Cheapest Fare at Ticket Office?

[sparky18]

In July 2013, I went to a central London ticket office and explained that I wanted to travel to Luton Airport (LUA) to pick up three friends (one of whom was 15) and for all for of us to travel to East Croydon (ECR). I showed my Annual Zone 1-4 Gold Card.

[I'll abbreviate Zone 4 Boundary to Z4B.]

I was sold the following tickets:
- 1x Anytime Day Single Z4B -> LUA @ £7.85 = £7.85 (inc. Gold d/c)
- 4x Anytime Day Single LUA -> ECR @ £8.75 = £35.00 (groupsave 4)
for a total of £42.85 - all adult tickets.

It's later come to my attention that the following combination of tickets would have been cheaper:
- 1x Adult Return Z4B <-> LUA @ £9.50 = £9.50
- 2x Adult Single LUA -> ECR @ £11.55 = £23.10
- 1x Child Single LUA -> ECR @ 2.00 = £2.00
for a total of £34.60 - all of us taking advantage of my Gold Card Discount.

In addition I would have paid a further £1.80 (for the Z4B->ECR) when I would have touched out at ECR (Zone 5) for a grand total of £36.40.

In other words, It seems like I may have overpaid by £6.45.

Questions:
- would my proposed combination of tickets have been valid. In particular when I'm "extending" my Gold Card Discount to friends/family, do we all have to be travelling on exactly the same ticket, or is it permissible for me to travel on LUA->Z4B whilst they travel on LUA->ECR so long as we're together?

- of course, I can't expect the clerk to check every possible combination of tickets/discounts etc., but I've seen it said elsewhere that the clerks are supposed to offer the "cheapest ticket" - so how much comparing is it reasonable to expect a clerk to do on my behalf before issuing me with the tickets?

Depending on the answers to the above, if I wrote to Southeastern (who issued the tickets), am I likely to get my £6.45 back?

Thanks,
Sparky

 

[dvboy]

The combination you came up with strikes me as the most obvious, so the cashier must have been pretty sure that groupsave would have been cheaper to sell what s/he did.

Certainly nothing to lose by asking Southeastern for the difference.

 

[CyrusWuff]

The one possible flaw in your proposed combination is that you'll be unable to touch in with your Oyster for the Luton Airport - East Croydon leg, which staff guidance says renders you liable to a Penalty Fare if checked on-train between London Bridge and East Croydon. In addition, when you touch out at East Croydon the unstarted journey could well result in your Oyster getting up to £7.20 deducted from it.

 

[bb21]

I think this might fall into the category of "undefined", since your trip is not a conventional single/return. There is nothing I can see that forces a ticket clerk to check the price of all the different permutations. That said, I would think that most would do the calculation for at least a few different possibilities, provided that they are not pressured for time, no queue is building up behind you, and a few other factors.

There may well be a good reason why the combination of tickets you found was not suggested to you. The clerk may not have thought of doing it that way, or, as dvboy has already pointed out, have mistakenly assumed that Groupsave would be cheaper, amongst other possibilities.

By all means get in touch with SouthEastern, just don't be surprised if the outcome is a rejection.

 

[island]

The one possible flaw in your proposed combination is that you'll be unable to touch in with your Oyster for the Luton Airport - East Croydon leg, which staff guidance says renders you liable to a Penalty Fare if checked on-train between London Bridge and East Croydon. In addition, when you touch out at East Croydon the unstarted journey could well result in your Oyster getting up to £7.20 deducted from it.

This. You would have needed a Z4B-ECR single at £1.30 to be covered.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

.... - of course, I can't expect the clerk to check every possible combination of tickets/discounts etc., but I've seen it said elsewhere that the clerks are supposed to offer the "cheapest ticket" - so how much comparing is it reasonable to expect a clerk to do on my behalf before issuing me with the tickets?....

Clerks are supposed to offer the cheapest available through fare that is valid for the journey being made unless you specifically ask for something else. The more complex the enquiry, the more difficult it is to do that. Bear in mind that ticket machines use basic details and clerks are only human, think of it like you looking up your fare on NRES.