Buying a Family + Friends Discounted Adult Ticket without a Child Ticket online

[Puffing Devil]

Problem now solved, but may occur again, so posting for ideas.

I have advanced tickets for one adult and one child with a FF Railcard discount for Saturday from Goostrey to Manchester (+ returns). There was a chance another adult was going to join us and, as advances were still available I tried to grab one online.

Unfortunately, all the online booking engines seem to be too smart and prevent a single adult ticket being sold with the discount unless a child was added to the booking. Good for revenue protection, bad for me.

The alternative is to visit the local booking office in the next town, which opens mornings only and is not always practical given my work arrangements.

Any idea how I can force the transaction online?

 

[MikeWh]

Any idea how I can force the transaction online?

As I understand it, you can't. I guess the website could potentially ask for the booking reference of the earlier transaction, but it seems a lot of effort to go to for a proportionately small requirement. If the original tickets weren't purchased from the same website then there would be no chance. A human can simply verify that the journey is the same and force the unusual party size.

 

[greatkingrat]

I am aware of one website that will sell such a ticket, although I think that is the result of poor programming rather than design. I won't post the details here, but PM me if you want the details.