https://www.heathrowexpress.com/tickets-deals/prices-fares

Book at least 90, 30 or 7 days in advance for savings of 65%, 50% or 25%
compared to the regular price (i.e. purchased online or from ticket
office or ticket machine).

HEx Advance Tickets are valid for travel at any time of day on the
booked date - for return Advance tickets, the return portion is valid up
to a month after the outward journey.

They are only issued as e-tickets (email to print at home/office) or
m-tickets (mobile/smartphone).

On 9/14/2015 9:12 PM, Mizter T wrote:
https://www.heathrowexpress.com/tickets-deals/prices-fares

Book at least 90, 30 or 7 days in advance for savings of 65%, 50% or 25%
compared to the regular price (i.e. purchased online or from ticket
office or ticket machine).

Great - yet another train service clogged up by people who have the
luxury of planning things in advance.

I've given up counting the number of times I've got on a FGW train at
Paddington on a full price walk up fare to be greeted by a sea of
fluttering reservation tickets that are rarely taken up leaving me
scrabbling to find a seat.

In message , at 08:50:37 on Tue, 15 Sep
2015, Someone Somewhere remarked:

I've given up counting the number of times I've got on a FGW train at
Paddington on a full price walk up fare to be greeted by a sea of
fluttering reservation tickets that are rarely taken up

That's because most online booking sites seduce people into making a
seat reservation for walk-up tickets, and when their plans change
there's no mechanism to cancel the reservation (not that most people
would bother anyway).

leaving me scrabbling to find a seat.

Look at the tickets - they won't all be for journeys starting at
Paddington. Or just grab any seat and be prepared to move if asked.
--
Roland Perry

On 9/15/2015 9:18 AM, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 08:50:37 on Tue, 15 Sep
2015, Someone Somewhere remarked:

I've given up counting the number of times I've got on a FGW train at
Paddington on a full price walk up fare to be greeted by a sea of
fluttering reservation tickets that are rarely taken up

That's because most online booking sites seduce people into making a
seat reservation for walk-up tickets, and when their plans change
there's no mechanism to cancel the reservation (not that most people
would bother anyway).

Indeed - it would be so much better if they charged a token amount for a
seat reservation to make people think about it.


leaving me scrabbling to find a seat.

Look at the tickets - they won't all be for journeys starting at
Paddington. Or just grab any seat and be prepared to move if asked.

Yeah - I know - I just dislike holding up the rampaging hordes of
boarders whilst I squint at each ticket.

It gets even more amusing when they run out of time to put the slips out
- does it become a free for all or is it a lottery if you sit down and
someone turns up and says it's their seat? (on a recent trip it started
as train manager asking people to be nice and do the latter before
rapidly changing his mind and saying the former should be assumed)

In uk.railway Someone Somewhere wrote:
Great - yet another train service clogged up by people who have the
luxury of planning things in advance.

Does HEx ever get 'clogged'?

Seems like a cunning plan to lock people into paying long before they
discover there are better cheaper routes, and to prevent them making the
decision on the day.

At least they don't tie you to a given train. Though 6.99 one-way 90 days
in advance merely brings them into the land of 'sanely expensive'.

Theo

Theo Markettos wrote in
:

In uk.railway Someone Somewhere wrote:
Great - yet another train service clogged up by people who have the
luxury of planning things in advance.

Does HEx ever get 'clogged'?

Seems like a cunning plan to lock people into paying long before they
discover there are better cheaper routes, and to prevent them making
the decision on the day.

At least they don't tie you to a given train. Though 6.99 one-way 90
days in advance merely brings them into the land of 'sanely
expensive'.

Theo

I think it's a bit better than that. The Z1-Heathrow Oyster tube fare is
£5.10 peak or £3.10 off-peak (£2.05 with railcard) and the £6.99 becomes
£5.95 each way if you buy a return. If you have booked flights more than
three months out (I usually do) that's a very tempting proposition, even if
the appeal is somewhat dulled by having to buy another ticket to get from
Paddington to where you actually wanted to go (and, if you are heading
South or East of the Piccadilly line, the time saving isn't that great
either).

David

On 9/15/2015 5:59 PM, Theo Markettos wrote:
In uk.railway Someone Somewhere wrote:
Great - yet another train service clogged up by people who have the
luxury of planning things in advance.

Does HEx ever get 'clogged'?

Yes - it's often close to, if not, standing room only.

Seems like a cunning plan to lock people into paying long before they
discover there are better cheaper routes, and to prevent them making the
decision on the day.

That it might be.

At least they don't tie you to a given train. Though 6.99 one-way 90 days
in advance merely brings them into the land of 'sanely expensive'.

That it might be, but it's such a significant discount that it would be
annoying to rock up and pay the full fare only to get on to find the
train full of smug pensioners who had paid a mere pittance who would
normally go a different route to save money at a cost of time.

What is does do is destroy the case for taking the Heathrow Connect.

On 16/09/2015 07:26, Someone Somewhere wrote:
On 9/15/2015 5:59 PM, Theo Markettos wrote:
In uk.railway Someone Somewhere wrote:
Great - yet another train service clogged up by people who have the
luxury of planning things in advance.

Does HEx ever get 'clogged'?

Yes - it's often close to, if not, standing room only.

Seems like a cunning plan to lock people into paying long before they
discover there are better cheaper routes, and to prevent them making the
decision on the day.

That it might be.

At least they don't tie you to a given train. Though 6.99 one-way 90
days
in advance merely brings them into the land of 'sanely expensive'.

That it might be, but it's such a significant discount that it would be
annoying to rock up and pay the full fare only to get on to find the
train full of smug pensioners who had paid a mere pittance who would
normally go a different route to save money at a cost of time.

What is does do is destroy the case for taking the Heathrow Connect.


Funny that…

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.

In message , at 17:59:43 on Tue,
15 Sep 2015, Theo Markettos
remarked:
Seems like a cunning plan to lock people into paying long before they
discover there are better cheaper routes, and to prevent them making the
decision on the day.

HEx's original business model is to abstract travellers from taxis. It
was never meant to compete with the tube/bus.

At least they don't tie you to a given train. Though 6.99 one-way 90 days
in advance merely brings them into the land of 'sanely expensive'.

But this perhaps marks a change in that business model, and a fairly
sensible one because people buying advance tickets aren't likely to be
from the taxi-using fraternity.
--
Roland Perry

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 10:59:09AM +0100, Someone Somewhere wrote:
On 9/15/2015 9:18 AM, Roland Perry wrote:
That's because most online booking sites seduce people into making a
seat reservation for walk-up tickets, and when their plans change
there's no mechanism to cancel the reservation (not that most people
would bother anyway).
Indeed - it would be so much better if they charged a token amount for a
seat reservation to make people think about it.

If it's only a token amount then most people still won't care.

It gets even more amusing when they run out of time to put the slips out

Virgin's LCD displays above each seat are a great improvement.

--
David Cantrell | Godless Liberal Elitist

Erudite is when you make a classical allusion to a
feather. Kinky is when you use the whole chicken.