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Family from Sandy to Heathrow

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countrygal

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Hello,

I'm taking my family (three adults and two children 11-15) to Heathrow (T5) from Sandy later this month on a Saturday (around 1900). We are returning 2 weeks later.

We have a Friends and Family railcard (and one adult has a disabled railcard and another has a veteran's railcard). I naively thought putting in Sandy to Heathrow would give me the best price. I then tried splitting the tickets at Farringdon (for the Elizabeth Line) or Finsbury Park for the Piccadilly. Finally I thought of a travelcard - confusingly not named travelcard but 'London zones XXX'. A Sandy-London Zones 1-6 (with Friends and Family) brings the cost down to £46.35. It seems cheapest to do this as singles for the later return journey as well. This seems to be the cheapest but I would be very grateful if someone would check my working.

Also, am I correct in thinking this ticket would give us the flexibility of travelling either on the Piccadilly Line via Finsbury Park and on the Elizabeth via Farringdon?
 
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bcarmicle

bcarmicle

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A London Zones 1-6 ticket is not a Travelcard. It is valid for only a single journey on the Tube/DLR (or two in the case of a return). It does not include validity on the Elizabeth Line west of Paddington (such as to Heathrow).

Ah on double checking I think I may have confused London Zones 1-6 with U Zones ticket; the former is indeed a Travelcard with EL validity.
 
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Bletchleyite

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If you aren't set on going by train you may want to investigate taxi/airport transfer services, which would have the bonus of avoiding the cross-London faff.
 
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countrygal

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Bletchleyite said:
If you aren't set on going by train you may want to investigate taxi/airport transfer services, which would have the bonus of avoiding the cross-London faff.
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Thanks Bletchleyite - unfortunately I think that would cost substantially more, especially given our numbers and luggage.
 
Watershed

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Which day of the week are you returning on, 2 weeks later? There are cheaper Super Off-Peak fares to/from Sandy on weekends.

As others have said, a single/return to London Underground Zones 1-6 would only be valid on to Heathrow on the Piccadilly line, and not on the Elizabeth line*. By contrast a London Zones 1-6 Day Travelcard is valid to Heathrow on the Elizabeth line because it allows unlimited travel on (almost) all rail services across London, including National Rail services.

If you had booked at least 30 days in advance then Heathrow Express Advance Discounted tickets might have been worthwhile, since these cost £6.65 each way for adults with a Railcard, and children aged up to 15 travel are free on the Heathrow Express. You can still get these tickets closer to the date but they cost a lot more so it's not worthwhile. Plus it requires two changes rather than just one, coming from Sandy.

In terms of fares, one possible option if you want to use the Elizabeth line would be the following (I'm quoting the adult fares):
  • 2 x £4.30 / £5.10 - Sandy to Hitchin Super Off-Peak or Off-Peak Day Single and vice versa - Super Off-Peak for the outward journey as it's a Saturday, Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak for the return journey depending on whether it's a weekday
  • 2 x £4.90 - Hitchin to Boundary Zone 6 Off-Peak Day Single and vice versa - there are no Super Off-Peak fares for this as it's within the Project Oval contactless area, but paper singles are half of the Day Return so they're cheap for a period return journey
  • 2 x £11.00 - Off-Peak Day Travelcard within London Zones 1-6, for each of the outward and return journeys
This would cost £40.40 per adult if returning on a weekend or £41.20 if returning on a weekday. The child fare each way would be (£1.20 or £1.45) + £1.40 + £3.20, so £11.60 to £11.85 return.

That would make the total for your party of 3 adults and 2 children between £144.40 and £147.30. NB only the one Family Railcard would be needed, since it covers up to 4 adults and 4 children provided at least one of the named cardholders is travelling.

*This is because TfL want to have their cake and eat it in terms of the ticketing on the Elizabeth line - they pretend it is an Underground line between Paddington and Stratford/Abbey Wood, and that you must have an Underground ticket to travel on this section. Yet they (correctly) treat it as a National Rail service for ticketing purposes, once west of Paddington and east of Stratford. The result is that you have to pay a substantial premium to make journeys on it between central London and Heathrow. A nice little earner for TfL...
 
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countrygal

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Watershed said:
Which day of the week are you returning on, 2 weeks later? There are cheaper Super Off-Peak fares to/from Sandy on weekends.

As others have said, a single/return to London Underground Zones 1-6 would only be valid on to Heathrow on the Piccadilly line, and not on the Elizabeth line*. By contrast a London Zones 1-6 Day Travelcard is valid to Heathrow on the Elizabeth line because it allows unlimited travel on (almost) all rail services across London, including National Rail services.

If you had booked at least 30 days in advance then Heathrow Express Advance Discounted tickets might have been worthwhile, since these cost £6.65 each way for adults with a Railcard, and children aged up to 15 travel are free on the Heathrow Express. You can still get these tickets closer to the date but they cost a lot more so it's not worthwhile. Plus it requires two changes rather than just one, coming from Sandy.

In terms of fares, one possible option if you want to use the Elizabeth line would be the following (I'm quoting the adult fares):
  • 2 x £4.30 / £5.10 - Sandy to Hitchin Super Off-Peak or Off-Peak Day Single and vice versa - Super Off-Peak for the outward journey as it's a Saturday, Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak for the return journey depending on whether it's a weekday
  • 2 x £4.90 - Hitchin to Boundary Zone 6 Off-Peak Day Single and vice versa - there are no Super Off-Peak fares for this as it's within the Project Oval contactless area, but paper singles are half of the Day Return so they're cheap for a period return journey
  • 2 x £11.00 - Off-Peak Day Travelcard within London Zones 1-6, for each of the outward and return journeys
This would cost £40.40 per adult if returning on a weekend or £41.20 if returning on a weekday. The child fare each way would be (£1.20 or £1.45) + £1.40 + £3.20, so £11.60 to £11.85 return.

That would make the total for your party of 3 adults and 2 children between £144.40 and £147.30. NB only the one Family Railcard would be needed, since it covers up to 4 adults and 4 children provided at least one of the named cardholders is travelling.

*This is because TfL want to have their cake and eat it in terms of the ticketing on the Elizabeth line - they pretend it is an Underground line between Paddington and Stratford/Abbey Wood, and that you must have an Underground ticket to travel on this section. Yet they (correctly) treat it as a National Rail service for ticketing purposes, once west of Paddington and east of Stratford. The result is that you have to pay a substantial premium to make journeys on it between central London and Heathrow. A nice little earner for TfL...
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Thanks Watershed. If I have understood this correctly, a 'London Zones 1-6' ticket would only be valid as far as Paddington but would be valid on the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow. So that would be the cheapest option at £46.35. The other option, if wanting to use the Elizabeth Line, would be a 'London Travelcard Zones 1-6' which would be £65.50. It does seem that Heathrow tickets are rather confusing!

We are returning on a weekday so it will be commensurately higher for that leg.
 
Watershed

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countrygal said:
Thanks Watershed. If I have understood this correctly, a 'London Zones 1-6' ticket would only be valid as far as Paddington but would be valid on the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow.
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Yes, that would be the validity of a London Underground Zones 1-6 ticket.

countrygal said:
So that would be the cheapest option at £46.35. The other option, if wanting to use the Elizabeth Line, would be a 'London Travelcard Zones 1-6' which would be £65.50.
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As above, you can do it for £41.20 per adult by buying a combination of tickets. It wouldn't change anything about the journey, you'd just have multiple tickets.

countrygal said:
It does seem that Heathrow tickets are rather confusing!
Click to expand...
Yes, they are - effectively a result of TfL trying to maximise revenue and there being three differently priced ways of reaching the airport.
 
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countrygal

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Watershed said:
Yes, that would be the validity of a London Underground Zones 1-6 ticket.


As above, you can do it for £41.20 per adult by buying a combination of tickets. It wouldn't change anything about the journey, you'd just have multiple tickets.


Yes, they are - effectively a result of TfL trying to maximise revenue and there being three differently priced ways of reaching the airport.
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Thank you for your patience Watershed. On the price, I was getting it at £46.35 (1-6 non travelcard) or £65.50 (1-6 travelcard) in total for 3 adults and two children. I used the Thameslink website to price it up which suggested a Groupsave discount (I think no different to using the railcard).
 
Watershed

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countrygal said:
Thank you for your patience Watershed. On the price, I was getting it at £46.35 (1-6 non travelcard) or £65.50 (1-6 travelcard) in total for 3 adults and two children. I used the Thameslink website to price it up which suggested a Groupsave discount (I think no different to using the railcard).
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Yes that would be the cost for a through ticket. As mentioned, splitting saves a lot of money compared to that.
 
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countrygal

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Sorry Watershed, I must be missing something. Isn't the Thameslink through ticket suggestion cheaper at £46.35 (1-6 non travelcard) or £65.50 (1-6 travelcard) in total for 3 adults and two children?
 
Watershed

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countrygal said:
Sorry Watershed, I must be missing something. Isn't the Thameslink through ticket suggestion cheaper at £46.35 (1-6 non travelcard) or £65.50 (1-6 travelcard) in total for 3 adults and two children?
Click to expand...
Can you copy the link to where you are seeing that? I'm seeing prices considerably higher than that.
 
Watershed

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Yes, that looks like a one-way search so you'd need to (slightly more than) double it for the total cost there and back. The prices I quoted above are for there and back.
 
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