Is The Rail Sale Such A Good Idea?

[xotGD]

Is it really a ‘sale’ or just a national promotion of the bottom tiers of advances, which may have been available anyway, subject to usual yield management algorithms?

It is a genuine sale. £1.10 for me to get to Leeds is half the price of the cheapest Advance normally available.

 

[Amaranthe]

Well personally I've booked 3 (bargain) trips that I wouldn't have done otherwise were it not for the Rail Sale fares I got...

Durham - Newcastle - Middlesbrough (via Sunderland) - Whitby - Darlington - Durham for £8.95

Durham - Blackpool via Edinburgh for £15.40
Blackpool - Durham via Leeds for £9.60

Durham - Wemyss Bay - Durham for £13.85

These are non railcard fares and include 2 qualifying journeys for Club Avanti purposes.

 

[Trainman40083]

Well personally I've booked 3 (bargain) trips that I wouldn't have done otherwise were it not for the Rail Sale fares I got...

Durham - Newcastle - Middlesbrough (via Sunderland) - Whitby - Darlington - Durham for £8.95

Durham - Blackpool via Edinburgh for £15.40
Blackpool - Durham via Leeds for £9.60

Durham - Wemyss Bay - Durham for £13.85

These are non railcard fares and include 2 qualifying journeys for Club Avanti purposes.

Certainly a bargain fare .

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Durham - Blackpool via Edinburgh for £15.40
Blackpool - Durham via Leeds for £9.60

Now, that seems well cheap. What days / time of the day are you travelling? Do you have to overnight somewhere in Blackpool?

 

[Amaranthe]

Now, that seems well cheap. What days / time of the day are you travelling? Do you have to overnight somewhere in Blackpool?

Feb 3rd

1N51 0641 Durham - Newcastle 07:00 Northern £1.20
9S07 07:18 Newcastle - Edinburgh 09:01 TPE £4.20
9M54 10:52 Edinburgh - Preston 13:15 Avanti
1N64 13:27 Preston - Blackpool North 13:50 Northern £10.00

Feb 4th

1B28 12:19 Blackpool North - Leeds 14:27 Northern £4.30
9E18 19:52 Leeds - Durham 21:07 TPE £5.30

B&B overnight in Blackpool for £20

I have to admit this worries me a bit though...

 

[Mcr Warrior]

So noted, and a rather long five hour plus wait in Leeds on the way back. Similar in York, instead, would have been good, though!

 

[Amaranthe]

So noted, and a rather long five hour wait in Leeds on the way back. Similar in York instead would have been good, though!

I used to live in Leeds many years ago so an opportunity to visit some old haunts.

 

[CMS1]

Do any ticket websites allow you to filter to railsale tickets only instead of trawling through days and times?

 

[Bald Rick]

Am I right in recalling, possibly from one of your previous posts, that the period between New Year and Easter is usually the quietest time of the year for rail travel?

If so, then, from an economic perspective, now is the best time of the year for a promotion such as this.

Answering again, a bit more seriously.

The quietest time of year, but a distance, is December, albeit mostly because of the final 10 days. Then January, then Feb, then April (because of Easter hols).

 

[Topmandog1]

I got a Blackpool to London Return Ticket for £25.60 (with railcard also) so for me i love the rail sale and i got delayed in and out of London so i got half of it back in delay repay anyway

 

[Mikey C]

It's a quiet time of year for leisure travel, and encourages people to take extra journeys.

And if by the time my February or March journey comes around, and the weather is atrocious or something comes up, well then I just will write off the small cost of the ticket. So the railway gets free money.

This year for example I had a trip to the Kent coast, which I didn't take due to being under the weather, while 2 years ago, I didn't use tickets due to a family medical issue which came up.

 

[The Foghorn]

I didn't post at the time so as not to flag up that the house was empty. £9.30 Peterborough to Stansted Airport for two people! Cheaper than our Two Together discounted Spalding to Peterborough singles. What's not to like. No advance fare available for a through ticket btw.

With LNER not doing generally return fares, a few discounted 91 trips were booked too.