Online Booking Query

[les.]

Just wondered if anyone can shed some light on this.

Myself and my brother are traveling up to Plockton in The Scottish Highlands from Grimsby, via a stop off in Edinburgh, in August and as the day we are traveling up to Edinburgh is my 50th birthday he said that we should travel up there 1st class.

I had an email alert set to let me know when the cheap tickets became available so as soon as I got the email I went onto East Coast website to book the tickets.

I hold a disabled railcard so this give me a decent discount on tickets and when I first looked into booking tickets I only put 1 adult instead of 2 by mistake. The price came up as £24.50 which for 1st class was superb value I thought. I then corrected the 1 adult to 2 expecting the price to show £49.00 but it came up as about £140 so I decided to book the tickets individually and both times the tickets came up as £24.50 each.

There was obviously more than just the one ticket left at that price so why didn't it quote that when asking for 2 tickets?

Another anomaly is that when we travel up to Plockton on the following day, the cost from Edinburgh to Plockton is £20.30 each BUT if we got tickets to The Kyle Of Lochalsh (which is the end of the line and 2 stops FURTHER) the cost is only £10.15 each (half the price, not bad for a 6 and a half hour journey on 3 trains) so we have bought tickets to there and will get off at Plockton.

Very complicated all this booking train tickets on-line but I'm starting to get my head round it but these 2 latest things have just puzzled me a bit.

 

[yorkie]

Just wondered if anyone can shed some light on this.

Myself and my brother are traveling up to Plockton in The Scottish Highlands from Grimsby, via a stop off in Edinburgh, in August and as the day we are traveling up to Edinburgh is my 50th birthday he said that we should travel up there 1st class.

I had an email alert set to let me know when the cheap tickets became available so as soon as I got the email I went onto East Coast website to book the tickets.

I hold a disabled railcard so this give me a decent discount on tickets and when I first looked into booking tickets I only put 1 adult instead of 2 by mistake. The price came up as £24.50 which for 1st class was superb value I thought. I then corrected the 1 adult to 2 expecting the price to show £49.00 but it came up as about £140 so I decided to book the tickets individually and both times the tickets came up as £24.50 each.


There was obviously more than just the one ticket left at that price so why didn't it quote that when asking for 2 tickets?

Someone may have briefly had a ticket in their 'basket' which meant that there was only one available for that moment.

Another anomaly is that when we travel up to Plockton on the following day, the cost from Edinburgh to Plockton is £20.30 each BUT if we got tickets to The Kyle Of Lochalsh (which is the end of the line and 2 stops FURTHER) the cost is only £10.15 each (half the price, not bad for a 6 and a half hour journey on 3 trains) so we have bought tickets to there and will get off at Plockton.

Very complicated all this booking train tickets on-line but I'm starting to get my head round it but these 2 latest things have just puzzled me a bit.

The Advance fares you found to Kyle are not available to Plockton.

Officially, finishing short counts as a "break of journey" and isn't permitted. That is, of course, unenforceable at Plockton, and I doubt anyone would mind you doing that.

 

[najaB]

Officially, finishing short counts as a "break of journey" and isn't permitted. That is, of course, unenforceable at Plockton, and I doubt anyone would mind you doing that.

Especially up here in Scotrail land where my experience has been that the guards have a much more customer-friendly view of the rules.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

When we make a booking using Advance tickets on any of these websites, then we are at the mercy of the opaque tiers, quotas and prices of the fares which the rail Companies offer for sale. The suggestion by yorkie that someone else had temporarily had the second from last ticket at that price allocated to them is perfectly plausible. But there are other ways in which we can be caught out when buying for more than one passenger. When the journey involves 'legs' on other services, then there is an increased possibility of exceeding a threshold somewhere, even if those thresholds to another tier of ticket prices just happen to be at the same price!

In summary, if you have the time to do the research, then you will sometimes find lower prices by booking for one person at a time and booking each leg of the journey separately.

Did you find the £24:50 fare for the entire journey from Grimsby Town to Kyle of Lochalsh for travel in just one direction? That wasn't clear from your question.

Especially up here in Scotrail land where my experience has been that the guards have a much more customer-friendly view of the rules.

That may be your experience, and I would tend to agree, but there are plenty examples of passengers being refused travel or charged additional fares while travelling on legitimate tickets within Scotland - I have reported at least two on here and I'm sure others have done so too.

My point here is to make sure that les. is fully aware that 'stopping short' on an Advance ticket is not permitted, and while the good will / indifference / negligence of staff on the journey to Plockton is highly probable, it cannot be assured. Any difficulty or discussion of validity during travel will be sure to raise the probablility of a challenge.

 

[les.]

When we make a booking using Advance tickets on any of these websites, then we are at the mercy of the opaque tiers, quotas and prices of the fares which the rail Companies offer for sale. The suggestion by yorkie that someone else had temporarily had the second from last ticket at that price allocated to them is perfectly plausible. But there are other ways in which we can be caught out when buying for more than one passenger. When the journey involves 'legs' on other services, then there is an increased possibility of exceeding a threshold somewhere, even if those thresholds to another tier of ticket prices just happen to be at the same price!

In summary, if you have the time to do the research, then you will sometimes find lower prices by booking for one person at a time and booking each leg of the journey separately.

Did you find the £24:50 fare for the entire journey from Grimsby Town to Kyle of Lochalsh for travel in just one direction? That wasn't clear from your question.
That may be your experience, and I would tend to agree, but there are plenty examples of passengers being refused travel or charged additional fares while travelling on legitimate tickets within Scotland - I have reported at least two on here and I'm sure others have done so too.

My point here is to make sure that les. is fully aware that 'stopping short' on an Advance ticket is not permitted, and while the good will / indifference / negligence of staff on the journey to Plockton is highly probable, it cannot be assured. Any difficulty or discussion of validity during travel will be sure to raise the probablility of a challenge.

The £24.50 fare was from Grimsby to Edinburgh where we are staying on the Monday night. Excellent value for first class and only £7 more than standard class and it's certainly worth paying the extra when you consider that you get a free meal and drink in 1st class.

As for getting off early at Plockton (which is our journey on the Tuesday) I will probably gauge the situation on the day and if there is any doubt that we would be penalised getting off at Plockton we will just stay on until the Kyle, have a pint or two there and then catch the train the 2 stops back for £1.60 each.

 

[Kite159]

Go all the way to Kyle, it will be worth it. Stunning scenery