Yes, but as I mentioned, these are where the savings are significant. This usually means the combined fares (multi-passenger most often) are significant. If I'm booking train tickets for a group of say 10 people, for a charity, and the fares and the savings are in the dozens, or the hundreds, and I can get a cashback offer (10%) to donate back to the charity, that can be quite significant.
I still don't agree with it. If booking through TfW for the cashback, the research should be done on TfW, at their expense. It just isn't fair.
The query on the forum site will cost pennies I assume (happy to be corrected).
Yes, but it all adds up. There are too many people doing this and it could have consequences. Don't be surprised if, at some point, the results aren't as good as cutbacks are made on the number of NRS queries that can be made.
Even if I'm booking just for myself, 10% cashback on a £100 fare is £10, which most people would probably say is non-trivial to their pocket. Combined with a credit card offer it can be higher.
I would book almost 100% with the forum website if the share of savings were capped.
Sadly I have no say on the share of savings fees, but if people don't like it and aren't prepared to put each ticket in their basket on the Trainsplit site and instead book elsewhere, then they really need to be doing their research elsewhere too.
I have no problem with you booking through TfW, but I do ask that you use TfW for the research.
Of course, we can discuss the ways in which the industry might shaft people with 'simpler fares', but I think that's for a different post really.
It's intrinsically linked; the reason that split ticketing sites are cheaper is that shorter distance fares are often cheaper. The 'powers that be' want those fares to increase, to end split ticketing (of course, you can never really end it, but that is their belief!)
I suspect we're on the same page about the ways the industry does try and coerce passengers into paying more through thinly-veiled covers of fixing the broken system.
For what it's worth, I suspect a non-trivial number of people use split ticket sites including the forum site, to determine splits, then book elsewhere for credit card or cashback offers, but won't say it on posts like this.
Yes, and the actions of those people are responsible for Trainsplit to be leached and effectively subsidising other people, and also has the effect of encouraging RDG to make things worse for all of us, sadly (as RDG are keen on punishing retailers that make lots of NRS requests for few actual bookings; it is the retailers who get punished, not the individuals doing it, who get away with it, and profit from their TfW/LNER cashback
).
