Excessive fare just for nectar points?

[Neo9320]

So…booking my normal ticket (GWR booking can collect nectar points) and now I can see why!

has anybody else seen this level of disparity whilst booking?

i know many people slate Trainline for booking but it’s saved me a few Bob!

photos attached show screenshots of prices for the same journey. One is from GWR and one is from Trainline. Both are screenshots from apps

 

[alistairlees]

Well one of them is splitting the tickets and the other isn’t.

 

[Haywain]

So…booking my normal ticket (GWR booking can collect nectar points) and now I can see why!

What can you see why?

 

[davetheguard]

Surely, if you split your ticket at the GWR site, you'll pay the same cheaper fare for the tickets, won't have to pay a booking fee, and you'll get your Nectar points too!

 

[mikeg]

The tickets themselves are the same price everywhere. It's just it's selling different,split tickets. Train split would offer similar savings.
What I can't see why is why people use the Trainline for a through advance. I also didn't understand it when a friend booked an off peak return from Thirsk to Manchester airport in advance, complete with booking fee and without reservation, when they could have just bought on the day, or from the ticket office. The main reason people use the sheepline is twofold:

People think it's the place to book train tickets, or:

People think it's cheaper

Your given example of it offering split tickets is a very recent one. It's also quite concerning that you don't seem aware that these are split tickets, which may reduce the validity of the through fare. To clarify this is a failure of the Trainline to make it clear enough. If someone on a railway forum isn't aware, how are normal people meant to be?

 

[30907]

Well one of them is splitting the tickets and the other isn’t.

Are they? Both appear to be Advance tickets, but at different price levels for a through journey.

An alternative possibility that TL offered the last cheaper fare, which for some reason (to do with tickets in baskets but not yet paid for?) was not available through GW.

 

[Haywain]

Are they? Both appear to be Advance tickets, but at different price levels for a through journey.

Yes, there is no through fare at the price that Trainline is quoting.

 

[Neo9320]

What can you see why?

The excessive cost purely to collect nectar points…please see thread title…

 

[alistairlees]

The excessive cost purely to collect nectar points…please see thread title…

The price of the tickets has got nothing to do with the nectar points.

 

[Haywain]

The excessive cost purely to collect nectar points…please see thread title…

But that's not the case, the fare quoted by GWR is the through fare for the journey. As others have explained, Trainline offer split tickets which us something that GWR don't do.

 

[thejuggler]

Do Trainline now split automatically to suggest the much cheaper far? If so it needs to have a large 'health' warning as splitting can also result in some weird routings and unnecessary legs.

 

[skyhigh]

Do Trainline now split automatically to suggest the much cheaper far? If so it needs to have a large 'health' warning as splitting can also result in some weird routings and unnecessary legs.

They do spit automatically, however in my experience it seems to be much more 'basic' or straightforward splits than you might get with Trainsplit etc. I do agree that it needs to make it clearer what 'SplitSave' means, a lot of people don't completely understand what they're buying - they just pick a journey time or fare they like on the app which makes it quite easy to come unstuck if they don't follow the itinerary.