I don't travel much by rail these days except in London.
I'm completely out of touch with buying train tickets to
places like Birmingham and Bristol. In my day it was all
pretty simple; you just turned up and bought your ticket.
There was the very occasional special offer: a friend and I
went from Euston to Glasgow Central on an early train for
£5.00 day return! That was more than forty years ago! (We
wanted to visit St. Mungo's Cathedral)

There are web sites providing train fare offers but which are
the best ones? Am I correct in assuming that some will offer
less than ideal rates because they receive a commission from
train companies? Do they all work this angle?

All and any informed opinions will be welcome.

In article ,
(Robin9) wrote:

I don't travel much by rail these days except in London.
I'm completely out of touch with buying train tickets to
places like Birmingham and Bristol. In my day it was all
pretty simple; you just turned up and bought your ticket.
There was the very occasional special offer: a friend and I
went from Euston to Glasgow Central on an early train for
£5.00 day return! That was more than forty years ago! (We
wanted to visit St. Mungo's Cathedral)

There are web sites providing train fare offers but which are
the best ones? Am I correct in assuming that some will offer
less than ideal rates because they receive a commission from
train companies? Do they all work this angle?

The general rule of thumb is that the best fares are obtainable on the
relevant Train Operating Company's web site. E.g. I just bought some tickets
for a day trip from Cambridge to Derby next month. The same fares (Advance
are usually but not always the cheapest) were 10% cheaper on the EMT web
site compared to East Coast's which I tend to prefer because it uses the
booking engine I find easiest to use. In the london and South East area it
rarely matters where you book as long as you avoid the ones that charge for
use of credit/debit cards.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 10:10:00
on Fri, 19 Feb 2016, remarked:

There are web sites providing train fare offers but which are
the best ones? Am I correct in assuming that some will offer
less than ideal rates because they receive a commission from
train companies? Do they all work this angle?

The general rule of thumb is that the best fares are obtainable on the
relevant Train Operating Company's web site. E.g. I just bought some tickets
for a day trip from Cambridge to Derby next month. The same fares (Advance
are usually but not always the cheapest) were 10% cheaper on the EMT web
site compared to East Coast's which I tend to prefer because it uses the
booking engine I find easiest to use.

I thought EMT gave a £1 discount, not 10%

To the OP: You'll get pretty much the same fares and availability from
any site, unless the train company has "Web only" fares, which I don't
believe are available London-Bristol.

The two ways to save money on the "appear on the day, possibly during
the rush hour" fares is to look at off-peak fares which are sold for any
qualifying train, or so-called "Advance Purchase"[1] which are only
valid on the one train you specify when booking.

[1] While you can buy all the tickets before you travel, "AP" is the
industry jargon for the ones where you specify in advance exactly which
train you'll be travelling on. They can only be purchased on the day
before travel, and earlier.
--
Roland Perry

On 19/02/2016 16:25, Roland Perry wrote:
[...]
To the OP: You'll get pretty much the same fares and availability from
any site, unless the train company has "Web only" fares, which I don't
believe are available London-Bristol.

The two ways to save money on the "appear on the day, possibly during
the rush hour" fares is to look at off-peak fares which are sold for any
qualifying train, or so-called "Advance Purchase"[1] which are only
valid on the one train you specify when booking.

[1] While you can buy all the tickets before you travel, "AP" is the
industry jargon for the ones where you specify in advance exactly which
train you'll be travelling on. They can only be purchased on the day
before travel, and earlier.


Sorry but no it's no - AP can just as easily be considered an
abbreviation for 'Route: Any Permitted'.

They are called "Advance" tickets, pure and simple - no need to
introduce complexity by using a non-standard abbreviation that you
appear to favour but is by no means industry standard.

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
10:10:00 on Fri, 19 Feb 2016, remarked:

There are web sites providing train fare offers but which are
the best ones? Am I correct in assuming that some will offer
less than ideal rates because they receive a commission from
train companies? Do they all work this angle?

The general rule of thumb is that the best fares are obtainable on the
relevant Train Operating Company's web site. E.g. I just bought some
tickets for a day trip from Cambridge to Derby next month. The same fares
(Advance are usually but not always the cheapest) were 10% cheaper on the
EMT web site compared to East Coast's which I tend to prefer because it
uses the booking engine I find easiest to use.

I thought EMT gave a £1 discount, not 10%

If that means 60p to railcard users you could be right.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 16:39:03 on Fri, 19 Feb
2016, Mizter T remarked:

On 19/02/2016 16:25, Roland Perry wrote:
[...]
To the OP: You'll get pretty much the same fares and availability from
any site, unless the train company has "Web only" fares, which I don't
believe are available London-Bristol.

The two ways to save money on the "appear on the day, possibly during
the rush hour" fares is to look at off-peak fares which are sold for any
qualifying train, or so-called "Advance Purchase"[1] which are only
valid on the one train you specify when booking.

[1] While you can buy all the tickets before you travel, "AP" is the
industry jargon for the ones where you specify in advance exactly which
train you'll be travelling on. They can only be purchased on the day
before travel, and earlier.

Sorry but no it's no - AP can just as easily be considered an
abbreviation for 'Route: Any Permitted'.

That's completely wrong, because it's never abbreviated like that on the
tickets.

They are called "Advance" tickets, pure and simple -

Which can easily be confused with walk-up tickets purchased in advance
of travel.

no need to introduce complexity by using a non-standard abbreviation
that you appear to favour but is by no means industry standard.

http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/L...in/HowtoBuyAP/
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 10:41:28
on Fri, 19 Feb 2016, remarked:

The same fares (Advance are usually but not always the cheapest)
were 10% cheaper on the EMT web site compared to East Coast's which
I tend to prefer because it uses the booking engine I find easiest to use.

I thought EMT gave a £1 discount, not 10%

If that means 60p to railcard users you could be right.

I hadn't thought about whether the £1 discount was before or after the
railcard discount. But it could well be true.
--
Roland Perry

On 19/02/2016 11:17, Robin9 wrote:
I don't travel much by rail these days except in London.
I'm completely out of touch with buying train tickets to
places like Birmingham and Bristol. In my day it was all
pretty simple; you just turned up and bought your ticket.
There was the very occasional special offer: a friend and I
went from Euston to Glasgow Central on an early train for
£5.00 day return! That was more than forty years ago! (We
wanted to visit St. Mungo's Cathedral)

There are web sites providing train fare offers but which are
the best ones? Am I correct in assuming that some will offer
less than ideal rates because they receive a commission from
train companies? Do they all work this angle?

No, you're not correct.

All sites essentially offer the same selection of tickets, but the
booking sites of some train companies offer (small) discounts on Advance
fares (for travel on specified trains), so long as the journey (or most
of it) is on their own trains. Virgin Trains East Coast and East
Midlands Trains do this.

Some train companies also have temporary offers where flexible tickets
for travel on their trains might be reduced.

(The following two paragraphs are probably more info than you need... so
skip to the final paragraph!)

However there are a few ongoing ticket offerings which are only
available from the train company's own booking site - e.g. Virgin Trains
West Coast half-fares (when bought as part of a return journey); or
Virgin Trains East Coast Super Off-Peak Single web-only fare (what a
mouthful!), which must be bought at least a day in advance. Neither of
these ticket offerings have any sort of explanation on their websites!

There are also "Megatrain" tickets, which are only offered on a limited
number of South West Trains, East Midlands Trains and Virgin Trains West
Coast journeys (though apparently not on the latter until the Lamington
Viaduct is fixed). They are only available via the
http://www.megatrain.com website.


(The final paragraph follows!...)

The best approach is to buy your tickets from the booking site of the
train company that you'll be travelling on for all or the majority of
your journey. Do *not* buy from the Trainline or RedSpottedHanky or
other sites that impose booking and credit card fees - there is no need
to pay a booking fee (by doing so are just helping them fund their
all-pervasive advertising!).

On 19/02/2016 17:00, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 16:39:03 on Fri, 19 Feb
2016, Mizter T remarked:

On 19/02/2016 16:25, Roland Perry wrote:
[...]
To the OP: You'll get pretty much the same fares and availability from
any site, unless the train company has "Web only" fares, which I don't
believe are available London-Bristol.

The two ways to save money on the "appear on the day, possibly during
the rush hour" fares is to look at off-peak fares which are sold for any
qualifying train, or so-called "Advance Purchase"[1] which are only
valid on the one train you specify when booking.

[1] While you can buy all the tickets before you travel, "AP" is the
industry jargon for the ones where you specify in advance exactly which
train you'll be travelling on. They can only be purchased on the day
before travel, and earlier.

Sorry but no it's no - AP can just as easily be considered an
abbreviation for 'Route: Any Permitted'.

That's completely wrong, because it's never abbreviated like that on the
tickets.

Just as calling Advance tickets AP is completely wrong, because it's
never abbreviated like that on tickets.


They are called "Advance" tickets, pure and simple -

Which can easily be confused with walk-up tickets purchased in advance
of travel.

As can "Advance purchase" be confused with that. Truth is, "Advance"
tickets is a bad name full stop (whether suffixed by "purchase" or not),
but it's the name the industry chose back in 2008 or whenever and is the
name used in (potential) customer facing communications:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46583.aspx


no need to introduce complexity by using a non-standard abbreviation
that you appear to favour but is by no means industry standard.

http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/L...in/HowtoBuyAP/

Hardly conclusive. They are also referred to as "Advance tickets" on
that page.

In article , (Mizter T) wrote:

*Subject:* Best Web Sites For Rail Fare Bargains
*From:* Mizter T
*Date:* Fri, 19 Feb 2016 17:05:16 +0000

On 19/02/2016 11:17, Robin9 wrote:
I don't travel much by rail these days except in London.
I'm completely out of touch with buying train tickets to
places like Birmingham and Bristol. In my day it was all
pretty simple; you just turned up and bought your ticket.
There was the very occasional special offer: a friend and I
went from Euston to Glasgow Central on an early train for
£5.00 day return! That was more than forty years ago! (We
wanted to visit St. Mungo's Cathedral)

There are web sites providing train fare offers but which are
the best ones? Am I correct in assuming that some will offer
less than ideal rates because they receive a commission from
train companies? Do they all work this angle?

No, you're not correct.

All sites essentially offer the same selection of tickets, but the
booking sites of some train companies offer (small) discounts on
Advance fares (for travel on specified trains), so long as the
journey (or most of it) is on their own trains. Virgin Trains East
Coast and East Midlands Trains do this.

Some train companies also have temporary offers where flexible
tickets for travel on their trains might be reduced.

(The following two paragraphs are probably more info than you need...
so skip to the final paragraph!)

However there are a few ongoing ticket offerings which are only
available from the train company's own booking site - e.g. Virgin
Trains West Coast half-fares (when bought as part of a return
journey); or Virgin Trains East Coast Super Off-Peak Single web-only
fare (what a mouthful!), which must be bought at least a day in
advance. Neither of these ticket offerings have any sort of
explanation on their websites!

There were also GTR school holiday time Web-only Super Off-Peak (or whatever
the actual name was) tickets from Cambridge to London terminals last summer.
Not purchasable any other way. As they have wrecked their ticket-buying web
site and abandoned the excellent Webtis site they inherited from Southern
GOK how this might work next summer.

There are also "Megatrain" tickets, which are only offered on a
limited number of South West Trains, East Midlands Trains and Virgin
Trains West Coast journeys (though apparently not on the latter until
the Lamington Viaduct is fixed). They are only available via the
http://www.megatrain.com website.

Lamington is due to re-open Monday.

(The final paragraph follows!...)

The best approach is to buy your tickets from the booking site of the
train company that you'll be travelling on for all or the majority of
your journey. Do *not* buy from the Trainline or RedSpottedHanky or
other sites that impose booking and credit card fees - there is no
need to pay a booking fee (by doing so are just helping them fund
their all-pervasive advertising!).

Indeed so. That is a more fully spelt out of version of what I said.

--
Colin Rosenstiel