I've recently switched from a paper Scotrail season ticket to a Scotrail Smartcard season ticket. This allows me to take advantage of the new Seasons Loyalty Discount fares for off-peak tickets. So far I've been buying the tickets online as I can't find the fares on ticket machines. Does anyone know if the tickets can be bought in the ticket offices?
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Scotrail Seasons Loyalty Discount
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The website says machine or online and I've not seen anything that looks like a validator at ticket office windows when I've used them. So I suspect not.
Does it have validators?
Platform validators only. Does the collect from window option not operate in the same way as TOD in that I just turn up with a reference number and debit/credit card?
As I understand it, the online purchase option does not do any sort of validity check and simply treats the seasons loyalty discount as a railcard option. I.e the validity is only confirmed on the train when I present my smart card with a ticket loaded.
You can collect Smartcard tickets bought online at the validator, according to the Scotrail website. I don't think you can collect them at the ticket window.
Sorry - yes smart card tickets can be collected at the platform validators only.
In the original post, I thought he/she was interested in the Seasons Loyalty discount on tickets bought for other ScotRail destinations. i.e my smart card season ticket is valid from Croftfoot to Glasgow, but today I'm travelling to Williamwood, so I get a third off the cost of the off peak return from Mount Florida to Williamwood.
These tickets are only available as paper tickets as point to point smart card ticketing is only on certain routes (eg GLQ to EDB).
I asked at my local ticket office today and was told that they can't sell the discounted tickets from there, but if I purchase a ticket online and select the seasons loyalty discount then she can issue in the same way as a normal TOD ticket.
In the original post, I thought he/she was interested in the Seasons Loyalty discount on tickets bought for other ScotRail destinations. i.e my smart card season ticket is valid from Croftfoot to Glasgow, but today I'm travelling to Williamwood, so I get a third off the cost of the off peak return from Mount Florida to Williamwood.
These tickets are only available as paper tickets as point to point smart card ticketing is only on certain routes (eg GLQ to EDB).
I asked at my local ticket office today and was told that they can't sell the discounted tickets from there, but if I purchase a ticket online and select the seasons loyalty discount then she can issue in the same way as a normal TOD ticket.
Ah, sorry - I misunderstood you there.
Sounds like you have found a solution there, thanks for doing the legwork.
That's the way I've been buying seasons loyalty fare tickets so far, it's just a bit less convenient than buying a ticket straight from the machine. I've written to Scotrail to ask if they can make the fares available on the machines, will report back when I hear back from them.
How did you get your season ticket onto your smartcard ? I've been trying for weeks to get them to load my annual paper season ticket onto it without success.
The smartcard telephone team sound pleasant and helpful, but keep telling me to email customer relations, who never respond.
I have this wonderful shiny smartcard in my wallet that is still unused, and has been since I got it. Am I missing something ?
The smartcard telephone team sound pleasant and helpful, but keep telling me to email customer relations, who never respond.
I have this wonderful shiny smartcard in my wallet that is still unused, and has been since I got it. Am I missing something ?
I know you can load a new season onto the smart card, but no idea how to transfer one. You'd probably have to send it off as I don't think station staff can do it.
Just to update everyone, I've head back from Scotrail customer services to say:
Thank you for contacting me regarding your smartcard and the discounts.
At the moment there is no confirmation or time confirmed for smartcard tickets to be purchased at a ticket office or ticket vending machine however this will likely change once we have rolled the service across the entire network to encourage more people to use smartcards.
I'm sorry I am unable to provide a definitive answer at this time.
It slightly misses the point that the seasons loyalty fares can be issued as paper tickets (as long as the season ticket is a smartcard one), but I guess if ticket offices can't check smartcards then they can't verify that it's valid to issue you with a discounted paper ticket. It doesn't explain why ticket machines can't do this, other than they haven't been set up to do this yet. Still, I shouldn't complain, it's one of the better rewards they've given season ticket holders, even if I do miss the free first class upgrades First used to give us at weekends.
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