In message , at 17:03:34 on Mon, 30 Mar
2015, Mizter T remarked:

After all Ryanair offering me a transfer to central London are not
doing it out of the goodness of their heart,

They'll be getting a commission, but not necessarily any more than an
agent at the airport who also has to fund extra staff and premises.

The agent at the airport in the case of Stansted Express is StEx itself
- they've a counter after customs for arrivals.

StEx is just a brand of Abellio GA. Are you sure this is an AGA sales
office, and not some sort of travel agent?
--
Roland Perry

On 30/03/2015 17:14, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 17:03:34 on Mon, 30 Mar
2015, Mizter T remarked:

After all Ryanair offering me a transfer to central London are not
doing it out of the goodness of their heart,

They'll be getting a commission, but not necessarily any more than an
agent at the airport who also has to fund extra staff and premises.

The agent at the airport in the case of Stansted Express is StEx
itself - they've a counter after customs for arrivals.

StEx is just a brand of Abellio GA. Are you sure this is an AGA sales
office, and not some sort of travel agent?

Almost certain, yes.

See:
https://www.stanstedexpress.com/about-us/latest-news/2013/01/25/buy-stansted-express-tickets-at-the-airport

They didn't inherit a sales desk from the previous operator, National
Express, because NX sold both coach and rail tickets from the same sales
counter in the arrivals hall. I've got an NX coach ticket printed on NR
stock somewhere as a result, for that's how this desk did it.

Do you remember Neil Williams asking FCC about their sales desk at Luton
Airport, and getting a response from an FCC CS rep saying they knew
nothing about it - of course it turned out that CS department simply
weren't clued up about it and it was an FCC operation after all!

On 30/03/2015 11:57, Clive Page wrote:
[...]
Indeed. Also: what about instructions for the DLR, the Tramlink,
riverboats, national rail services, on all of which (in defined areas)
you can use an Oyster card (and maybe a contactless one, for all I
know). [...]

Re contactless - yes to all the above except riverboats. Maybe they
accept contactless in their own right (i.e. as a retailer) but it's not
part of the TfL contactless acceptance.

Two other exceptions are the cable car and the heritage Routemasters
(the conductors' kit doesn't do it).

FWIW Southern are actively promoting contactless for travel in the
London zones now. They always were a bit ahead of the curve on such
things, being an Oyster PAYG proponent back in ye day.

On 29/03/2015 18:26, Mizter T wrote:

On 29/03/2015 16:46, wrote:
[...]
Last time I had to wait for one of the party to use a King's Cross
ticket office it was because he needed to buy a priv ticket. How will
that work without a ticket office?

I *think* priv fares will be on the hidden menu on ticket machines,
accessible only by the roving staff.

I think wrong, evidently! See Paul C's reply - paper priv fares are no more.

On 30/03/2015 11:13, Roland Perry wrote:

Indeed; even the TfL website isn't sure exactly which foreign or prepay
contactless cards they accept.

Isn't that just posterior covering? Most cards will work, but if they
said "all", then someone would one day turn up with a People's Republic
of Donbass bank card which isn't even recognised by the goat sellers of
the Donbass People's Republic, never mind anywhere else.



--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

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.

On Mon, 30 Mar 2015 16:35:58 +0100, Mizter T
wrote:

I haven't come across an issue with UK cards in Paris (either RATP or
SNCF machines). They don't take notes though.

RATP *used* to be trouble IMX, but now that everyone has an EMV card
they are fine. Just as well, as without any complaint on here (well,
I suppose this isn't uk.transport.paris) they have closed all/most of
their ticket offices as well, as have Barcelona and Madrid. (Not
forgetting all those networks where you have to go to the top of a
mountain on the Solstice to get the smart card that is then
rechargeable in millions of outlets.)

Richard.

In message , at
18:57:41 on Mon, 30 Mar 2015, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
Indeed; even the TfL website isn't sure exactly which foreign or prepay
contactless cards they accept.

Isn't that just posterior covering? Most cards will work, but if they
said "all", then someone would one day turn up with a People's Republic
of Donbass bank card which isn't even recognised by the goat sellers of
the Donbass People's Republic, never mind anywhere else.

Have you actually looked at what they say?
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 17:39:58 on Mon, 30 Mar
2015, Mizter T remarked:
The agent at the airport in the case of Stansted Express is StEx
itself - they've a counter after customs for arrivals.

StEx is just a brand of Abellio GA. Are you sure this is an AGA sales
office, and not some sort of travel agent?

Almost certain, yes.

See:
https://www.stanstedexpress.com/about-us/latest-news/2013/01/25/buy-stansted-express-tickets-at-the-airport

There's nothing in that announcement which persuades me it's an
AGA-staffed operation.
--
Roland Perry

On 30/03/2015 20:48, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
18:57:41 on Mon, 30 Mar 2015, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
Indeed; even the TfL website isn't sure exactly which foreign or prepay
contactless cards they accept.

Isn't that just posterior covering? Most cards will work, but if they
said "all", then someone would one day turn up with a People's
Republic of Donbass bank card which isn't even recognised by the goat
sellers of the Donbass People's Republic, never mind anywhere else.

Have you actually looked at what they say?

Yes. I rather suspect it is isn't realistic to cover every possibility
currently out there in the wild, so "nearly all" is a safe bet; the best
is the enemy of the good, 80:20 and all that.

Not bothering with contactless because someone might have an obscure
(for London) card would seem silly - did ticket machines ever take
Canadian dollars or Aruban florins anyway?

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK