Long distance cheaper than local during Christmas

[Inspector999]

Has anyone else noticed some of the bizarre pricing options during the Christmas period.

Chichester to Brighton 27th December - Only four services on offer - presumably Southern or still on holiday

0720 at £29.90 (FGW to Brighton the FCC to London)
0946 at £30.30 (FGW to Havant and SWR to London)
1522 at £29.90 (FGW to Brighton the FCC to London)
1746 at £30.30 (FGW to Havant and SWR to London)

But at the time of writing the much longer journey to Birmingham International can be had for £12.00 on the latter two services (or £34.00 on the first two).

Can any one come up with any better (or cheaper) ways of getting from the South coast to London during the hols. (Excluding New Street and Wolverhampton which were available for the same price as International but I didn't want to go that far).

Barmy!

 

[yorkie]

For travel with Southern only a Southern Daysave is £12.

 

[Oscar]

I presume that Southern's services have not yet been uploaded onto the booking engines.

 

[Inspector999]

I presume that Southern's services have not yet been uploaded onto the booking engines.

Somewhat ironic given that Virgin's services are shown and who knows who will be running those trains!!

 

[ainsworth74]

Somewhat ironic given that Virgin's services are shown and who knows who will be running those trains!!

Well the trains will be running no matter who ends up running them so if the timetable has been finalised why not load it?

 

[Deerfold]

Has anyone else noticed some of the bizarre pricing options during the Christmas period.


But at the time of writing the much longer journey to Birmingham International can be had for £12.00 on the latter two services (or £34.00 on the first two).


Barmy!

It's not particularly unusual for longer journeys to be cheaper than shorter ones on the same trains - especially where the fares are set by different TOCs as will be the case here.

 

[MKD]

For travel with Southern only a Southern Daysave is £12.

Seconded, and that Daysave can be good for GROUP travel too, but if just 1 or 2 adults then if you can afford the extra 50p, may as well buy a SOUTHERN All Network Downlander as:
a) Can buy far later - ie just need one full day between your booking and usage eg pre midnight Monday for travel on Wednesday 10am+ (as not a bank holiday/weekend) though dont TRY to leave it to the lastminute just in case the site is down for maintenance or whatever.
b) Has NO restrictions on rush-hour afternoon/evening trains, unlike Daysave

http://www.southernrailwaytickets.com/ticketing_promotion.php?iTicketPromotionId=6

MKD