Share of saving fees charged by split ticket providers

[FQTV]

If we were to offer specific card collection for the first purchase of a logged in user, but then any card collection for subsequent purchases, would that help?

And then, almost immediately, I found a ticket that only Trainsplit/Raileasy could offer, and booked it without hesitation to collect myself. Proving, in doing so, that my suggestion above is (even in terms of my own behaviour) only one of possibly many considerations.

@FQTV please create a new thread to discuss credit card vs paypal security as that sounds an interesting topic in its own right and it's not directly related to this one.

Anyone is entirely at liberty to create a new thread relating to anything that they’re personally interested in; I merely responded to a post on this one and have nothing further to add in that regard.

 

[BigCj34]

I'm wondering if there's a couple of options that may help:

1) Charge an annual membership with either nil or reduced commission
2) Look at a capped commission. Sometimes the savings can be substantial, which does lead to an eye-watering fee. Would a cap of £5 cover the costs and encourage more bookings?

I think a obvious one is to not openly state which tickets are used until the purchase is made, just specify that they involve advance tickets and the journey must be made at a certain time, that the train must stop at certain stations, peak restrictions etc. Or show that information to paid subscribers only if we're going by hour case.

 

[SickyNicky]

Yes, we thought about that, but various rules don't allow it.

 

[trebor79]

Also that wouldn't suit me at all as you need to know the split points to make use of the flexibility from flexible tickets.
It's bad enough having to click through to the "proceed" screen as it is to discover the split points.

 

[BigCj34]

Also that wouldn't suit me at all as you need to know the split points to make use of the flexibility from flexible tickets.
It's bad enough having to click through to the "proceed" screen as it is to discover the split points.

It does state that the train must stop at certain stations anyway, though not sure that helps in itself.

Would a member only subscription service help? Obviously though that doesn't differentiate those who occasionally use splits and power users.

Capping seems like a good idea, or maybe charging more commission per the number of splits found, to avoid cases where there could be a £15 charge from 1 split point.

 

[Clip]

The tickets that trainsplit sell, like Trainlines, are the same price and the same tickets. Just with a fee added like Trainline do. Trainsplit take the leg work out of it and make it easier and charge for that, albeit not calling it a charge, and merely saying it’s a percentage of the saving. Trainline saves you going to your local station and queuing up to buy a ticket, they charge for that ease too. Although at a flat rate. Still sounds very similar to me. Just some people fall for the marketing hype of it not being called a fee with trainsplit. A charge by any other name is still a charge. People avoid buying on XC website because it’s £1 to collect tickets. People don’t like extra charges, however you describe them. Trainsplit would have a lot more business if it were free.

Fee or Saving it doesn't really matter and I am surprised that so many people would use Trainsplit to find them then go somewhere else to buy them just because it was a cut of the pot? Possibly the biggest innovation to our mad ticketing world was developing a site that can find the splits for you.

I mean The Trainline was an established business, sells its services to the TOCs anyway and its corporate services and makes money on selling large volume of tickets.

Trainsplit - small company that needs to pay its developers and its servers for what is a really intricate bit of programming and wants a small amount of that saving back yet people are against it? If its that bad for you then build your own and see how far you get before you have to sell your house to fund it.

 

[trebor79]

It does state that the train must stop at certain stations anyway, though not sure that helps in itself.

Would a member only subscription service help? Obviously though that doesn't differentiate those who occasionally use splits and power users.

Capping seems like a good idea, or maybe charging more commission per the number of splits found, to avoid cases where there could be a £15 charge from 1 split point.

Sorry, what I mean is that on the matrix of fares that a search brings up, if you hover over the prices you get some information but not where the splits are. It not until you make a selection and click through to the next screen that you get that information.
Eg random made up example, a journey on flexible tickets with splits at Stowmarket, Colchester and Chelmsford wouldn't be much good for me and I'd rather pay more for a single split at Colchester as there's vastly more flexibility that way without restoring to an Ipswich stopper.

 

[paul1609]

I think a obvious one is to not openly state which tickets are used until the purchase is made, just specify that they involve advance tickets and the journey must be made at a certain time, that the train must stop at certain stations, peak restrictions etc. Or show that information to paid subscribers only if we're going by hour case.

To me this would cut down the number of tickets I would purchase from train split. I often do a search for a journey to/ from Kent. The overall journey fare often isn't acceptable so I then search for the journey to/from London terminals and buy that from trainsplit and buy the south of London element from the local TOC. Following recent discussions with Sticky Nicky I've learnt that I can add the South of London element to the Trainsplit basket without hitting them with a additional TOD charge so will do that in future.

This situation arises because Trainsplit tries to split in london and then completes the journey across London with a £4.90 ticket when i would walk (Euston to St Pancras) or use contactless. Also trainsplit will only offer me split advances on the first train to offer the minimum connection time to my ultimate (mostly hourly) service on Marshlink whereas there will often be an advance that has a 20 minute longer connection in London but cost a lot less (manchester and Birmingham).

 

[Joe Paxton]

Fee or Saving it doesn't really matter and I am surprised that so many people would use Trainsplit to find them then go somewhere else to buy them just because it was a cut of the pot? Possibly the biggest innovation to our mad ticketing world was developing a site that can find the splits for you.

I mean The Trainline was an established business, sells its services to the TOCs anyway and its corporate services and makes money on selling large volume of tickets.

Trainsplit - small company that needs to pay its developers and its servers for what is a really intricate bit of programming and wants a small amount of that saving back yet people are against it? If its that bad for you then build your own and see how far you get before you have to sell your house to fund it.

Agreed. Unfortunately, like many things 'on the internet', people don't necessarily appreciate (or else don't care) about the effort and costs that are behind making it happen.