Advice on ECML advance fares

[catlover]

Hi

I am looking to travel from Sandy to Aberdeen. It is cheaper to book a through ticket rather than in separate parts on this occasion. I obviously need to change at Peterborough and am looking to book a 1st advance for the whole journey. My first question is do I have to catch the FCC train specified to Peterborough as ideally I would like to get a slightly earlier one to allow more time for my connection (they are giving me 9 mins but I would prefer longer)?

Secondly on the return journey again booking the whole journey as a 1st advance it's telling me to depart the train at Newcastle when I know the train does continue to York and I would prefer to catch my next connection from there! So would this be possible as I would be getting the same train but just further down the line!

Many thanks in advance and sorry for my ignorance!

 

[CallySleeper]

Hi Catlover,

1. Check your tickets before you get on the train. If you have a reservation for the train to PBO and it states 'valid only with ticket X' then you must travel on this train, unless you buy a separate ticket to PBO for an earlier train.

2. You can try and put 'via York' in when you search for the ticket, and the booking engine may then give you the trains you're looking for. Otherwise, if you already have the ticket with its reservations then again you have to stick to the exact connections allocated, or face a penalty (I.e. the ticket becomes invalid if you stay on the train past NCL to York if your reservation on that particular train is only to NCL).

Hope that helps!

 

[GNER 91128]

FCC don't have reservations, but be sure your ticket is valid for the time of day you're travelling.

 

[maniacmartin]

FCC don't have reservations.

Catlover, if the connecting train is unreservable, you will not be issued seat reservations for it. In that case, you can use any appropriate connecting service of your choice. For legs that you are issued reservations on with an Advance ticket, you must, however, stick to the booked train.

 

[jopsuk]

FCC don't have reservations, but be sure your ticket is valid for the time of day you're travelling.

Advance tickets don't come in Anytime or Off-Peak flavours?

 

[maniacmartin]

They don't have a peak, but the connecting trains still have to be "appropriate". So catching a train vastly too early would be dubious

 

[calc7]

Secondly on the return journey again booking the whole journey as a 1st advance it's telling me to depart the train at Newcastle when I know the train does continue to York and I would prefer to catch my next connection from there! So would this be possible as I would be getting the same train but just further down the line!

Can you give the day of the week and departure time? We then may be able to suggest a clever option to put in the "via" box to force a change at York instead of Newcastle.

 

[Ediswan]

FCC don't have reservations

The online booking systems are right ##### for this. Recently, I was looking at tickets from Stevenage to Birmingham International. Advance on Virgin was a lot cheaper, requiring a reservation (London Midland was too slow). The online booking systems were far from clear whether the Stevenage-London leg also required a reservation. I gave up trying to decode the website information and asked the Stevenage gateline staff (before booking). Problem solved. No.

 

[yorkie]

Hi Catlover,

1. Check your tickets before you get on the train. If you have a reservation for the train to PBO and it states 'valid only with ticket X' then you must travel on this train, unless you buy a separate ticket to PBO for an earlier train.

They are all unreservable.

2. You can try and put 'via York' in when you search for the ticket,

All trains go via York, so this will make no difference.

FCC don't have reservations, but be sure your ticket is valid for the time of day you're travelling.

It's an Advance ticket.
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Secondly on the return journey again booking the whole journey as a 1st advance it's telling me to depart the train at Newcastle when I know the train does continue to York and I would prefer to catch my next connection from there!

If you wish to force it onto a train that calls at additional stations, you can use the 'calling at' option under the 'Timetables only' option on the East Coast booking engine.

If you wish to force it onto a train that calls at less stations, then in this case there is no way I know of to achieve that (as all principle East Coast stations are recognised timing points).

 

[catlover]

Thanks everyone for your help.

I tried all sorts of things with the 'via' and for most (including york) it didn't make any difference however for darlington it did and for some reason that option was also cheaper! So I went for it!

Thanks again, and I was only thinking of getting one earlier train from Sandy to Peterborough (i.e the 09.06 rather than the 09.32) so hopefully that won't make any difference!

 

[Searle]

Thanks everyone for your help.

I tried all sorts of things with the 'via' and for most (including york) it didn't make any difference however for darlington it did and for some reason that option was also cheaper! So I went for it!

Thanks again, and I was only thinking of getting one earlier train from Sandy to Peterborough (i.e the 09.06 rather than the 09.32) so hopefully that won't make any difference!

I wouldn't panic if you miss the 09:06, I know from personal experience that changing from the 09:32 to the EC train isn't too difficult at Peterborough, and 9 minutes is generally suitable (hoping your train isn't delayed at all!).