Cambridge to Chester - unable to buy single for return leg

[amsutcliffe]

I'm travelling from Cambridge to Chester on Thursday 5th at 10:15, returning on Monday 9th (when I need some flexibility with regard to timing).

A quick look on the national rail website suggested I could get a £23.50 advance single for the outward journey and a £49.60 off peak single for the return, saving c.£25 on an off peak return.

This is all fine, until I try to buy the tickets on the East Coast website, which refuses to show the £49.60 single. I can find the fare on BRFares, and from what I understand it is valid on the trains I'm looking at (say, 13:35 from Chester) but don't seem to be able to buy it.

What am I doing wrong? Is the ticket valid? Is there another possible set of tickets I should be considering? I hold a network card, but can't imagine that will make a difference here.

Thanks.

 

[bb21]

It is a, what used to be called, Saver Half fare. It cannot be booked on WebTIS engines such as the one used by East Coast.

Try someone different like Virgin or EMT.

 

[amsutcliffe]

Thanks - that's really helpful.

I wish I were more surprised that if I'd just gone to, say, the East Coast website, I would need have known the cheapest option for my needs.

 

[TUC]

It is a, what used to be called, Saver Half fare. It cannot be booked on WebTIS engines such as the one used by East Coast.

Try someone different like Virgin or EMT.

Why would a fare like that not show up on WebTIS engines? Are there others that are similarly affected?

 

[John @ home]

Why would a fare like that not show up on WebTIS engines?

Initially, this fare was invented and set by Virgin and available to be purchased from Virgin only, as part of a return journey only, when bought in the same transaction as a single ticket in the opposite direction.

At a later date, availability was extended to other booking engines which are in the same family, based on thetrainline. Presumably, this followed a commercial agreement between Virgin and thetrainline.

Are there others that are similarly affected?

It is quite common for a special fare to be offered by a train company on its own site only. It's rather uncommon for the availability of a fare to be limited to one family of booking engines.

Note that this is neither a regulated nor a protected fare. The train company, Virgin, decides whether to offer it for sale, what price to charge and, as in this case, by which medium to make it available.

 

[TUC]

I agree that Virgin are free to offer this ticket on any sites they choose. It's just a bit obscure from a passenger viewpoint for them to know not touse WebTIS sites. Passengers might reasonably know 'tobuy ticket x I need to use one of these named retailers'. To expect passengers to know it's non-WebTIS ones and which these are is not reasonable.

 

[Lad Brookes]

I suspect WebTIS might not have the capability of offering the SVH fares only when it is one leg of a return journey- so it would also be offered for single journeys as well, at roughly half the actual price of the Off Peak Single.

 

[kieron]

At a later date, availability was extended to other booking engines which are in the same family, based on thetrainline. Presumably, this followed a commercial agreement between Virgin and thetrainline.

I don't think it is. The tickets are shown as normal tickets on Northern and NRE, so I think the problem is that WebTIS isn't programmed to offer them.

There are plenty of other tickets which on-line retailers can't sell, such as rovers, rangers and PTE tickets. It's just fortunate that they show the same options as one another for most requested journeys.