Oyster card for visitor?
 

Hi All,

I'll be visiting London for a couple of weeks at the end of May and
then again in September. I'll be using a couple of 7 day zone 1-2
travel cards and the zone 6 extension to and from Heathrow on this
trip.

As near as I can figure out, I could just do one transaction and get an
Oyster card with all of that, for 47 GPB and a deposit of 3 GBP. And
the two travel cards will be used sequentially automatically.
And I can do this at Heathrow when I arrive.

And then I can add more capability to the card when I come back.

Is all of this correct?


73, doug

Oyster card for visitor?
 

Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-655-8604 wrote:
Hi All,

I'll be visiting London for a couple of weeks at the end of May and
then again in September. I'll be using a couple of 7 day zone 1-2
travel cards and the zone 6 extension to and from Heathrow on this
trip.

As near as I can figure out, I could just do one transaction and get
an
Oyster card with all of that, for 47 GPB and a deposit of 3 GBP. And
the two travel cards will be used sequentially automatically.
And I can do this at Heathrow when I arrive.

And then I can add more capability to the card when I come back.

Is all of this correct?



Not quite... You have to specify the start date for each travelcard
and can only buy them one month in advance. You could pay the deposit
and for the first 7 day travelcard the first time you come and then buy
another 7 day on it the second time

Oyster card for visitor?
 

"Chris!" writes:

Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-655-8604 wrote:
Hi All,

I'll be visiting London for a couple of weeks at the end of May and
then again in September. I'll be using a couple of 7 day zone 1-2
travel cards and the zone 6 extension to and from Heathrow on this
trip.

As near as I can figure out, I could just do one transaction and get
an
Oyster card with all of that, for 47 GPB and a deposit of 3 GBP. And
the two travel cards will be used sequentially automatically.
And I can do this at Heathrow when I arrive.

And then I can add more capability to the card when I come back.

Is all of this correct?



Not quite... You have to specify the start date for each travelcard
and can only buy them one month in advance. You could pay the deposit
and for the first 7 day travelcard the first time you come and then buy
another 7 day on it the second time

I wasn't clear. The two 7 day travel cards would be consecutive and
for the first trip. I'd just hang on to the card itself, for the
second (and subsequent) trips.

So it sounds as if this would work.

73, doug

Oyster card for visitor?
 

Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-655-8604 wrote:
"Chris!" writes:

Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-655-8604 wrote:
Hi All,

I'll be visiting London for a couple of weeks at the end of May
and
then again in September. I'll be using a couple of 7 day zone
1-2
travel cards and the zone 6 extension to and from Heathrow on
this
trip.

As near as I can figure out, I could just do one transaction and
get
an
Oyster card with all of that, for 47 GPB and a deposit of 3 GBP.
And
the two travel cards will be used sequentially automatically.
And I can do this at Heathrow when I arrive.

And then I can add more capability to the card when I come back.

Is all of this correct?



Not quite... You have to specify the start date for each
travelcard
and can only buy them one month in advance. You could pay the
deposit
and for the first 7 day travelcard the first time you come and then
buy
another 7 day on it the second time

I wasn't clear. The two 7 day travel cards would be consecutive and
for the first trip. I'd just hang on to the card itself, for the
second (and subsequent) trips.

So it sounds as if this would work.

73, doug

Yes it would work, Make sure you put enough 'prepay' on for the
extensions to/from zone 6 when you buy the card.

--
Chris

Oyster card for visitor?
 

"Chris!" writes:

Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-655-8604 wrote:
"Chris!" writes:

Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-655-8604 wrote:
Hi All,

I'll be visiting London for a couple of weeks at the end of May
and
then again in September. I'll be using a couple of 7 day zone
1-2
travel cards and the zone 6 extension to and from Heathrow on
this
trip.

As near as I can figure out, I could just do one transaction and
get
an
Oyster card with all of that, for 47 GPB and a deposit of 3 GBP.
And
the two travel cards will be used sequentially automatically.
And I can do this at Heathrow when I arrive.

And then I can add more capability to the card when I come back.

Is all of this correct?



Not quite... You have to specify the start date for each
travelcard
and can only buy them one month in advance. You could pay the
deposit
and for the first 7 day travelcard the first time you come and then
buy
another 7 day on it the second time

I wasn't clear. The two 7 day travel cards would be consecutive and
for the first trip. I'd just hang on to the card itself, for the
second (and subsequent) trips.

So it sounds as if this would work.

73, doug

Yes it would work, Make sure you put enough 'prepay' on for the
extensions to/from zone 6 when you buy the card.


My perception is that the extensions should be 2.10 GBP each way.
I'll probably get some extra on this trip, though.

73, doug

Oyster card for visitor?
 

Not quite... You have to specify the start date for each travelcard
and can only buy them one month in advance. You could pay the
deposit
and for the first 7 day travelcard the first time you come and then
buy
another 7 day on it the second time

Couldn't the OP do prepay and then let the capping take over, or
wouldNt that work?

Oyster card for visitor?
 

"Joe" writes:

Not quite... You have to specify the start date for each travelcard
and can only buy them one month in advance. You could pay the
deposit
and for the first 7 day travelcard the first time you come and then
buy
another 7 day on it the second time

Couldn't the OP do prepay and then let the capping take over, or
wouldNt that work?

As I understand it, the capping is at the level of a one day
Travelcard. The 7 day is much cheaper per day. I'll keep a log, to
see if prepay would have worked out more cheaply (and it might, since
I walk a lot), but we'll see.

73, doug

Oyster card for visitor?
 

Joe wrote:
Not quite... You have to specify the start date for each
travelcard
and can only buy them one month in advance. You could pay the
deposit
and for the first 7 day travelcard the first time you come and then
buy
another 7 day on it the second time

Couldn't the OP do prepay and then let the capping take over, or
wouldNt that work?

He could but:
a) It would be more expensive (caps at daily rates - not weekly)
b) He wouldn't be able to use it on most national rail services because
prepay with a cap still counts as prepay