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East Coast 1st Class Advance

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Mulson

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I have been monitoring the release of Advance 1st Class East Coast tickets (Edinburgh to London, Dep Fri - Ret Mon) for a few weeks now and there is a distinct lack of advance ticket fares for the journeys I have been looking at.

We went Thurs-Sun earlier this year and got a great deal and was hoping for something similar but the prices are miles higher than what we paid. Is it the fact we are planning Fri-Mon rather than Thurs-Sun that is the difference?
 
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Haywain

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It could be that, or could be the dates of travel. Without more information from you it is difficult to say.
 

bb21

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Friday is normally a busy time for travels so it is understandable that prices may be higher.
 

Butts

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When you say "miles higher" can you quote a price differential ?

Try Air as an alternative you may be shocked at what you find (in comparison to 1st Class fares) :p
 

yorkie

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Looking at Friday 30 January as an example, Edinburgh-London is £24 in Standard on the following trains:

  • 0800
  • 0830
  • 0930
  • 1030
  • 1130
  • 1230
  • 1330
  • 1400
  • 1430
  • 1530
  • 1630
  • 1700
  • 1731
  • 1830
and is £47.50 in 1st class on the following trains:


  • 0830
  • 0930
  • 1000
  • 1130
  • 1200
  • 1230
  • 1400
  • 1430
  • 1530
  • 1630
  • 1700
  • 1830

These appears to be the lowest tier Standard and lowest tier 1st (with EC online discount, hence the lower price than shown on BRfares).

What price were you paying before, and what time are you planning to travel?

I see your location is Stirlingshire; do you require a ticket from a station other than Edinburgh or do you already have a ticket (such as a Season) or will be driving to Edinburgh?
 

westv

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Some of the EC AP ticket prices are a bit strange at the moment.
When I last looked London to Hull 17:19 Friday in January is £79 or so standard class. More expensive than 1st. One stop further back, Brough, is only £37. In two years of travelling I've rarely, if ever, seen such a difference on that service.
 

Mulson

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Thanks for the replies.

I think I now know what is happening.

I have been checking the ticket prices 12 weeks in advance on redspottedhanky as we can use our Tesco clubcard points (£10 credit for £5 worth of points).

It seems that East Coast are trialling a 24 week advance period on this route, only just found it on their website by chance (which is strange as I am on the mailing list and set up a ticket release alert). Link: - Click Here

Plan nearly half a year ahead

East Coast is now offering Advance tickets for sale a full 24 weeks before departure on two of our most popular routes.


Between Edinburgh-London and Newcastle-London, you can book weekday tickets almost 6 months ahead, instead of the usual 12 weeks. We do this because customers have told us they want to plan further in advance on longer routes.


Many people choose to travel by air on these routes, even though travelling by rail provides far more benefits. So now, whether you’re planning for long-term engagements, gigs and events, or annual commitments; you can enjoy the long term booking benefits of flying, but with the greenness, convenience and money savings that rail travel provides.


We’re trialing this longer booking window until at least March 2015. For the time being it’s only available on these two routes, and excludes trains over the weekend.


That’s because Network Rail’s weekend engineering work is sometimes only confirmed 12 weeks in advance, so we can’t be sure timetables for trains at the weekend won’t be affected until then.


It’s very rare for weekday train times to change, but if that should happen on this kind of Advance booking we will let you know well in advance so you can change or refund your ticket without any fees.


How to Book

You can book Advance Tickets 24 weeks ahead the same as you would normally, only now you can select dates with a range of up to 24 weeks on the two trial routes above. There’s a booking form on this page that you can use to buy tickets, or alternatively you can use the “Buy tickets” button at the top of every page of our website.
(Please note that East Coast reserves the right to stop offering this extended booking horizon at any time.)


So it turns out I can book today for my trip in March for £125.40 (using our twotogether) return 1st Class for me and my wife directly through East Coast. This is from Edinburgh as we have season passes from Polmont to Edinburgh for commuting to work.

I am thinking that for the last few weeks the same thing may have been happening and by the time the tickets are released to redspottedhanky all the advance fares have been sold? May be wrong but that is my theory.
 
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yorkie

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12 weeks is the maximum sensible amount, anything longer than that is a bad idea.

We have a hard enough job getting people to commit to dates 12 weeks in advance in order to get the best deals as it is! It would be impossible to finalise plans in most cases so far in advance.

Their website will only allow certain flows to be booked so far ahead, meaning people booking to/from places like York will lose out as the best deals will have gone.

A bad move!
 

Clip

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Their website will only allow certain flows to be booked so far ahead, meaning people booking to/from places like York will lose out as the best deals will have gone.

A bad move!

Not if all you are interested in in getting as much revenue as you can in before you lose the franchise ;)
 

CallySleeper

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12 weeks is the maximum sensible amount, anything longer than that is a bad idea.

Why? As the article states this is based on passenger feedback and only includes weekdays when as you know the timetable is largely static.

Since it's only a trial I'm sure we'll find out in a few months whether it was a successful move or not, and whether other stations could also benefit from rollout.
 

yorkie

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Why? As the article states this is based on passenger feedback and only includes weekdays when as you know the timetable is largely static.
A lot of people won't know their plans so far in advance. I sometimes get moaned at when I ask people if they know their plans 12 weeks in advance, let alone 24 weeks ;):lol:

It's unfair that trains from Newcastle to London will have already sold out of the lowest tiers before they go on sale to passengers from Durham, Darlington, York and even stations near Newcastle such as Metrocentre!
 

Tetchytyke

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Not if all you are interested in in getting as much revenue as you can in before you lose the franchise ;)

Otherwise known as the "National Express stick a load of £9 seats on peak trains two weeks before you lose the franchise) move ;)
 

Deerfold

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12 weeks is the maximum sensible amount, anything longer than that is a bad idea.

A bad move!

Perhaps for you. I often book advance trains when I've booked tickets to see bands. A big band tour is often announced 6 months in advance. I currently have to book tickets to see the band before they sell out but then have 3 months to wait (or in one case this year with Virgin mucking around with much shorter booking horizons) to see if I can get a reasonably priced advance ticket. NX and air fares are available much further - I've watched these go up as I wait for the advance train fares to come available and wondered if I should have booked those earlier.
 

dcsprior

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Ooh, I hadn't realised this - personally booking this far in advance does suit me, however I can see why there are many people who it wouldn't suit.

One down side is that in order to get the best prices, I'll be buying 17 pairs of advances between one pay day and the next, when I'd normally have bought only 4 - something I'd probably not have chosen to do just before Christmas :)

Interestingly whilst I can buy from Edinburgh -> Kings Cross this far in advance, I can't buy from Edinburgh -> Zone U1245 Londn, which seems odd given that the latter is a zonal ticket so not something where engineering work/etc would need to be checked before selling the ticket.
 

westv

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One down side is that in order to get the best prices, I'll be buying 17 pairs of advances between one pay day and the next, when I'd normally have bought only 4 - something I'd probably not have chosen to do just before Christmas :)
t.
17! I thought my 9 a month was a lot. :D
 

dcsprior

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17! I thought my 9 a month was a lot. :D

Yeah, normally I buy one pair of advances a week, for 12 weeks in the future - so last Friday I bought tickets for what is now 11 weeks in the future.

So this week I'll be buying 13 pairs - to take me up to 24 weeks in the future. The result is that I'll be spending 4 times as much on tickets this month as I'd planned to.

Of course, if EC don't continue this at the end of the trial, then I'll have three months when I don't have to buy any.

Oh, and it'll rapidly build up my EC points balance in time for me to be able to redeem them for the 4*1st tickets before they go up in 'price'
 
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Starmill

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Many people choose to travel by air on these routes, even though travelling by rail provides far more benefits

Very very easy solution: increase the capacity and reduce the price of rail!
 

Deerfold

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Very very easy solution: increase the capacity and reduce the price of rail!

Their solution helps though - if you're looking 4/6/12 months in advance air fares appear to be far cheaper than the anytime rail fares you'd be quoted. I can't see the anytime prices coming down to the level of plane-specific fares without a huge expansion of rail and a few new lines (maybe when HS2 reaches Scotland?).
 
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