out! Presumably they could no longer issue a
Zone 2 only as the option doesn't exist anymore. Anyway, can't
complain as I now have an extra zone to play with.

Nicholas


Nice! An extra zone for free is not to be sniffed at.

Anyone buying an annual bus pass would of course do well to buy a Gold
Card Travelcard (at a cost of £560 as opposed to £540) - not only
would they get two zones of rail & Tube travel but they'd get the Gold
Card benefits as well. Given that a Network Railcard costs £20 and the
Gold Card discounts are better (same level of discount but no minimum
fare, plus £3 first class upgrades, plus some TOCs offer more benefits
on top of that), the extra £20 is well worth it - and of course you
can get a Network Railcard for a partner/friend/member of the
family/anyone you want for £1 as well.

And of course if you buy it loaded on Oyster from TfL and use the Tube
or DLR you automatically combine your Travelcard's zones of validity
with Pay-as-you-go so you pay less for journeys out of your Travelcards
validity - e.g. a daytime journey from zone 3 to zone 1 that would cost
£2.50 using pure PAYG (paying for all three zones) costs £1.50 using
Travelcard & PAYG combined (paying for zone 1 - zones 2&3 covered by
the Travelcard). Small amounts maybe but they all add up over time.

All that said I don't know how many people buy annual bus passes - I'd
imagine it wasn't a great number. Nonthess those regularly buying
monthly Travelcards would be wise to consider upgrading to the annual
Gold Card for it's benefits.