The other day I tried to book a journey from Reading to Stirling for a date later this week, using the Lowland sleeper for the outward journey. The ticket I wanted was the Super-off-peak return, route Any Permitted, at £145 -- I think this is the equivalent of the old Saver. However on both the Scotrail website and the First Great Western one, the train I wanted disappeared when I hovered over that fare -- it was only available with the ridiculously expensive 'Off-peak', the even more expensive Anytime, and some sleeper-specific tickets (no cheap ones, unsurprisingly as it was close to the date of travel).
I then tried the Trainline; this came up with the fare I wanted on the train I wanted, and allowed me to select seated accommodation (I presume it would have allowed me to select a sleeping berth had I wished to), but when I tried to make the booking, it said that it couldn't do it due to lack of availability between EUS and EDB (using the 3-letter codes which might puzzle some passengers).
I then went back to FGW and used the 'via' facility to ask for a journey via Glasgow (arriving in Stirling only a few minutes later), and was able to book the ticket without any problem.
Out of curiosity, I've just gone back to the FGW site to see what it's doing now, and I found the same as before, but when I took the 'via' requirement out again, it then offered me the £145 fare via Edinburgh. The Trainline still won't allow bookings at that fare via Glasgow (I didn't try via Edinburgh).
Does anyone know what's going on? I wondered whether there might be a quota for some interavailable fares on the sleepers (if there is, is it documented anywhere in the public domain?), but even if there is (and I'd hope there wasn't), the odd results from the booking sites suggest that it can't be the whole story.
I then tried the Trainline; this came up with the fare I wanted on the train I wanted, and allowed me to select seated accommodation (I presume it would have allowed me to select a sleeping berth had I wished to), but when I tried to make the booking, it said that it couldn't do it due to lack of availability between EUS and EDB (using the 3-letter codes which might puzzle some passengers).
I then went back to FGW and used the 'via' facility to ask for a journey via Glasgow (arriving in Stirling only a few minutes later), and was able to book the ticket without any problem.
Out of curiosity, I've just gone back to the FGW site to see what it's doing now, and I found the same as before, but when I took the 'via' requirement out again, it then offered me the £145 fare via Edinburgh. The Trainline still won't allow bookings at that fare via Glasgow (I didn't try via Edinburgh).
Does anyone know what's going on? I wondered whether there might be a quota for some interavailable fares on the sleepers (if there is, is it documented anywhere in the public domain?), but even if there is (and I'd hope there wasn't), the odd results from the booking sites suggest that it can't be the whole story.