East Coast Advances - February

[khib70]

I'm booking a weekend trip from Edinburgh to Hull for a group of 8 from Friday 15th Feb, returning on Sunday 17th. Footy game and sampling of the local ales on the agenda!

Have secured a nice £20:50 each advance for the outward trip and am now looking to book the return. The EC site says only booking up to Fri 15th and I haven't received the requested email alert, but some advances are available. Theres a good choice of trains, but only two have advances available - the 1148 (£37 each) and the 1600 (£29 each). Both trains are usable if not ideal.

Is it possible that more advances will be released today, giving a wider choice of services, and possibly lower fares (although that's not a huge deal)?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

PS I am aware of and using the excellent EC small group discount scheme!

 

[John @ home]

Is it possible that more advances will be released today

Yes, it's possible. They don't all appear at the same moment.

It may also be better to book as two groups of four. If fewer than 8 seats are available at a particular price for Advance tickets, the booking engine offers all seats at the higher price where 8 seats are available.

 

[khib70]

Yes, it's possible. They don't all appear at the same moment.

It may also be better to book as two groups of four. If fewer than 8 seats are available at a particular price for Advance tickets, the booking engine offers all seats at the higher price where 8 seats are available.

Thanks - you're probably right. In my ignorance I failed to notice that the only two available advances are on XC from York to Edinburgh. In fact EC don't seem to have released any advances yet beyond Feb 15th which was released last week.

Perhaps something to do with the WEBTIS problems last night?

 

[khib70]

Sorry to bump this, but EC are now selling advance tickets up to the 8th March and there are still none available for Sunday 17th February. Anyone know what's going on and when these are likely to appear?

I did email their Web Support to be told they were awaiting timetables from NR. Yet the engineering work and EC diversions have been available on the NR site for ages.

And XC advances have been available for weeks on the same route.

Any info much appreciated. Thanks

 

[PaxVobiscum]

I think it may have something to do with the online ticket offer http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42163&page=43

I couldn't find my usual Advance tickets for mid-February when the dates became bookable and I since finding out about the online offer was assuming the Advance availability had been restricted because of this.

EDIT: Nope, ignore that, I see the online offer excludes 15th - 24th February.