Paddington to Oxford Commute help?

[s2000]

I've been planning to commute from Paddington to Oxford on weekdays, 7.20 to Oxford in the morning, 16.32 to paddington in the evening. Usually over the last year, whenever I check on gwr, the tickets for these times have been £4.30 as long as I've checked at least 3 weeks or more in advance. I was able to do this for the month of September (booked near start of august) and for October (booked in start of September) Now I'm trying to buy tickets for November, but all the prices for the advance singles seem to have a higher baseline? Anyone know why, or was I just too slow and am I just out of luck now?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@s2000. Welcome to the forum. I'd say that £4.30 is the absolute cheapest possible one-way Advance Single fare after railcard discount has been applied, if/when travelling between London Paddington and Oxford (with GWR). The next tier up is £9.30. By comparison, an Anytime Day Single would cost you some £31.40. Obviously, no guarantee as regards the availability of advance tickets, on a particular train, at a particular price point, if/when commuting. As an alternative, there *might* be cheap advances if travelling between London Marylebone and Oxford (with Chiltern).

 

[CyrusWuff]

It's possible GWR have stopped offering lower tiers of Advance ticket on those trains. Just because something exists in the fares data is no guarantee they'll be available to buy, alas.

 

[s2000]

It just seems strange that I've seen this behaviour of the £4.30 tickets popping up when I look 3-4 weeks ahead consistently over the last couple months and now it all of a sudden it disappears, was curious if anyone else commutes the same and books similar tickets, or maybe I was just too slow and they've now all sold out. From what I've seen typically they don't keep cheaper fares to release later or anything in case of empty excess capacity?