Exeter SD > Pitlochry sleeper + bikes

[John @ home]

Have you tried using ScotRail's "Dream Offers" promotion that's on at the moment?

Very good spot!

It's offering two adults from Euston to Pitlochry on Friday 9 May Sleeper Standard Single tickets at £82.45 each, inclusive of Sleeper Berth and travel. It seems to me that this is ticket type SPI a £124.90 SLEEPER STANDARD SINGLE LONDON TERMINALS - PITLOCHRY route CALEDONIAN SLEEPER, with 34% discount applied.

But I don't then get any further discount for 2 Adults by adding a Two Together Railcard, even though adding two Senior Railcards would reduce the fare for each person from £82.45 to £74.20, a further discount of 10%. This suggests to me that ScotRail do not intend to offer Two Together Railcard discount on inclusive sleeper tickets, even on Friday night / Saturday morning when that Railcard has no time restriction.

I'm not seeing any availability for cheaper ticket types VA1 or VA2 for Euston to Pitlochry on 9 May, although 2 berths for Tuesday 6 May can be had via "Dream Offers" for £44.95 each without a Railcard. This suggests to me that ScotRail may not need to offer these cheaper tickets on the busier Friday nights.

 

[Spatulala]

Well great advice and a brilliant price (£89 for 2 adults), but no spaces for bicycles left. Harrumph...

Best laid plans and all that... Thanks for all your help

 

[cjp]

Well great advice and a brilliant price (£89 for 2 adults), but no spaces for bicycles left. Harrumph...

Best laid plans and all that... Thanks for all your help

I have had this trouble in the past and it is always worth telephoning Scotrail to see if you can get a sleeper with bike space to Edinburgh - and book the rest of the tickets with them whilst you are at it. They are helpful folk

 

[John @ home]

Well great advice and a brilliant price (£89 for 2 adults), but no spaces for bicycles left.

For which date? The £89 for 2 adults is (or was) available for 6 May. But you need to travel on 9 May, I think.

If there are no bike spaces on the Inverness portion for 9 May, try the Aberdeen portion to Kirkcaldy or Dundee, then try the Glasgow and Edinburgh sleeper.

 

[Spatulala]

On the link provided it was £89 for both of us on 9th, but that didn't include berths, as I subsequently noticed
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
OK final question

We can get the sleeper (Euston > Pitlochry) up there for £164.90 and the return for £89.90, total cost £254.80. No bike spaces on the way up, but if we pack our bikes into bike bags, can we take them on as luggage? Bulky but should fit in the cabin with us? Will that be allowed?

Then we just need to add the fares from Exeter to Euston and we're sorted?

 

[CallySleeper]

We can get the sleeper (Euston > Pitlochry) up there for £164.90 and the return for £89.90, total cost £254.80. No bike spaces on the way up, but if we pack our bikes into bike bags, can we take them on as luggage? Bulky but should fit in the cabin with us? Will that be allowed?

Are they foldable bikes? If 'no' then I expect the answer you'll get is 'no'

 

[Spatulala]

wheels comes off, bag is as big as the bike frame

bit like this:

 

[Be3G]

It's unlikely you'd want to put that in your cabin: they are, shall we say, rather cosy. Provided no single dimension of the bagged up bike exceeds 150cm, however, it could be conveyed in the guard's van simply as an item of luggage. I don't think there's any way of reserving this space though so if lots of other people have the same idea, it could be tricky.

 

[reb0118]

Get there early with your bikes bagged up & it shouldn't be a problem. There is plenty of space in the guard's van. If they fit in your compartment then you can also put them in there - mind there is almost no turning in the corridor.

 

[Be3G]

If they fit in your compartment then you can also put them in there

If Spatulala and the friend are both going to share a twin bunk then I really can't see that working! If though they went for solo berths then it might just about be viable, perhaps making use of the under-bed space in each cabin.

 

[marks87]

If it helps, there is a 'return for two for £100' on the sleeper offer on currently for advance memebers. Although I have the feeling you wont be a member..

Nope not an advance member, as you can tell by my ignorance on all of this!

Thanks for showing me 'what I could've won' (in true Bullseye fashion)!

As I understand it, you can become an Advance member as a "ScotRail first class ticket holder".

It doesn't say you need to use the ticket. So buy a £2.90 Edinburgh-Haymarket Anytime Single to collect at your nearest station and Roberta is your Auntie, as it were.

 

[Spatulala]

Ah that would have been great, but have now paid £254 for the 2 returns. Thanks anyway though.

 

[cjp]

Ah that would have been great, but have now paid £254 for the 2 returns. Thanks anyway though.

Don't forget to apply for your Advance Club membership now you have met the entry requirements.

 

[mailbyrail]

This shows the complexity of trying to use the sleeper, I've used it a fair bit in the past and the bargain berths booking facility was great if you could be flexible, but now it's a lottery and expensive.
I know I'm heading North in June but of course nobody can think about booking by train at this stage. I can't afford the gamble involved in waiting until tickets are or aren't available. I have booked a return flight for £74 inclusive of all charges.
Not my preferred choice but what else can you do?
I'm not taking a bike this time, but unlike the train, the cost is £35 each way which might have made me rethink. All my other sleeper trips have had my bike in the van - along with the fish which is why spaces are in short supply heading south.

 

[Spatulala]

I agree, it seems an overcomplicated system that only serves to dissuade people from travelling by train. With hindsight I could have booked flights from Exeter to Edinburgh for about £80 return each. I wanted to take the train with my bike and have ended up (with all the expert help available on this forum) paying twice as much and not having the bike spaces.

I can't complain, I'm not a regular train traveller so maybe the system worked here and rewarded more frequent travellers with the best tickets at the lowest prices.

It just seems a bit commercially naive to me, to make the customer experience so unappealing.

 

[Be3G]

I think the reality with the sleepers is that they're currently not really aimed at the leisure market: their principal purpose is to serve business travellers, either those who do a weekly commute or people who need to dart from one end of the country to the other for meetings. For those markets, the fact that the sleeper doesn't use up much of their usable day is worth paying the high costs of walk-on tickets, which probably remain available until closer to departure owing to the complicated system of specific allocations for different ticket types. (Some types of ticket are allocated only a couple of berths per train.)

 

[mailbyrail]

Too true Spatulala. With service like this, why would you ever become a regular train traveller?
Taking a bike on most trains is fraught with difficulty. Yes it's free but so uncertain and if you're using it to go to a cycle event, forget it.

 

[cf111]

I agree, it seems an overcomplicated system that only serves to dissuade people from travelling by train. With hindsight I could have booked flights from Exeter to Edinburgh for about £80 return each. I wanted to take the train with my bike and have ended up (with all the expert help available on this forum) paying twice as much and not having the bike spaces.

I can't complain, I'm not a regular train traveller so maybe the system worked here and rewarded more frequent travellers with the best tickets at the lowest prices.

It just seems a bit commercially naive to me, to make the customer experience so unappealing.

You're completely right. For the sleeper to be successfully they have to make things easy and it's certainly not that at the moment. Booking a train ticket on the whole can be more complex than it needs to be if you don't have a wee bit of knowledge as to how it all works, and that's not how it should be.