EMT Advance Fares

[bb21]

Just got an email from EMT advertising "cheap" Advance fares for Easter, for the following "starting from" prices (returns to London St Pancras):

Market Harborough / Kettering / Wellingborough £14
Leicester / Loughborough £28
Derby / Nottingham £30

Trouble is that according to NFM08 Advances from Market Harborough starts from £4 each way, which is what I have always booked, and from Leicester starts at £11 each way. Does this mean that they have gone up in price? Given the fact that NFM08 is supposed to last until May, are EMT allowed to increase price half-way through a fare revision cycle?

(I'm aware that they could just reduce the quota for the lowest prices, but surely to make them completely unavailable would have in some way breached their franchise obligations?)

 

[EM2]

Could it be that those are the cheapest ones left, seeing as there's less than four weeks to go? Some friends have already booked STP-NOT and back for £9 each way.

 

[bnm]

Fairly sure there is nothing in Franchise Agreements that proscribes the availability or otherwise of Advance Purchase tickets. The tickets are unregulated. They are available and priced according to what the TOC thinks the market is and their availability in each price band is based on yield management. If the TOC thinks it can manage demand and/or increase revenue by limiting/removing the availability of Advance fares at a particular price point on a popular date of travel, then it is free to do so. During the Easter period and very likely the following weekend's double bank holiday (for some wedding or other :roll, TOCs will have removed or further limited availability of the cheaper Advance Purchase tickets. Equally they may've already sold out, so they'd fall foul of advertising regulations if they advertised something that was now longer available.

The cheapest Advance fare from Market Harborough to St Pancras is still available at £4 (through EMT only) if you try dates further in advance.

 

[bb21]

Could it be that those are the cheapest ones left, seeing as there's less than four weeks to go? Some friends have already booked STP-NOT and back for £9 each way.

Not that. The promotional material itself says that they are available from £14 return, which gives a fair assumption that the cheapest fare is £7 each way.

If the TOC thinks it can manage demand and/or increase revenue by limiting/removing the availability of Advance fares at a particular price point on a popular date of travel, then it is free to do so. During the Easter period and very likely the following weekend's double bank holiday (for some wedding or other :roll, TOCs will have removed or further limited availability of the cheaper Advance Purchase tickets.

Might explain why then. Just thought that the advertising isn't consistent with what is in the NFM. Thought that they have to at least offer the lowest tier of prices on some trains, even if just one ticket on sale on the last train of the day or something.

 

[island]

They do; if you think they're making it up then you can always go to the ASA.

 

[shinkansen1966]

I tend to ignore any email which begins with something like "with Easter approaching, why not take advantage of North-by-South-East-Central's wide variety of advance purchase fares. With fares as low as £6 between Trumpton and Lands End, you can't go wrong."

I'm looking for ones like "Book between 9 July and 31 March, and get an exclusive 20% off High Speed Go Around advance purchase fares between Prestatyn and Calais."

 

[bnm]

I tend to ignore any email which begins with something like "with Easter approaching, why not take advantage of North-by-South-East-Central's wide variety of advance purchase fares. With fares as low as £6 between Trumpton and Lands End, you can't go wrong."

Oooh. Have you found a cheap ticket to Trumpton?

"Time flies by when you're the driver of a train......."