Club Avanti

[campdave]

Thanks for the clarification on the types of tickets the voucher can be used for, that's really helpful.

Fingers crossed it will work out. I figured tickets may not need to be scanned having been on a train to Euston where my ticket wasn't scanned by the conductor nor did I need to go through barriers.

Should I get near, a case of spending £60-odd on a few tickets to get a first class in return worth more than £300 would be well worth it - using the lounge once is just an added cherry on top.

 

[sh24]

Like all frequent traveller schemes, if you can make it work for you there is good value to be had. Having extracted £700 of value later year - all from travel that would have happened regardless - I'm a happy customer.

 

[Chrism20]

The standard premium return is effectively 2 advance tickets combined, so no problem straddling multiple days. Just note it isn't changeable, cancellable etc.

IME just buying the ticket is enough, but no guarantee.

The rewards ticket can be changed once after booking. It's in the T&Cs and I have done it after booking the wrong outbound but I had to contact them and it was a bit of a faff.

 

[Belperpete]

Should I get near, a case of spending £60-odd on a few tickets to get a first class in return worth more than £300 would be well worth it - using the lounge once is just an added cherry on top.

Although they say that the lounge pass can only be used in conjunction with a ticket, when I used mine all that was necessary was to swipe the voucher code on my phone on the electronic reader, noone asked to see a ticket. But they may have tightened up on that. They have also restricted use of the pass to the lounge at Euston only, so can't be used at any of their other lounges.

I think you may also be able to use the lounge just by scanning your club first class tickets, without using the lounge voucher. The tickets are the same as any other first advance ticket, with the applicable full fare shown on the ticket. The ticket voucher doesn't reduce the face value of the ticket, the way it works is that the voucher code applies a 100% discount when you get to pay. Leaving you to use the lounge pass on another journey made with a standard or premium ticket.

As others have already mentioned, you need to buy your voucher discounted ticket in a separate transaction to any other tickets you may need for the journey. Also, if you have a Railcard, don't specify it in the journey planner when buying your ticket, as the voucher code doesn't seem to work with Railcard discounted tickets. Something I learnt the hard way.

 

[Russel]

Also, if you have a Railcard, don't specify it in the journey planner when buying your ticket, as the voucher code doesn't seem to work with Railcard discounted tickets. Something I learnt the hard way.

Why would you attempt to add a railcard to tickets that are going to be free?

 

[Belperpete]

Why would you attempt to add a railcard to tickets that are going to be free?

You select the Railcard up front in the initial journey search, long before you get to ticket purchase. Someone who has a Railcard will be accustomed to ticking the Railcard box every time they do so.

 

[Russel]

You select the Railcard up front in the initial journey search, long before you get to ticket purchase. Someone who has a Railcard will be accustomed to ticking the Railcard box every time they do so.

Maybe, if you're rushing or something, but it's fairly obvious that if you're booking free tickets there is no need to add a railcard to discount it.

 

[MKB]

Maybe, if you're rushing or something, but it's fairly obvious that if you're booking free tickets there is no need to add a railcard to discount it.

Until you've seen the cash price including your railcard discount, how would you know whether it's a good option for cashing in your freebie?

It's pretty obvious to my mind (as a software designer) that it's a bug to reject a 100% discount code when a railcard has been applied. The 10% off codes do now work with railcards, so they managed to fix that bit.

 

[Russel]

Until you've seen the cash price including your railcard discount, how would you know whether it's a good option for cashing in your freebie?

You can get a rough idea of the price of the railcard discount without adding it.

It's pretty obvious to my mind (as a software designer) that it's a bug to reject a 100% discount code when a railcard has been applied. The 10% off codes do now work with railcards, so they managed to fix that bit.

I agree it's a bug, but I'd suggest the number of people who will be inconvenienced by it will be small and restarting the booking is a 2 minute job, to me it's a bit of a non-issue.

 

[Belperpete]

I agree it's a bug, but I'd suggest the number of people who will be inconvenienced by it will be small and restarting the booking is a 2 minute job, to me it's a bit of a non-issue.

I admit that in the list of problems with this scheme, this is one of the smaller. But I wasted a lot of time trying to use my voucher because of this bug, which is why I felt it worth warning others. Rather than just keep saying "I'm alright Jack."

It would be a non-issue if they told you why your voucher has been rejected. But they don't. They just tell you that it has not been possible to apply it. There is nothing to make you realise that selecting a Railcard back at the very start of the process is what is now causing the problem at the very end of the process. In fact, it leads you to try and book on other trains to see if it can be applied for a different journey. With the same frustrating result.

There have been several previous posters who have also had difficulties in using their vouchers when trying to book tickets in their usual manner. And there is nothing in the instructions or T&C's to help.

 

[Russel]

I admit that in the list of problems with this scheme, this is one of the smaller. But I wasted a lot of time trying to use my voucher because of this bug, which is why I felt it worth warning others. Rather than just keep saying "I'm alright Jack."

It would be a non-issue if they told you why your voucher has been rejected. But they don't. They just tell you that it has not been possible to apply it. There is nothing to make you realise that selecting a Railcard back at the very start of the process is what is now causing the problem at the very end of the process. In fact, it leads you to try and book on other trains to see if it can be applied for a different journey. With the same frustrating result.

There have been several previous posters who have also had difficulties in using their vouchers when trying to book tickets in their usual manner. And there is nothing in the instructions or T&C's to help.

It didn't even cross my mind to add my railcard discount whenever I've booked these free tickets, again I'm not sure this is much of an issue.

Anything to criticise the scheme though.

 

[styles]

Just got this email about Club Avanti:

Coming very soon – your chance to power up your rewards. In our Double Journey Boost, one qualifying journey counts as two when you buy a Standard Premium or First Class ticket. Which means you’ll be able to zoom ahead to the next tier of rewards in half the journeys.

We’ll let you know when it’s live, so keep your eyes peeled. Then just book your Standard Premium or First Class ticket to unlock your Double Journey Boost and get ready to feel like a winner.

The email doesn't say when this will be valid but there's links to add an event to your calendar and it's for 9am-5am 2nd February 2026.

Semi-related - it says 75 miles is required for a qualifying journey; I always thought this was 85 miles but maybe I'm imagining it?

 

[A S Leib]

Semi-related - it says 75 miles is required for a qualifying journey; I always thought this was 85 miles but maybe I'm imagining it?

I'm fairly sure that it's always been 75, but the shortest qualifying journey I remember doing is 90 miles (Carlisle – Preston).

 

[sot]

75 is correct. Milton Keynes to Wolverhampton only just qualifies.

 

[Russel]

75 is correct. Milton Keynes to Wolverhampton only just qualifies.

That's given me an idea, I'm travelling from Crewe to Glasgow next month, I may have to look at splitting the tickets at Carlisle.

 

[sot]

Be careful they only usually pay out 2 maybe 3 tickets per day per account

 

[Breamish]

Have been a Club member for 2 or 3 years now, as I take Glasgow to Preston trains for work a lot - they usually cost about £30 for a return, so the free Standard Premium and First Class tickets which I generally use to go Glasgow to London make it extremely worthwhile.

I forgot I’ve got a free Std Premium ticket which expires at the end of Feb. T&C’s seem to imply that I need to book and make the outbound journey by this time, but the Avanti website seems to accept the code for trains after the expiry date (e.g. end of April) - though I haven’t clicked all the way through to confirming to check.

Anyone got experience with this? Don’t want me free ticket to be wasted but don’t have the time to use it this month.

 

[Huntergreed]

Have been a Club member for 2 or 3 years now, as I take Glasgow to Preston trains for work a lot - they usually cost about £30 for a return, so the free Standard Premium and First Class tickets which I generally use to go Glasgow to London make it extremely worthwhile.

I forgot I’ve got a free Std Premium ticket which expires at the end of Feb. T&C’s seem to imply that I need to book and make the outbound journey by this time, but the Avanti website seems to accept the code for trains after the expiry date (e.g. end of April) - though I haven’t clicked all the way through to confirming to check.

Anyone got experience with this? Don’t want me free ticket to be wasted but don’t have the time to use it this month.

This is permitted. The T’s and C’s online state:

6. Please note the expiry date of the voucher outlined in the welcome/rewards emails. You need to book your travel before that expiry date, you can select any date in the future that’s available at the time of booking.

(https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/tickets-and-savings/club-avanti/redeem) - bullet point 6

As long as you have booked by the expiry date, the ticket is valid

 

[sot]

Second this, done the same.

Once ticket is in hand it is just an advance single or two

 

[Breamish]

This is permitted. The T’s and C’s online state:



(https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/tickets-and-savings/club-avanti/redeem) - bullet point 6

As long as you have booked by the expiry date, the ticket is valid

Second this, done the same.

Once ticket is in hand it is just an advance single or two

This is great news, thank you both for allaying my worry. Will make sure I book something before it expires then!

The T&Cs I read definitely said the journey had to be made before the expiry date, but maybe they were old.

 

[Tezza1978]

I've done well out of Club Avanti last couple of years, just wish you could reclaim the rewards (std premium/1st class) if you repeated the qualification journeys again in the same 12 month period. As it is - I end up now using Uber/Virgin Trains for the points/account credit now that the chunky 10% cashback deals from train tickets on Amex have died a death!

 

[sot]

It.may be against TandCs.but just have a second account to start collecting after your first 9 or 20.

 

[Lewis66655]

Has anyone's Avanti Club 'reset'. When I try and log-in, I am greeted by the 'sign-up to Avanti Club' page

 

[The Prisoner]

It.may be against TandCs.but just have a second account to start collecting after your first 9 or 20.

My other half has an account and as soon as we qualify on mine we move to hers.

It is a nice perk, but I wish they would let you use the SP ticket in standard from Chester and North Wales (SP not offered on the 805s which serve us). Yes I know I can book from Crewe and change, but it's a faff changing at Crewe unnecessarily, going to the expense of buying the ticket (£22 off peak return) and of no use if you want to travel with someone else.

 

[sot]

Has anyone's Avanti Club 'reset'. When I try and log-in, I am greeted by the 'sign-up to Avanti Club' page

I used to get this every time but it was always still running in the back ground

 

[AlterEgo]

It.may be against TandCs.but just have a second account to start collecting after your first 9 or 20.

I wouldn't do this if I were you and if I was doing it I wouldn't be talking about it. LNER busted a lot of customers who did this a couple of years back for this fraud and made them repay everything they defrauded.

Use of discounts/fraud

Hi, I regularly travel with a train company who offer a £5 discount to customers when they download their app and make a new account. I've made a number of email addresses to get this discount, but the company has asked that I pay back a large sum of money (refunding the discounts I've...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[sot]

It isn't two accounts in my name don't worry. I choose to ask my driend to buy my tickets when mine is full and vice versa

 

[MKB]

From a commercial perspective, it seems bizarre that they don't offer any incentive to keep buying your tickets on Avanti journeys over 75 miles once you've done 20.

It's such a poor user interface, I can't imagine anyone using it of choice without some carrot.

 

[sot]

I suspect people buying the absolute cheapest ticket and not travelling on it and doing that over multiple accounts over a year that are obviously just one person will be what they don't want...

Cue the £4 advance being the cheapest!!

 

[A S Leib]

I suspect people buying the absolute cheapest ticket and not travelling on it and doing that over multiple accounts over a year that are obviously just one person will be what they don't want...

Cue the £4 advance being the cheapest!!

Club Avanti has pushed me to doing Newcastle to Lanarkshire and Lancashire journeys via the Tyne Valley rather than York or Edinburgh; the amount I've spent on Carlisle to Glasgow or Preston tickets is far less than what short-notice standard premium Carlisle / Glasgow to Watford return tickets would have been, even if I suspect Avanti would have preferred me to have been paying more. At least in this case, I have been using said cheap tickets.