Millenium Magic Weekend

[jj151201]

i have read all the info on cheap train tickets, but what I cant seem to find any info on is, why when you initially start looking at prices ie 1 adult, but, then when you change it for 4 adults the price per person shoots right up...this is my example....

We are going from Hull to Cardiff for the Millenium Magic Weekend, (admittedly our prices are not yet up for our weekend, we go 12/2/11)....so what i am doing is (5/2/11) Hull to Manchester Piccadilly £9.50pp or £26.80 for 4 adults 1 child with FFRailcard, so we saved on that one, but then Manchester Piccadilly to Cardiff Central £26.80pp or £152.25 for 4 adults 1 child with FFRailcard, making it £142 for 4 adults and £10.25 for child, or 1 adult £32 with 1 child £16....£48??

We have definately got the cheapest fare from Hull on the saturday and unfortunately we can only travel on the 9:30am from manchester to be in Cardiff in time for our rugby game.
We also have a disabled passenger with wife, an OAP and another adult equalling 9 of us altogether, Im tearing my hair out slightly atm but need to know what Im doing before the dates are released.

Haven't even started looking at the return for the Monday yet

Iam seriously grateful in anticipation for any help or advice offered

PS I realise I am too early for the trains I need, I am just trying to work out the best option, my 12 weeks in advance is next week

 

[button_boxer]

At the very cheapest tier of ticket prices there may well only be one or two tickets per train available in the first place...

 

[John @ home]

Welcome to the forum, jj151201!

Have you considered that Advance tickets for the date you are experimenting with may not yet have been released for Manchester - Cardiff? As I write, the ATW home page states "Advance Purchase tickets are available up until 14th January".

what I cant seem to find any info on is, why when you initially start looking at prices ie 1 adult, but, then when you change it for 4 adults the price per person shoots right up

This can happen where there are only a few Advance tickets available at the lowest price, not enough for all of your party. My experience of this is also with ATW Advance bookings close to the release date. It seems the software is programmed to charge the same price for every Adult in the group.

From Manchester to Cardiff the undiscounted Advance single fares are currently £12, £18, £26 and £32. If there were four remaining tickets available at the lowest level, and you attempted to buy for 4 Adults and 1 Child using an F&F Railcard, needing five tickets, my experience with ATW is that you would not be offered any fares at the £12 level but would instead be offered the least expensive level at which you could all be fitted in.

There is an additional complication which makes it difficult to get the lowest tier of Advance tickets for every member of a group of this size. Some of the quota can be placed in somebody's basket, and may become available again in an hour or two if that person does not complete the transaction. My experience is that this is most likely to happen in the first few hours after the Advance quota for a particular date has been released.

In summary, I don't know of any sequence of actions which guarantees the lowest possible total price for your party. It seems you are tackling the issue logically. Good luck!

 

[Max]

Hi jj151201, if you are looking are willing to sacrifice journey time for price you are definitely best looking at going via Manchester, as some very cheap fares can be had on the Manchester-Cardiff via Shrewsbury route. The cheapest tickets will not be available yet but should be within the next month or so - you just need to keep checking!

Do you have access to a car? As an alternative from Hull, it may be cheapest and most convenient from Hull to drive to Meadowhall (just over an hour on the motorway), park for free at Meadowhall Interchange car park (not the shopping centre - just on the other side of the railway line) and travel from there. The reason I say this is that the fares from Meadowhall are barely any more expensive than from Manchester. Myself and a friend travelled from Sheffield-Cardiff via this route last year and managed to find fares for around £8 per person with railcard discount.

Also, I hope your allegiances are to the West side of the city and not the opposite! :P