Problem booking on TPE Black Friday offer

[supervalkoinen]

I've got through to the final (payment) page of my booking but I keep getting prompted to re-check details.

All is correct apart from the country field, which is mandatory, but doesn't present a drop-down list or allow any entry, so remains blank.

Any thoughts?

Edited - please ignore - after several attempts a drop-down list appeared. No help required.

 

[FQTV]

I've not had a problem with Black Friday bookings, oddly, but I've had lots of bother with WebTIS sites since they changed the payment page.

I've had to delete saved cards and re-enter card details, change browsers or just give up and come back later.

If you're on a desktop, do you have another browser you can use? If not, do you have a tablet that you could try it on?

 

[yorkie]

Looks like a rubbish offer to me. I had a look at fares for a weekend and they want 5p more for 2x Advance fares than walk-up fares! Both trains have the * indicating "promotional rate". The walk-up fares are not shown. I'll use a walk-up loophole ticket instead. This has to be the worst "promotion" I've ever seen, and that's saying something.

 

[supervalkoinen]

Looks like a rubbish offer to me. I had a look at fares for a weekend and they want 5p more for 2x Advance fares than walk-up fares! Both trains have the * indicating "promotional rate". The walk-up fares are not shown. I'll use a walk-up loophole ticket instead. This has to be the worst "promotion" I've ever seen, and that's saying something.

A decent fare for me - £19.80 for an advance single with railcard, down from £26.40.

Anytime day single with railcard would have been £47.45, with no loophole that I know of.

 

[Starmill]

Looks like a rubbish offer to me. I had a look at fares for a weekend and they want 5p more for 2x Advance fares than walk-up fares! Both trains have the * indicating "promotional rate". The walk-up fares are not shown. I'll use a walk-up loophole ticket instead. This has to be the worst "promotion" I've ever seen, and that's saying something.

I don't understand. It's a % off offer. You know exactly what you're getting. How can it be 'the worst promotion ever'? Just because the particular trains you have selected have expensive Advances? I'm sure someone who looked at a train with more availability and got their 25% off would think it were a great offer. The offer makes it clear they are for Advance tickets only and that is all it shows you if you click through the offer.

 

[PermitToTravel]

The OP seems to find it worthwhile value for money

 

[yorkie]

A decent fare for me - £19.80 for an advance single with railcard, down from £26.40.

Anytime day single with railcard would have been £47.45, with no loophole that I know of.

What journey is that? For some journeys, a return is only a few pence more than a single, so it's possible 2 x Advances wouldn't be much of a saving.

I'm glad you did a comparison though because I am concerned some people may think they are getting a good deal, when they aren't:-

Image shows Advance fares of £15 one way and £13.15 the other, totalling £28.15, for York-Manchester (Off Peak Return: £28)

The lowest fares on offer are £12.40 and £11.65, totalling £24.05 which isn't much of a saving compared to a flexible walk-up fare, given the significant additional restrictions imposed.

I don't understand. It's a % off offer. You know exactly what you're getting. How can it be 'the worst promotion ever'?

It's the worst I've seen, because it would cost more than a flexible fare, with no warning of this.

Just because the particular trains you have selected have expensive Advances? I'm sure someone who looked at a train with more availability and got their 25% off would think it were a great offer. The offer makes it clear they are for Advance tickets only and that is all it shows you if you click through the offer.

Even if I took trains I don't want to get, the saving compared to a walk-up fare is very minimal and not worth the loss of flexibility.

As a comparison, the recent VTEC offer was around a 90% saving compared to the walk-up fare from York to London.

If it's good for you, great, but I would advise people to check and do a thorough comparison before booking!!

 

[Starmill]

It's the worst I've seen, because it would cost more than a flexible fare, with no warning of this.
Even if I took trains I don't want to get, the saving compared to a walk-up fare is very minimal and not worth the loss of flexibility.

As a comparison, the recent VTEC offer was around a 90% saving compared to the walk-up fare from York to London.

The first line in the terms and conditions says that the 25% discount applies to Advance tickets only. The offer portal is only capable of showing the fares available under the special offer, which I agree is a drawback, but you can only access it if you specifically click through to it and read what it is, which is a sale on Advance tickets.

The offer is actually a very good deal. Particularly for a non-railcard holder. See how it is also available in First Class.

The problem you have come up with is merely that two advance tickets cost more than a return. Much more, in this case. I agree that this isn't a good thing but TPE started doing this more at the last fares round because they had the majority of their North TP trains selling out of Advances a couple of weeks beforehand. Personally I think if they want to sell more expensive advances than half a flexible return then they should be able to, because it will still benefit the few people only going one way. The alternative would simply be that they go back to how it was before and there would be no availability for those dates.

In short we agree there is a problem but I doubt you could think of a better way of doing it, other than perhaps to make it clearer than the non-sale fares can't be shown (or just show them!). Your problem is nothing to do with the promotion, which is actually a very good one.

 

[yorkie]

We will have to agree to disagree then, as I shan't be using it.

If some people can benefit, great, but I just urge people to double-check and do a thorough comparison (using BRfares.com or a different booking engine, or the normal TPE booking engine using a different web browser) first.

(By contrast, such extra steps are not necessary with, for example, VTEC's recent sale, as other fares are shown alongside, and the website would warn you in the event of more expensive Advance fares being selected)

 

[PermitToTravel]

It is annoying that TPE do that with their offers. When using the 50% discount for YP holders it only shows standard APs, as these are the only eligible ones. There are plenty of occasions where a 1st AP without the discount isn't much more, and I'd upgrade as I'm sure would many others; but they've hidden everything other than the tickets included in the offer.

 

[FQTV]

The offer has provided me with First Class singles between York and Durham for £9.30, and Standard Class singles with Two Together for £3.45.

Rubbish .