SWT gold card benefits

[ralphchadkirk]

I have an annual gold card from SWT for travel between Farnham and Alton. I also have a Surrey student card so my gold card is discounted. SWT offer 6 free tickets a year for gold card holders, so am I entitled to this, and where so I get these 6 free tickets from?

 

[Oracle]

I am intrigued as to whether it's an educational season, so the GC benefits do not apply.

This is what the SWT site says:

Annual season tickets are also known as Gold Cards and have some very attractive benefits when you buy from us.

Free travel at weekends – We issue you with 6 one-day tickets allowing unlimited travel on South West Trains at weekends and public holidays.

Dedicated helpline – for renewals, comments or queries relating to your Gold Card, you can call our dedicated team on 0845 607 9999 between 0600 and 2200, 7 days a week. Alternatively, you can e-mail them at: goldservice@swtrains.co.uk

Save 1/3 on Off Peak travel – Gold Cards act like Network Railcards saving you 1/3 on Off Peak fares in the Network Railcard area.

Kids travel for £1 – Up to 4 accompanying children can travel with your for just £1 each

Network Railcard for £1 – Nominate a friend or relative to receive a Network Railcard for just £1 and they too can enjoy discounted off peak travel

£5 First Class Upgrade – Available any time at weekends and public holidays and on weekdays when you buy a discounted off peak rail ticket for your journey.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

The season is an annual gold card, on gold card stock, and is marked child - presumably to apply the discount. Thr ticket that gives the discount is a Surrey county council student fare card - with rail plan settlement on.

I looked on SWTs website and it implied that any gold card was valid, but I'm not sure.

 

[Oracle]

Aha! Different from my son's 'EDU' season then! I would call the number quoted and ask them direct but if it is a Gold Card and not an Educational Season then ask! Also ask if you need to use a Student card/YP Card with the tickets if any are able to be issued.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

I'll give thema ring then and see what they say.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Just rung them and apparently I'm not entitled - only full price seasons are. I might take it up with them as their website does not mention this, and only refers you to conditions of carriage.

 

[Oracle]

I was afraid that that might be the case as you have a 'Lite' version as it were. My son's season is very restricted in its use...no trips into town at weekends permitted and even in holidays!

 

[handsomelife]

As far as I'm aware, season tickets issued with a Surrey educational card aren't supposed to be issued on gold card stock.

Your Surrey education card will expire on 31/08/11 will it not? And I'm assuming your gold card runs later than that...?

 

[ralphchadkirk]

As far as I'm aware, season tickets issued with a Surrey educational card aren't supposed to be issued on gold card stock.

Your Surrey education card will expire on 31/08/11 will it not? And I'm assuming your gold card runs later than that...?

Why do you assume that?

 

[First class]

Has been issued incorrectly I would imagine.

A "child" discount should only be issued if the person using it is indeed a "child".

An edu discount should have been issued with the relevant percentage set to 50%.

Most, (all?) Edu Seasons are valid Monday-Friday for the purposes of getting to and from college/school/establishment and not for any leisure use.

Because of the above, I doubt whether it should have been issued on gold card stock.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Interesting. No RPI or guard has ever mentioned it. The restrictions you talk of for an EDU season were never mentioned - and indeed not on the Surrey Student Fare card's leaflet.

 

[jkdd77]

As far as I can tell, the additional T & Cs, from:
[link broken]
simply state:

3. A Surrey Train Student Fare Card and tickets issued in conjunction with it are subject to the National Rail Conditions of Carriage.

In the absence of any specific restrictions, I see no reason why the season ticket itself, albeit discounted, is not valid for unlimited travel between the relevant stations (including break of journey) as per the NRCOC conditions relating to season tickets.

I suspect the Gold Card benefits are non-contractual, so the OP is most unlikely to be able to "force" SWT to issue the free tickets.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

I'm not trying to force them to issue the benefits (Although it would be nice), but they need to make it clear on their website though that only full-price annuals are eligible.

 

[metromuppet]

I'm not trying to force them to issue the benefits (Although it would be nice), but they need to make it clear on their website though that only full-price annuals are eligible.

if one had a gold card between the ryde stations, is someone still entitled to the 6free journeys a year?

 

[Oracle]

I am sure that it was suggested that you don't as Island Line is a seperate franchise etc. I.e. they wised-up.

 

[MikeWh]

The Island Line site does suggest that similar benefits might apply, although the link to the benefits page is broken. Mind you, at £208, is it still really worthwhile just to get an unrestricted Network Card?

 

[paul1609]

The Ryde season ticket is £132 as is the Newhaven one that people buy for the same reason. It would be easy to save £112 if you have a regular journey of 20 to 30 miles I would suggest.

 

[MikeWh]

The Ryde season ticket is £132 as is the Newhaven one that people buy for the same reason. It would be easy to save £112 if you have a regular journey of 20 to 30 miles I would suggest.

Ah yes, put the wrong Ryde stations in.

 

[Via Bank]

I'll just chip in here...

I hold one of the Surrey student fare cards, and usually get weekly or monthly seasons (from Farnborough to Woking this year, and from Frimley via Ash Vale last year.)

Up until the beginning of this month, when I bought my current ticket, my ticket was always issued as "CHILD." For a brief time last year, it was issued as "CHEDC", and then "CHILD" with the words "SCHOLAR SEASON" at the bottom, before reverting back to simply "CHILD." (This occasionally gave me a bit of trouble with the gateline staff when travelling on weekends - I had to show them the back of the fare card to demonstrate my entitlement.)

My present one is marked "EDUC" with a discount level of 50%. When I bought it, the ticket clerk vanished for a bit and produced a printed e-mail to help him through the issuing process - while I couldn't make out much, I could tell that it was about student fare cards and the fact that chances were, previous tickets would have been issued as "CHILD."

I would hypothesise, therefore, that the change to "EDUC" (on SWT at least) has been the result of a recent edict - I don't think it's down to different behaviour from different ticket clerks (although I'll only know for sure when I come to renew it next month.)

Also, to the OP: how did you manage to get an annual season on the fare card? The rules on the back say all tickets have to expire on or before the date printed on the card.

The way it works in my neck of the woods is that you send off for one, and it is delivered to your school or college for you to pick up on enrolment. Trouble is, the date is always 31 August for the next year, and I get mine in the first half of September - so too late to purchase an annual season (unless there's some system for backdating them that I wasn't aware of?)

 

[handsomelife]

Why do you assume that?

Because you would have had to buy the ticket starting September 1st. As far as I'm aware the Student cards weren't sent out until September anyway.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

This would have seemed to opened up more problems - i've just looked and the dates do differ. No one has ever mentioned it though - and I've been through many a RPI with it!

Guess I'll have to go back to the ticket office and get them to sort it out.

 

[handsomelife]

It's a terrible set up really. I'm a ticket office clerk and had someone come in at the end of September with a Surrey educational card and they wanted to buy a season ticket until the 31st of August (the expiry date of the educational card) and my computer wouldn't let me issue it, it would automatically make it a 12 month ticket because that worked out cheaper than the 11 months they wanted. This then meant the expiry date on the ticket would run on beyond the Educational card expiry date.

Nightmare!