No GWR advance tickets?

[jimbogreen]

Hi all,

I often travel from Plymouth to enter Hayes & Harlington or Slough to stay overnight before a fight from Heathrow. Usually I can get an advance ticket up until the day before travel for around £34. Now, however, I'm looking and there are no advance tickets showing for next week. Any ideas why?

Thanks!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Hi all,

I often travel from Plymouth to enter Hayes & Harlington or Slough to stay overnight before a fight from Heathrow. Usually I can get an advance ticket up until the day before travel for around £34. Now, however, I'm looking and there are no advance tickets showing for next week. Any ideas why?

Thanks!

High demand due to being near Christmas?

 

[Benjwri]

High demand due to being near Christmas?

Had a look and there are no advances at all available on a very late night train with 3 seats reserved at any point between Plymouth and Reading, I think it might be a case of GWR removing their advance quotas to boost prices over Christmas.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Remember Paddington is shut from Christmas Eve, people may be travelling earlier in the week

 

[jimbogreen]

Had a look and there are no advances at all available on a very late night train with 3 seats reserved at any point between Plymouth and Reading, I think it might be a case of GWR removing their advance quotas to boost prices over Christmas.

I think this might be it - I had a further look for late January and there are some advance fares available then. Wish I'd known earlier, but what can you do?!

Appreciate the comments

 

[Benjwri]

I think this might be it - I had a further look for late January and there are some advance fares available then. Wish I'd known earlier, but what can you do?!

Appreciate the comments

I think they’ve just removed the entire quota from what i see, so probably wouldn’t have helped.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Had a look and there are no advances at all available on a very late night train with 3 seats reserved at any point between Plymouth and Reading, I think it might be a case of GWR removing their advance quotas to boost prices over Christmas.

I think this might be it - I had a further look for late January and there are some advance fares available then. Wish I'd known earlier, but what can you do?!

Never assume availbility of Advance tickets?

I appreciate, given how they are now pretty much an integral expectation of longer-distance train travel, that this is a difficult 'ask' for passengers.

 

[jimbogreen]

Never assume availbility of Advance tickets?

I appreciate, given how they are now pretty much an integral expectation of longer-distance train travel, that this is a difficult 'ask' for passengers.

That's fair, but I must say the fact that a super off peak is double the price of an advance ticket is pretty poor.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Dec 2023 ==

I think they’ve just removed the entire quota from what i see, so probably wouldn’t have helped.

Is this usual? 9r how things will be from now on? I want to be prepared to know if I need to be buying tickets a lot earlier in advance. Bit of a pain as my plans can change but also £68 from Plymouth to London is rather a lot

 

[Benjwri]

Is this usual? 9r how things will be from now on? I want to be prepared to know if I need to be buying tickets a lot earlier in advance. Bit of a pain as my plans can change but also £68 from Plymouth to London is rather a lot

It's farily usual practice when there are big events or public holidays. I don't think any advance tickets were released in this case, so booking earlier wouldn't have saved you money, however at any time there is a big event you should book early, advance tickets are always demand limited, so if more people are travelling you have to book earlier, which is entirely their design.

 

[akm]

Is this usual? 9r how things will be from now on? I want to be prepared to know if I need to be buying tickets a lot earlier in advance. Bit of a pain as my plans can change but also £68 from Plymouth to London is rather a lot

Depending on the specifics of how your plans tend to change, there are a small number of retailers who offer fee-free changes to Advances. I know of Railsmartr and CrossCountry; there may be others.

"Changes" here means: if, before the date of travel on an Advance ticket, you book another Advance for the exact same Origin and Destination at a later date, then the cheaper of the two will be refunded.

 

[jimbogreen]

It's farily usual practice when there are big events or public holidays. I don't think any advance tickets were released in this case, so booking earlier wouldn't have saved you money, however at any time there is a big event you should book early, advance tickets are always demand limited, so if more people are travelling you have to book earlier, which is entirely their design.

That's helpful. I did think it was a touch strange so wasn't sure if it was anything to do with the new timetables. Seems like Christmas travel is just expensive!

 

[CyrusWuff]

That's helpful. I did think it was a touch strange so wasn't sure if it was anything to do with the new timetables. Seems like Christmas travel is just expensive!

It's a fairly crude form of yield management. If you know you can easily fill a train selling tickets at £50 each, why offer anything cheaper?

 

[Joe Paxton]

It's a fairly crude form of yield management. If you know you can easily fill a train selling tickets at £50 each, why offer anything cheaper?

Also, perhaps the case in particular on the Great Western route, under the railway's ORCATS revenue settlement system the revenue from an interavailable ticket (e.g. Super Off-Peak) to London or thereabouts is likely to mostly end up being allocated to GWR rather than being shared more widely amongst other TOCs (as GWR is the dominant operator for many such journeys).

I appreciate the DfT / central government now carry the revenue risk rather than the TOCs themselves (as used to be the case with franchises pre-Covid), but I dare say that revenue allocation is still considered relevant as an indicator of the performance of a TOC.