Buying a complex combination of ticket daily?

[Mrdini]

Hullo,

I have both a Freedom Pass & a Disabled Persons Railcard, and will be travelling thru' London on Thameslink daily in the new year during peak hour for a few weeks (St Albans (SAC) to Crawley (CRW)).

This means a complicated set of tickets which is frankly a bit of a pain to buy on most booking sites. As a result, I thought I'd come on here and ask if anyone knows a good way to buy these tickets in bulk? Doing this on most booking engines like Red Spotted Hanky would frankly take ages!

1x SAC-ELS return
1x ELS-WHP single (Freedom Pass not valid on this stretch during AM peak)
1x Coulsdon South-CRW return

Actually, while researching this post, it appears that Freedom Passes are not valid south of London Bridge (& E&C) during peak apparently! So that potentially brings the total number of daily tickets up to four tickets daily!

Thanks in advance for any ideas on purchasing or a better/cheaper combination...

EDIT: I'm aware that RSH & similar will remember a particular ticket/route but that only lessens the pain a little...

 

[maniacmartin]

You say that

Freedom Passes are not valid south of London Bridge (& E&C) during peak

yet you've added a ticket from Elstree and Borehamwood to West Hampstead Thameslink for the morning - which is north of London Bridge. I'm confused!

Regarding bulk buying, I'd use East Coast, adding all of the leg 1s then all of the leg 2s etc in turn to the basket

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Find a quiet time to visit a station ticket office and go along with a list of exactly what you want and a method of payment......

 

[bb21]

yet you've added a ticket from Elstree and Borehamwood to West Hampstead Thameslink for the morning - which is north of London Bridge. I'm confused!

Yes, because he's travelling from St Albans southbound through the core in the morning, so require a ticket for that section, but not in the return leg as it is off-peak.

 

[Mrdini]

I might go to the ticket office - might be easier... (Was hoping for an automated way to do it online though )

Was busy pricing out an example journey for Thurs 2nd Jan, & wanted to check if there wasn't a better way to do this.... (All the below with disabled railcard)
1x SAC-ELS return - £6.40
1x ELS-WHP single - £2.90
1x Elephant & Castle - Coulson South (CDS) single - £2.90
1x CDS - CRW return - £8.05
£20.25 total
Is Elephant & Castle - CDS valid on Thameslink, or do I have to purchase a ticket from London Bridge? (London Bridge-CDS is £4.35)

Saying that...
1x SAC-CRW return - £22.75 which isn't too bad but adds up over weeks.
It's a shame I can't use a disabled railcard with season tickets otherwise this WOULD be the easiest & cheaper option....

Thanks in advance!

 

[34D]

If you have recently moved out of London to St Albans, please be aware that you need to surrender your freedom pass and apply for an ENCTS card from Hertfordshire.

Continuing to use a freedom pass you aren't entitled to is fraud. I'm not saying this applies to you, just for anyone reading this thread later.

 

[Mrdini]

Indeed - I'm aware of this, but as I said, this is for a few weeks. As long as permanent residency is still in London...

In any event, this is an immaterial point given I've been doing further searches and it turns out that a regular (i.e. no railcards whatsoever) weekly season ticket between SAC-CRW is £90.60 - which works out at £18.12 for 5 working days. So looks like there's no need with convoluted ticketing - just buy a regular season ticket & call it a day.

Thanks all for the advice!

 

[soil]

Continuing to use a freedom pass you aren't entitled to is fraud.

I'm not sure that that is true.

http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/freedompass/howto/conditions.htm

Provided you satisfied the original eligibility criteria, I do not see how continuing to use the pass following a change of circumstances could possibly be described as fraud.

 

[Be3G]

Find a quiet time to visit a station ticket office and go along with a list of exactly what you want and a method of payment......

…and be met with derision by the ticket clerk who, I quote, snidely remarks that you're “teaching your grandmother to suck eggs”.

 

[IanD]

I'm not sure that that is true.

http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/freedompass/howto/conditions.htm

Provided you satisfied the original eligibility criteria, I do not see how continuing to use the pass following a change of circumstances could possibly be described as fraud.

Except that condition 7 states that you must return it if you move out of the eligibility area.

 

[soil]

Except that condition 7 states that you must return it if you move out of the eligibility area.

It also says you must return it if you are no longer using it, whatever that means.

No part of that would appear to constitute fraud.

 

[cjp]

I'm not sure that that is true.

http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/freedompass/howto/conditions.htm

Provided you satisfied the original eligibility criteria, I do not see how continuing to use the pass following a change of circumstances could possibly be described as fraud.

The conditions also state

Freedom Pass data will be provided to the Audit Commission for the National Fraud Initiative and will be used for cross-system and cross authority comparison for the prevention and detection of fraud.

which I am not saying is a bad thing but just another indicator of how our personal lives are being tracked by the government's computers.
And yes my paranoia is showing which is why I tend to use cash rather than cards - as is being discussed in another thread

 

[hairyhandedfool]

…and be met with derision by the ticket clerk who, I quote, snidely remarks that you're “teaching your grandmother to suck eggs”.

That's not been my experience and I would hope that any person buying a ticket from me would not feel that way (it's not intentional if they do).

 

[Mr Spock]

I'm not sure that that is true.

http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/freedompass/howto/conditions.htm

Provided you satisfied the original eligibility criteria, I do not see how continuing to use the pass following a change of circumstances could possibly be described as fraud.

If you are using a pass when not entitled to then that must surely be called fraud.

 

[Be3G]

That's not been my experience and I would hope that any person buying a ticket from me would not feel that way (it's not intentional if they do).

Of course, the comment wasn't a reflection on you. Just an observation that, based on my own experience of producing a list of desired tickets to a clerk, it may be more trouble than it's worth!

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Of course, the comment wasn't a reflection on you....

I realise that, I didn't mean to give the impression that I though you were aiming at anyone specifically.

....Just an observation that, based on my own experience of producing a list of desired tickets to a clerk, it may be more trouble than it's worth!

Which is a fair comment and I realise that is what you meant but I didn't think you quite said that, if you know what I mean. Anyway, all understood now I hope.

 

[island]

Of course, the comment wasn't a reflection on you. Just an observation that, based on my own experience of producing a list of desired tickets to a clerk, it may be more trouble than it's worth!

Likewise. I have at least twice taken such a list to a Southeastern booking office. Once the clerk asked for all of the tickets to be asked for verbally one at a time, and another time he read the list but issued a different set of tickets covering the same journeys.