Lower East Coast online discount

[John @ home]

For some years, East Coast has advertised a 10% discount on its lower tiers of Advance tickets, and has actually operated a discount of 11%.

This discount appears to have been lowered. For example, a £56 ticket is now reduced to £50.95, a reduction of 9.02%, and the web site now claims "Online discount is up to 10% off East Coast lowest Advance fares and subject to change".

 

[island]

That's unfortunate. The discount was always advertised at 10% and set at 11% all along because the TISs would round up to the next 5p after discounting, so for example a £11.30 fare with 11% discount comes out at £10.10 but is £10.20 with a 10% discount (10% exactly being £10.17).

 

[Butts]

I've got a Falkirk to York 1st Advanced YP booked on January 6th for travel in February (£18.20) showing 11% discount.

The return single £22.50 showing 9% discount.

At least they offer a discount unlike most others

 

[John @ home]

I've got a Falkirk to York 1st Advanced YP booked on January 6th for travel in February (£18.20) showing 11% discount.

The return single £22.50 showing 9% discount.

Were these booked at the same time?

 

[Butts]

Were these booked at the same time?

Yes - on 6th January one booking reference-out on a Saturday back on a Sunday perhaps this has some relevance?

 

[AlterEgo]

For some years, East Coast has advertised a 10% discount on its lower tiers of Advance tickets, and has actually operated a discount of 11%.

This discount appears to have been lowered. For example, a £56 ticket is now reduced to £50.95, a reduction of 9.02%, and the web site now claims "Online discount is up to 10% off East Coast lowest Advance fares and subject to change".

That's a good spot John.

Anyone got any idea how long this has been (quietly) in effect?

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Anyone got any idea how long this has been (quietly) in effect?

I don't (and I expect that John @ Home's remarkable vigilance and knowledge wouldn't have allowed much time to pass before becoming aware of it!).
So I'd guess its since approx 8th Jan.
As with most if not all of East Coast's reductions in what they offer, they are silent, without forewarning, and, by attrition, amount to a considerable accumulation of changes to the service to passengers and which amount to a nett loss.

[The current EC rumour, so not worth another thread please, is that EC will be 'transferred to a German Company' in September with operational control passing in April 2013. If anyone has any information to sustain a discussion, then out of respect to the OP of this thread, please do start another thread.]

 

[Harlesden]

People seem to be missing two essential words "up to". Rather like a store advertising up to 50% off - a few items may be 50% off but others may only be 25% off. In addition the phrase "subject to change" gives the provider a lot of leeway in terms of either increasing the discount, decreasing the discount or doing away with the discount completely.
It may well be this is taken to be a rise in (Advance) fares by stealth, but there is no deception in how the provider is offering his product.

 

[John @ home]

People seem to be missing two essential words "up to".

No. It was precisely because the web site now says "up to" that I made the initial post. Web archive confirms that previously the EC site said:

10% online discount.

Book online and receive a 10% discount on our lowest Advance fares along the East Coast route.

Terms & Conditions

• The 10% discount is only available online.
• The 10% discount is off East Coast lowest Standard and First Advance Purchase products (available only on lowest Standard and First Advance fares excluding trains arriving into London before 1115 or leaving London before 0929 or 1555-1901 inclusive (Mon-Fri). Lowest fares are on sale on all trains at the weekends).

http://web.archive.org/web/20101224...oast.co.uk/special-offers/10-online-discount/

 

[Dewedin]

This has been in place since before January, I had noticed it but was not aware anything had changed. Some tickets are discounted 9% some 11%.

 

[clagmonster]

I saw an 8% discount in late December (I think the ticket was dated December 27th). I believe it was paid for in late October/early November.

 

[mikeg]

Last time I went to Edinburgh (in November if I remember rightly), one of my advances was discounted by 9% and the other by 11%. One was outward and one was back to Thirsk, can't remember which way 'round it was. 10% discount seems to be the average, or it is rounded up or down.

 

[Butts]

Last time I went to Edinburgh (in November if I remember rightly), one of my advances was discounted by 9% and the other by 11%. One was outward and one was back to Thirsk, can't remember which way 'round it was. 10% discount seems to be the average, or it is rounded up or down.

Same as me then (see above) - I wonder if I had booked them completely seperately whether I would have got 11% on each rather than the 11/9.
It's not much in cash terms but just curious.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

It's not much in cash terms but just curious.

You're right. Its not much - to you or me.

To Easy Coast, its probablly equally trivial. I'd guess (over the year) its somewhere between a measly £100k and an insignificant £1m.

Peanuts, in fact. Or have they stopped providing them now, too?

 

[Butts]

You're right. Its not much - to you or me.

To Easy Coast, its probablly equally trivial. I'd guess (over the year) its somewhere between a measly £100k and an insignificant £1m.

Peanuts, in fact. Or have they stopped providing them now, too?

To be fair as I mentioned before at least they have an online discount to vary unlike Virgin where its zero and zero
And the discount applies to "beggars 1st Class" not just the higher fares.

 

[SS4]

People seem to be missing two essential words "up to". Rather like a store advertising up to 50% off - a few items may be 50% off but others may only be 25% off. In addition the phrase "subject to change" gives the provider a lot of leeway in terms of either increasing the discount, decreasing the discount or doing away with the discount completely.
It may well be this is taken to be a rise in (Advance) fares by stealth, but there is no deception in how the provider is offering his product.

Doesn't the ASA require that a certain percentage of customers get the 10% to advertise it as such?
IIRC the ISPs have been slated for misleading with "up to"

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Doesn't the ASA require that a certain percentage of customers get the 10% to advertise it as such?

This question could perhaps also refer to another of the claims by EC :

Fares from A to B from only £nn
nn,nnn tickets released every week

But in fact, there is no correspondence between these two statements, none at all. Its also often the case that the headline price is, either, only available in one direction, or, the quantity of tickets available in one direction is such a small number that a decimal point might be of assistance in understanding the quota.

 

[John @ home]

On 9 January 2012 in Grand Central/ EC Advance tickets I wrote:

By my calculations, the Advance fares charged for tickets routed EC & Connections are:

100% Public Adult fare.
89% Adult fare bought through East Coast.
66% Public Railcard fare, Group fare bought through East Coast.
59% Railcard fare bought through East Coast.

Although the Railcard fare bought through East Coast is not reduced further if that person is part of a Group, the advantage is that the person counts towards the minimum Group size of 3.

That information is now out of date.

For most EC journeys to/from London, there are 8 different levels of First Class Advance ticket price. Let's call them tier 1 (lowest) to tier 8 (highest). For tickets bought through East Coast without a Railcard discount, the Advance fares charged for tickets routed EC & Connections are now:

100% tier 4 - tier 8
91% tier 2 + tier 3
89% tier 1.

For most EC journeys to/from London, there are 9 different levels of Standard Advance ticket price, and the corresponding information is:

100% tier 7 - tier 9
91% tier 3 - tier 6
89% tier 2.

Tier 1 prices vary between 89% and 91%, seemingly to achieve the headline figure for advertising such as "London - Edinburgh One Way from £16.50".

Journeys not to/from London usually offer tier 1 - tier 6 only.