The only way I could see the flex continuing is as a standalone supplement to the advance fare. You get something like a flex voucher which you can show alongside your ticket if you get another train. Similar to how TPE manage their Airport Advance by simply endorsing the original ticket, none of this online rebooking nonsense.
I usually go for whatever is cheapest, generally it ends up being some form of ticket, either an underground zonal or cross London for me.I often do that anyway. It's more convenient than faffing with paper tickets. I only don't do it when it's unduly expensive to do so.
Now Trainline does splits the idea of needing to use them is no longer a significant issue, given that the vast majority of tickets are sold on Trainline (and all other good retailers do splits too, plus some ropey ones).
Ironic, as TfL are the reason a lot of paper tickets are still in circulation.
My idea was more that I’m sure a retailer could if they wanted work out the cost of using contactless for the cross London validity and display a warning if it would be cheaper.
It seems it will be possible to get one with a Maltese cross from Finsbury Park.
No, I've seen this before. Indeed, if you look at LNER's booking site for today, there are no flex fares available from Newcastle to King's Cross on the last three LNERs of the day. Last one is the 18:29.
Given each TOC has it's own booking horizons, own quotas etc and given the proliferation of so-called "reserveable" connecting services, there is no way this sort of issue will realistically be sorted.
While I'm sure there are ways to improve the website further, I do think trainsplit is one of the best interfaces available currently. Personally, my preferred ones are MixingDeck and Trainsplit, both have their strengths, but I would say trainsplit is more suitable if you aren't particularly knowledgeable on ticketing matters, yet offers advanced options to use if you are. MixingDeck is good at making clear what ticket options exist, and the differences between them, but is probably slightly confusing if you don't know about them already.
I'm not saying splitting is a bad thing, I don't think it is, especially not in the UK where we have sorted out passenger rights properly for split ticketing. Many European operators could learn from that.
Agreed. But the press release says that LNER have worked with the TOCs offering connecting services on this...
It does encourage passengers to split. The thing is, on all the other services the fares to Knebworth and Stevenage are the same, so if GTR had made reservation quota available on the 23:09 between Stevenage and Knebworth then it wouldn't be necessary to split (unless there was a favourble split point elsewhere!)
While with LNER there is often a tier of advances which are LNER only for their point to point flows, which are cheaper than the lowest LNER & Connections fares, in many other cases the connection works out cheaper if part of a through ticket, because you otherwise don't get single leg pricing on the connection, or have to pay an anytime fare.
It is bad news, it is back to looking to see where the first place North of Edinburgh is where I can continue to use the off-peak walk on fares. It is a stupid situation, they change the rules and savvy passengers looks how they can avoid them. When will they get the message that this is not what we (their customers) want? My hunch is this change is purely as a response they feel too many people are trying to get around their fare increase, in the same way as they changes North of the border are.
Well quite, although in this case you can, even if you want flexibility, because splitting will offer you two off-peak singles for pretty much the same price as a flex. Make it make sense, please.
I hadn't realized that was the issue, I was just looking at fares tomorrow and Easy Jet wins on price, but you will need two people traveling to beat the train on price if you need to include the taxi. No advance fare is available at WGC. This is not the first time I have seen this and normally I just split at Stevenage - no problem. However the 0558 WGC - Stevenage is a 8 coach train, which I suspect you could put the entire train load comfortably in 1 coach. So why GTR don't have quota on that train seems a mystery. However if people just split at Stevenage I guess GTR don't care.
It does make me wonder why they keep changing the rules to avoid the work arounds. Most people thing that it is only people like us that go looking for these work-around however it must be a significant number for LNER to make so much effort to close them up. I get the Haymarket and Manors one initially made most of the press. So of course LNER wanted to close them, however the latest round of loophole closures must be showing LNER that passengers don't want this, however that is not the response they want so they must make the data work.
Much more fixed, and EasyJet recently withdrew their flexible fares from general sale...
Well, quite. They're an obviously stupid fare type which make everything more complicated.
In fairness, that's nothing to do with the ownership model and everything to do with the management. They were just as bad under Stagecoach because the same management were there under Stagecoach.
This type of centralised control is entirely a symptom of nationalisation - it could never have been as strongly implemented under the franchise model.
Very true. However if Advanced is all i have on offer then I will go for price, which makes Easy Jet (or Lumo) the winner. Lumo does of course offer a flexible fare but because of the infrequent nature of it service it is of limited value.
Why would they get rid of the man in charge of a successful, profitable, franchise? Regardless of what we think of this fares nonsense the franchise was handed back because Stagecoach would have been in trouble, not because VTEC (as was) was failing.
It will be interesting how far the can go to close these “loopholes”. As we get to bigger stations such as Stirling, Dundee, Falkirk and Glasgow will LNER be able to keep forcing the withdrawal the walk-up fares? Glasgow in particular will be interesting as the West Coast operators may keep its.
