National Rail Sale - Railcards Valid?

[ATS3]

Back and bigger than ever: rail sale offers up to half price discounts on over 2 million tickets

Discounted rail ticket prices will apply to journeys made between 17 January and 31 March 2025 across Great Britain.

www.gov.uk

Any idea if Railcards are going to be able to be applied to these tickets to give a further discount?

 

[Adam Williams]

No

 

[ATS3]

No

Source?

 

[Adam Williams]

Load https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=COV&dest=RDG&rlc=YNG&period=20250102 (16-25 railcard applied)

Look for the "NAP" ticket type.

Observe it is not present.

Now load, https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=COV&dest=RDG&period=20250102 (no railcard applied)

Observe the ticket is present, with a placeholder price.

Conclusion, using information in the public domain: Railcard discounts are not applicable to this ticket type.

 

[A S Leib]

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/rail-sale-2025-terms-and-conditions

Chiltern source, but 2.3 applicable more generally.

2.3 Railcard discounts are not permitted for Rail Sale Tickets and no other discounts can be used in conjunction with the Rail Sale Tickets.

 

[ATS3]

That's a shame! Thought I had found a trick there

 

[Adam Williams]

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/rail-sale-2025-terms-and-conditions

Chiltern source, but 2.3 applicable more generally.

Mmmm. Chiltern source that shouldn't actually exist, because it's before the embargo that everybody else managed to follow (!)

 

[Segedunum]

Mmmm. Chiltern source that shouldn't actually exist, because it's before the embargo that everybody else managed to follow (!)

Avanti had this link live earlier: https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/great-british-rail-sale which still gives some info away in the Meta description if you Google terms like 'Avanti rail sale' so it seems a few TOCs have slipped up.

Their (now hidden) FAQ also stated the same - that Railcards can't be used in conjunction with the offer.

 

[Buzby]

They weren’t available during the last sale in 2024 either!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Presume the £8.40 Preston->Edinburgh example fare quoted by www.gov.uk is a half-priced route "AP TPE Only" Advance Single?

 

[CyrusWuff]

Mmmm. Chiltern source that shouldn't actually exist, because it's before the embargo that everybody else managed to follow (!)

Though it isn't linked from anywhere obvious (yet!) You have to search for Rail Sale to find it. Presumably whoever's responsible for updating their website published it to the live site by mistake, rather than their staging one. (At least I'd hope they have a staging site and aren't testing in live.

 

[Egg Centric]

Mmmm. Chiltern source that shouldn't actually exist, because it's before the embargo that everybody else managed to follow (!)

Also a bit odd that it excludes 19th Jan for travel but also says that tickets are on sale from 14th and must be booked a week in advance

 

[I_am_Nobody]

Also a bit odd that it excludes 19th Jan for travel but also says that tickets are on sale from 14th and must be booked a week in advance

Agreed. I think it's particularly interesting they list the 19th as a restricted day... when as per one of the lines earlier in the T&Cs, the "Promotional travel period" doesn't start till the 21st, lining up with the whole "book seven days in advance" timing from the 14th. Unless I am misreading it... but that would mean we're both misreading it, which I find very unlikely.

1.5 Promotion travel period between 21 January 2025 and 30 March 2025. The number of Rail Sale Tickets available during the Promotional Period is limited and subject to availability (see clause 2 below).

 

[jamess]

Hi,

UK Government have now posted the following:

Back and bigger than ever: rail sale offers up to half price discounts on over 2 million tickets

Discounted rail ticket prices will apply to journeys made between 17 January and 31 March 2025 across Great Britain.

www.gov.uk

• rail sale returns with more discounted tickets than ever before
• offers on thousands of popular routes across UK to encourage more people to travel by train
• comes as government continues biggest overhaul of the railways in a generation putting passengers at the heart of services

I would be interested, if any one know, what the sale price would be, for both Manchester and Crewe, to Euston, as I need to organise a family day out for a day in March (I can be flexible with the day)

The article indicates that Liverpool to Euston will be £7. Is there a way of seeing in advance, what both Manchester and Crewe to Euston will be?

Thanks

 

[A S Leib]

Hi,

UK Government have now posted the following:

Back and bigger than ever: rail sale offers up to half price discounts on over 2 million tickets

Discounted rail ticket prices will apply to journeys made between 17 January and 31 March 2025 across Great Britain.

www.gov.uk

• "rail sale returns with more discounted tickets than ever before
• offers on thousands of popular routes across UK to encourage more people to travel by train
• comes as government continues biggest overhaul of the railways in a generation putting passengers at the heart of services"

I would be interested, if any one know, what the sale price would be, for both Manchester and Crewe, to Euston, as I need to organise a family day out for a day in March (I can be flexible with the day)

The article indicates that Liverpool to Euston will be £7. Is there a way of seeing in advance, what both Manchester and Crewe to Euston will be?

Thanks

My guess would be £7 is the LNR starting price; Avanti were advertising London to Glasgow for £31 but I think that page was published earlier than it should have been.

 

[jamess]

Is there a way of seeing what the fare would be, say within brfares.co.uk or similar, before Tuesday?

 

[Haywain]

Is there a way of seeing what the fare would be, say within brfares.co.uk or similar, before Tuesday?

No, because the price will depend on availability.

 

[A S Leib]

Is there a way of seeing what the fare would be, say within brfares.co.uk or similar, before Tuesday?

You can see which flows have sale tickets available on BR Farss but only with placeholder prices for now.

 

[Adam Williams]

Also a bit odd that it excludes 19th Jan for travel but also says that tickets are on sale from 14th and must be booked a week in advance

I don't think the "7 days in advance" requirement is as universal as some of the terms suggest.

 

[CyrusWuff]

I don't think the "7 days in advance" requirement is as universal as some of the terms suggest.

Having seen the RDG Staff Brief on the subject, it looks like whoever created the page on the Chiltern website updated the Terms and Conditions to reflect their implementation, rather than sticking to the Ts&Cs provided by RDG.

The RDG brief gives the sale period as "Tuesday 14 January to 23:59 Monday 20 January 2025, or until all the sale tickets have been sold" and the travel period as "Friday 17 January and Monday 31 March 2025" with a 3 to 7 day Advance Purchase requirement. Presumably Chiltern are in the 7 day camp, based on what they've published.