Bookings Open, no Advance fares?

[jopsuk]

East Coast have just sent me an email saying bookings are open for up to the 3rd january- they actually appear to be open beyond then- but it seems that currently Advance fares stop at 31st December. Anyone know when Advance fares are likley to go on sale for the start of January? I'd rather hoped the email alert would help in that...

 

[ainsworth74]

They're available for me...

 

[jopsuk]

Ah, I've tracked down the problem- I was looking for Stirling-Cambridge. EMT/XC presumably aren't open for booking yet, so it was only willing to sell me full price tickets with no reservations on part of the journey.

 

[ainsworth74]

That seems logical, it's a problem that I've fallen foul of myself several times before and quite annoying it can be too!

 

[Paul Kelly]

Yes the system is a bit dumb. Even though the advance fares will only be quota-controlled on the East Coast leg of the journey, the booking engine doesn't know that. If any of the trains on your itinerary are marked as reservable (e.g. the Peterborough to Cambridge leg), it has to wait until reservations open for those trains to be sure that the advance fares aren't quota-controlled on those trains.

If you go to a booking office with a knowledgeable clerk it might be possible to buy the ticket, as they should know that a reservation is only required on the East Coast leg of the journey. It probably depends on what TIS they use. If you wanted to try that I'd be very interested to hear how you get on...

 

[bb21]

it has to wait until reservations open for those trains to be sure that the advance fares aren't quota-controlled on those trains.

By which time the cheapest tier on EC might well have sold out

 

[jopsuk]

worked around. Got a ticket Stirling-Stevenage (cheaper than Peterborough for the day/time I wanted- less then £50 in 1st on a Tuesday will do me) and I can then get a single with NSE discount to Cambridge.