Internet Ticketing Sites TOC's are best ?

[Lankyline]

I,ve been researching a trip from Preston to Penzance for a business meeting later this month, travelling midweek, having done this trip 20+ times by car i fancied a change ! plus its a 720 mile round trip !

The trip involves Pre to Ldn Euston, Paddington to Penzance (Night Riviera) & return same day as arrival (reverse trip) as the timings suit the meeting, some interesting results came up, as follows,

VT Std Advance RSH TL.Com NRE
23/10 - 19.58 Pre - Ldn Eus - £20.50 Same £28.50 £20.50
24/10 - 21.19 Ldn Eus - Pre - £14.50 Same Same Same

FGW Std Advance Night Riviera RSH TL.Com NRE
23.45 - Sleeper £76.50 No fares £43.30 £43.30
( Both Seat only)

FGW Std & First Advance
24/10 14.00 - Penz - Padd RSH TL.Com NRE
Std Advance - £33.00 £30.00 £36.70 £36.70
1st Advance - £55.50 £76.10 £61.70 £61.70

Add in Trainlines,com booking fees and their prices look even more of a rip off, plus National rail enquires site directs you straight to FGW's to book and what do you see, £33.00 for the std advance ticket, doh !

Also considering Trainlines .com run 16 + train ticket booking websites, why would anyone want to use them directly?

One last bit of info, put in Preston to Penzance via London (all) into RSH & Trainline.com, with the above departure time from Preston, they show NO fares !

Basically my point is this, why bother with so called cheaper fare websites when the best fares, in this case, are on the TOC websites ! (wasted time researching this lot !)

And why do we have to carry out multiple searches to find the best options for multi TOC journeys, someone invent a better website pls to do this ! unless anyone knows differently ?

Unfortunately i nearly lost the will to live doing this ! :mad:

Your thoughts are appreciated

 

[soil]

Sometimes you can get vouchers from the third party websites.

Otherwise no real reason to use them.

 

[Mojo]

The Great Western website offers 10% discount off their own Advance tickets (not sure if includes sleeper), and a couple of other Toc's websites offer similar discounts - see the sticky thread at the top of this forum.

If the Toc does not offer me a discount through booking with their website, I will book through Redspottedhanky for any tickets under £22, because they offer a fair amount of cashback, plus loyalty points (the latter of which are worth 1%); and with East Coast for tickets over £22, because of the Reward points.

I was nearly caught out for a journey the other week though; I was looking on the EMT website for a journey on another Toc, the First class fare was showing at about £34. I then looked on the East Coast website and the same fare was £19! They were Advances; EMT was offering a TocA+Connections ticket, whereas East Coast was offering a TocB+Connections ticket for the same journey on the same trains!

 

[bb21]

Only sheep believe that thesheepline.com are the cheapest, because they almost never are.

Preston to Penzance does not have a through fare via London. The only two routes are Not Via London and Via Hereford.

 

[Greenback]

Can the Sheepline ever be cheaper, given their fees?

 

[island]

The only circumstance is a technical one, if you happen to put the last tickets on a certain advance tier into your basket on thetrainline, then search for the same journey on another site, it will come in more expensive.

 

[YorkshireRider]

Only sheep believe that thesheepline.com are the cheapest, because they almost never are.

Sadly the amount of trainline confirmation bookings I see when pulling the trolley through the train suggests there are plenty of sheep out there.

 

[bb21]

Can the Sheepline ever be cheaper, given their fees?

Apart from what island mentioned, the only situation where they are cheaper is when they ran a special offer on cashbacks where you got a higher percentage than normal. But even then you could only really benefit if you buy really high-value tickets (I think the break-even threshold is over £100), and don't value other schemes such as EC loyalty scheme.

At least the likes of raileasy offer something different, such as CIV and SailRail bookings, amongst others iirc, which not every website is able to do. I struggle to think what thesheepline offer that others don't.

 

[Clip]

I struggle to think what thesheepline offer that others don't.

Flashy adverts with catchy songs?

 

[jon0844]

Annoying adverts more like with misleading wording that is just clever enough to get by advertising standards.

The savings are not actual savings, as in up to 43% off the price of a ticket as implied (and how just about everyone would read it) but merely saying it can offer cheaper alternatives (aka advance tickets) that gives the saving. Just like everyone else, without the booking fees.

Grrrr! This company really annoys me!

 

[IanXC]

I struggle to think what thesheepline offer that others don't.

Ammunition for amusing adverts?

 

[Clip]

Annoying adverts more like with misleading wording that is just clever enough to get by advertising standards.

The savings are not actual savings, as in up to 43% off the price of a ticket as implied (and how just about everyone would read it) but merely saying it can offer cheaper alternatives (aka advance tickets) that gives the saving. Just like everyone else, without the booking fees.

Grrrr! This company really annoys me!

I dont see why it should annoy you. They are a 3rd party retailer trying to earn money by flogging tickets. How people may read it is one thing but they are not lying. They can save you that amount on the type of ticket they compare the advances too.

I dont care what anyone else on here says on the matter - they can if you purchase from them. You can,if you buuy from anyone else too but why would they tell you that when they want you to buy from them?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Annoying adverts more like with misleading wording that is just clever enough to get by advertising standards....

In actual fact I believe every advert has fallen foul of ASA standards, it's just that the ASA haven't acted quickly enough to make any difference.

 

[Lankyline]

Only sheep believe that thesheepline.com are the cheapest, because they almost never are.

Preston to Penzance does not have a through fare via London. The only two routes are Not Via London and Via Hereford.

I wonder if this is because the coding in the website doesnt recognise a trip which runs into another day despite being on 2 toc's networks ? yet both trips start on the same day, just one finishes the next day !

There is a same day via VT to Brum then XC to Bristol finishing with FGW to Penzance, so what's so different about via London i wonder ?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
It's easy for Trainline to advertise "savings" and not offend ASA if your prices are overinflated in the first place !

 

[jon0844]

I dont see why it should annoy you. They are a 3rd party retailer trying to earn money by flogging tickets. How people may read it is one thing but they are not lying. They can save you that amount on the type of ticket they compare the advances too.

I dont care what anyone else on here says on the matter - they can if you purchase from them. You can,if you buuy from anyone else too but why would they tell you that when they want you to buy from them?

Perhaps all my years as the editor of a magazine for consumers, seeking to help people make the best choices on buying a new mobile phone, getting the best tariff, and not getting ripped off when going abroad etc etc has made me rather too interested in seeing that companies don't get away with tricking people in other industries too. I'm a consumer too, and thetrainline.com is hardly unique.

Clearly they're not lying, but they know (as do many other advertisers) what you can say that fools the average person that simply misunderstands. The 43% saving (with the obligatory asterisk to explain the meaning in the small print, which is their 'get out') clearly works as I've had many conversations with people that use the company who believe that they could get up to 43% off a ticket they'd normally buy elsewhere.

They don't understand how it works, nor compare prices, and probably think they've saved money on whatever ticket they do buy.

Ignorance is bliss and all that.

 

[LexyBoy]

I wonder if this is because the coding in the website doesnt recognise a trip which runs into another day despite being on 2 toc's networks ? yet both trips start on the same day, just one finishes the next day !

There is a same day via VT to Brum then XC to Bristol finishing with FGW to Penzance, so what's so different about via London i wonder ?

Going via London requires either more than one ticket, or using a ticket from an alternative origin - it is not a permitted route on any Preston-Penzance ticket. Ticket booking sites cannot cope with this - NRE will do, but won't sell you tickets.

It's easy for Trainline to advertise "savings" and not offend ASA if your prices are overinflated in the first place !

But they do fall foul of the ASA - their premise is always shown to be false. They do not offer any ticket which would not be cheaper bought at a station, or from a TOC website.

Some tickets can only be booked through the website of the TOC concerned (e.g. Bargain Berths on the Scottish sleepers); others offer discounts (e.g. East Coast's Advance fares). Otherwise, you will have the same choice at the same price wherever you book - online or IRL. Some websites have additional fees on top of the ticket costs, which can usually be avoided.

 

[maniacmartin]

I wonder if this is because the coding in the website doesnt recognise a trip which runs into another day despite being on 2 toc's networks ? yet both trips start on the same day, just one finishes the next day !

No, it's just because there's no via London ticket in the database. A few times a year the fares managers sit down and release a new database of the new fares, and for each origin/destination they choose what the ticket's route fields and prices will be. For Preston to Penzance, the only non-Advance tickets are NOT VIA LONDON and VIA HEREFORD, so that is all the website will be able to offer. (Most journeys have an ANY PERMITTED too, but some do not)

 

[OLJR]

I almost always use the East Coast booking engine irrespective of the TOC as I find it easy to use and reliable. No idea why people would use sheepline and pay the associated fees.

However I do note that sometime fares are only available through a specific TOC's site. Southern definitely has fares not available through other TOC booking engines. Not sure if these fares are available on sheepline...

 

[jon0844]

I'd guess that any TOC-specific offer (via its own website) would not be available via the trainline.

In fact, unless the company does its own promotions from time to time, I stick by the belief that it will be more expensive than elsewhere 100% of the time, thanks to those fees.

I wonder if the next trick would be to do some genuine discounts of 43% on a regular ticket, if only for a very short time, or a limited quota - just to be able to then say that the company DOES offer such discounts on all tickets... it's just that for 99.99% of the time you'll never get them.

Another thing that the ASA would eventually pick up on, I'm sure, but way too late.

 

[Tetchytyke]

People are easily tricked by catchy jingles, but really the TOCs have nobody to blame but themselves.

The TOCs are the ones responsible for what is an indecipherable mess of a ticketing system in the UK. It's no wonder that people see TheSheepLine's headline adverts and believe it. Many people don't realise you can buy advance tickets at the station, they think it is online only; I was having this argument on the Grauniad a few weeks ago.

I've finally persuaded my employer to let me buy my work tickets through EastCoast ("they use the same computer as TheSheepLine, they're just as cheap, honest!"), which is good for me as I'm allowed to keep the reward points. But it was a battle: "But you're not going on EastCoast!" was a common argument.

Most TOCs will have discounts or tickets on their website which are not available elsewhere. GC/XC give a 10% student discount on their website, EC give up to 10% off AP tickets, Southern only sell their DaySave and Downlanders through their website (and give a "rainy day guarantee" on their advance tickets too). But they've allowed TheSheepLine to get the upper hand and all the nasty vinyls in the world (I'm looking at you, XC) won't change that.