Coventry [COV] - Euston [EUS] return for under £30

[pinguini]

I have purchased 2 advance singles for a Coventry-Euston return for £17.15 on Virgin Trains, 'saving £12.81 compared to buying on the day'. How do you get a return ticket on the day for £29.96??? [with 16-25 railcard]

 

[SS4]

See this BR fares page

An SVR is £29.95 with discount (and iirc the railcard easement still applies)


edit: unless of course you meant why the fare isn't rounded to the nearest 5p as it should be in which case it's likely a rounding error (they took 1/3 off the undiscounted fare)

 

[LexyBoy]

I think the calculation is made based on a comparison with the full walk-on fare with the 0.66 railcard multiplier (giving £29.96, thus a saving of £12.81) but before rounding (which gives the correct fare of £29.95, a saving of £12.80).

I don't know how the fares database works in any detail but maybe it just makes the calculation a bit simpler for cases like this where it's not critical to get the number exactly right.

edit: I had assumed you were wondering how you get a fare ending in 96p, since all fares should be multiples of 5p. If you're just asking what the fare is, it's just an Off Peak Return (SVR) which is £29.95 with Railcard discount. Valid on any Virgin service with no time restrictions (the easement mentioned by SS4).

Cheaper still are the London Midland Only fares: Off Peak Return is £18.50, Super Off Peak Return is £13.85. Chiltern offer Via High Wycombe fares as well - obviously these require a change and are more expensive than the LM Only fares.

 

[barrykas]

I have purchased 2 advance singles for a Coventry-Euston return for £17.15 on Virgin Trains, 'saving £12.81 compared to buying on the day'. How do you get a return ticket on the day for £29.96??? [with 16-25 railcard]

That's the exact price of a discounted Off-Peak Return...or it would be if it wasn't rounded to £29.95!

 

[pinguini]

Thank you all for your replies, all really useful info.

I had no idea a walk-up Off Peak Return would only be £29.95! If I hadn't purchased the advance fares, the next cheapest option offered to me online would have been 2xOff Peak Singles at £15 each (a special web only fare, apparently) so totalling £30. A bit naughty it doesn't explain their fares well at all online!

 

[Be3G]

Indeed. And we haven't even started with the possibility of tickets using different train operators/routes, which allow you to get turn-up-and-go return travel for as little as £13.85…

Edit: now realise LexyBoy included mention of them in an edit earlier (after I'd initially read his post).

 

[bb21]

Thank you all for your replies, all really useful info.

I had no idea a walk-up Off Peak Return would only be £29.95! If I hadn't purchased the advance fares, the next cheapest option offered to me online would have been 2xOff Peak Singles at £15 each (a special web only fare, apparently) so totalling £30. A bit naughty it doesn't explain their fares well at all online!

These are actually not the same as the ordinary Off-Peak Singles (£29.30) which you can normally purchase. These are formally called Saver Half, priced at half the price of an Off-Peak Return (formerly Saver Return) and can only be purchased in conjunction with an Advance ticket in the other direction, allowing you to take advantage of the savings offered by the Advance fare. If you combine two of these then you have an Off-Peak Return so nothing to be gained. Saver Half fares cannot be purchased in one direction only on their own.

 

[pinguini]

Oh it's all too confusing

 

[bb21]

Oh it's all too confusing

This is all thanks to "simplification".

 

[pinguini]

The brfares website mentioned a few posts ago is useful, but does it allow you to search for specific dates/times? I don't think I did too bad with £17 return, but there are so many options I didn't know about.

 

[bb21]

The brfares website mentioned a few posts ago is useful, but does it allow you to search for specific dates/times? I don't think I did too bad with £17 return, but there are so many options I didn't know about.

I think £17 is a pretty decent price, if you want to use Virgin services.

Unfortunately BRFares is just a database. To search routeing permissions and Advance fare availability you need to use a booking engine as that is connected to the central reservation system for live information.

Routeing permissions can also be studied through the use of the National Routeing Guide however that is one hell of a document and does not always make sense to everyone.

The Route Via High Wycombe tickets are fairly cheap however the journey can be quite a bit slower between Coventry and London. You will need to get down to Leamington Spa or Banbury using the hourly Bournemouth service and change there for a Chiltern service.

Even cheaper are the London Midland fares however they are the slowest of the three.

 

[LexyBoy]

I think the High Wycombe SVR is more useful to non-Railcard holders.

This is all thanks to "simplification".

No, it would be simple if Virgin went along with the aims of Simplification rather than creating tickets which aren't what they say, and selling you a different ticket to what you select on their website.

 

[bb21]

What can Virgin do though? Saver Half existed before simplification and it doesn't really fit in any of the ticket categories.

Anyway who's fault it is is irrelevant. It was just a bad exercise.

 

[SS4]

What can Virgin do though? Saver Half existed before simplification and it doesn't really fit in any of the ticket categories.

Anyway who's fault it is is irrelevant. It was just a bad exercise.

They could get rid of Saver Half as a stealth rise as per the goal of simplification

 

[tannedfrog]

Let's not complain about the Saver Half though, with which it's easy to undercut the cost of an Off Peak Single when buying on the day, as you would just throw away the return portion.

 

[bnm]

These are formally called Saver Half, priced at half the price of an Off-Peak Return (formerly Saver Return) and can only be purchased in conjunction with an Advance ticket in the other direction

Virgin website will allow you to purchase them in conjunction with an Anytime Single in the other direction as well.

And should that not be 'were formerly called' or 'are informally called'?

 

[kieron]

The Route Via High Wycombe tickets are fairly cheap however the journey can be quite a bit slower between Coventry and London. You will need to get down to Leamington Spa or Banbury using the hourly Bournemouth service and change there for a Chiltern service.

By "need", I take it you mean that it's the quickest route. You could, if you wanted, go via Birmingham, or another less direct route. You'll need to find your own way from Marylebone to Euston, however you do it.

I see nothing wrong with the online-only off-peak single. The fare structure contains some single fares which cost about half as much as a return, and some which cost almost as much as one, and you can't tell which is which just from the name. What does one more matter?

If anything, I'm surprised that the "normal" off-peak single on that route costs so much compared to the return. Who do they expect to buy them?