Age restricted advance tickets (without railcard)

[railboy]

I was looking at train fares and split ticketing possibilities and noticed by accident an advance ticket offered by Grand Central from London to York on Friday 25th July on the 1253 departure. Under ticket restrictions it states "only valid for persons aged over 60". Initially I had queried fares with my disabled railcard but when I removed the railcard discount the age restriction remained. The non discounted fare is £37.50

Is this an error or is it more hidden restrictions attached to other advance tickets? How is this restriction marked on tickets and more importantly is it enforced and how? I've tried to upload a screenshot of this but not sure if it will work. I just found this rather unusual as someone aged over 60 is most likely to have a senior railcard.

 

[maxiboy]

This is strange, looking up £37.50 Advance fares KGX->YRK BRFares only shows http://www.brfares.com/#!faredetail?orig=KGX&dest=YRK&rte=406&tkt=GCR which doesn't include any age restriction.

 

[mikeg]

It appears to be an error present on many TOC mobile apps. Once upon a time GC did not do advances but did special senior citizens tickets which did not require a railcard for a discount. I suspect the restriction texts in the app haven't been updated properly since then.

To the best of my knowledge, the GC senior fares ended when they introduced advances. Maybe someone with an old version of the NFM can see whether they have re-used ticket codes or restriction codes and changed the meaning?

 

[CallySleeper]

Looks like a possible website error, if it still thinks the railcard is in the basket - even though the ticket price has not been discounted. There's definitely no age restriction on the standard adult ticket (i.e. no railcards).

What app is that?

 

[mikeg]

Judging by the screenshot it's the CrossCountry app but I could be wrong. The railcard restrictions don't normally appear in that section of the text though on this app.

 

[railboy]

Judging by the screenshot it's the CrossCountry app but I could be wrong. The railcard restrictions don't normally appear in that section of the text though on this app.

This is indeed the cross country app. I've also attached a screenshot of the fare with disabled railcard applied.

If it was an error would someone not have picked it up and had it rectified by now? I wonder how many people would be mislead by this and decided to buy a different ticket on the basis of this statement.

 

[Qwerty133]

Can someone with said app try and apply a 16-25 railcard to this fare, and report on the result please?

 

[ASharpe]

If I recall correctly, in the early days Grand Central didn't do railcard discounts. But still did some discounts.

GC and Crosscountry share a customer services department so if reported then this bug might stand a chance of being fixed.

 

[SamS]

Can someone with said app try and apply a 16-25 railcard to this fare, and report on the result please?

Here you go.

 

[Qwerty133]

Here you go.

So to use that ticket you have to be both aged 16-25 and aged 60+, as it can be discounted by a 16-25 it must be an error, because selling one with 16-25 discount would be beyond stupid if you have to be 60 to use the ticket.

 

[SamS]

So to use that ticket you have to be both aged 16-25 and aged 60+, as it can be discounted by a 16-25 it must be an error, because selling one with 16-25 discount would be beyond stupid if you have to be 60 to use the ticket.

I've tweeted GC To ask them.

I can't find any mention of the restriction in Avantix Traveller.

 

[causton]

So to use that ticket you have to be both aged 16-25 and aged 60+, as it can be discounted by a 16-25 it must be an error, because selling one with 16-25 discount would be beyond stupid if you have to be 60 to use the ticket.

Or just a very mature student

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Looks like a possible website error, if it still thinks the railcard is in the basket - even though the ticket price has not been discounted. There's definitely no age restriction on the standard adult ticket (i.e. no railcards)....

Disabled Railcard has no age limits either

Or just a very mature student

I've seen applications from people in their late 50s, so it does happen!

 

[Paul Kelly]

They do seem to have re-used the ticket type code GCR. farehistory.info shows it as an "ANYTIME SEN R" (presumably SEN = senior?) up to NFM09: http://www.farehistory.info/history/1072/yrk/
farehistory.info doesn't show advance fares so it disappears after that.

Perhaps they have done this because it is cheaper than registering new ticket types for their advance fares? It is confusing though; I guess the CrossCountry app just has the message about the age restriction tied to that particular ticket type code.

 

[SamS]

Grand Central have replied to me on Twitter stating that it's an error and it'll be fixed soon.