Great Western Rewards Scheme

[Willie Bee]

Living up in the North East, I have never had any reason to use GWR, but an upcoming trip for my wife and me to Cardiff made me take note.

Due to engineering works, our planned Sunday route via Manchester wasn’t possible and I decided to avoid XCountry. The best new option was via London, then GWR out to Cardiff.

I signed up for membership and was delighted to see that I would get 40% off my first booking.

On Thursday, I received a ticket alert from LNER regarding the train to King's Cross, stating that tickets were now on sale ... I checked out the various options before trying to book for Paddington to Cardiff directly with GWR. Unfortunately, the 40% off code wasn’t working. I contacted GWR Customer Services and although they were very helpful, the woman couldn’t tell me why my voucher didn’t work.

In the end, I gave in and just booked it all through the Forum’s ticket section, but feel a little cheated regarding my voucher

 

[Darandio]

Presumably the Paddington to Cardiff ticket was GWR only advance. Did you also add a return GWR only advance to the basket? I believe both tickets have to be added for the discount to take effect.

 

[Merthyr Imp]

The notification I had was that the 40% discount was for 'a return ticket, booked as two Advance Single tickets'.

I've not had occasion to try it yet myself.

 

[Willie Bee]

OP here .. thank for your replies.

I see now that I would have had to book a return trip to get the discount.

As my wife and I are returning via Manchester that 40%-off voucher which looked good 'on paper' wasn't usable. I can't see myself ever booking with GWR

Marketing ! always read the small print