SWT Free Weekend tickets offer altered

[James Wake]

South West Trains seem to have changed their Ts and Cs of their free weekend tickets, which is a real blow, as they don't have an all network ticket like Southern now (they haven't done a Rainbow Day in ages).

I'm now not sure what to do when I renew in November. I have currently a Haywards Heath to Zones 2-6 annual Gold Card AAA Crawley, I also hold a ticket that enables free travel on trams, DLR, tube, bus, Tfl rail and London Overground.

I attach a copy of the email that SWT sent back to me after my initial enquiry


"Thank you for your enquiry.

When South West Trains first introduced the free weekend tickets they were
obviously intended for South West Trains season ticket holders only. The
mailshots were produced manually and any non-SWT season ticket holders were
not included.

The mailshots were then automatically produced from our season ticket
database and all annual season ticket holders were included, if the ticket
was purchased from a SWT outlet, as it was very difficult to differentiate
journeys.

As from this year, the system has been upgraded and any non-SWT journeys
are not included in the mailshot. Below is the extract from our website
explaining the qualification for the 6 free tickets.


Free travel at weekends – We issue South West Trains season ticket holders
who exclusively travel on South West Trains services*, with 6 one-day
tickets allowing unlimited travel on South West Trains services only at
weekends and public holidays. (Tickets are not valid for cross-Solent
travel to/from the Isle of Wight.)

* Travel must be wholly on South West Trains services




As your journey from Haywards Heath is not a SWT jouney I am afraid you
will not qualify in the future"

Any advice?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Doesn't sound *entirely* unreasonable.

 

[alastair]

South West Trains seem to have changed their Ts and Cs of their free weekend tickets, which is a real blow, as they don't have an all network ticket like Southern now (they haven't done a Rainbow Day in ages).

I'm now not sure what to do when I renew in November. I have currently a Haywards Heath to Zones 2-6 annual Gold Card AAA Crawley, I also hold a ticket that enables free travel on trams, DLR, tube, bus, Tfl rail and London Overground.

I attach a copy of the email that SWT sent back to me after my initial enquiry


"Thank you for your enquiry.

When South West Trains first introduced the free weekend tickets they were
obviously intended for South West Trains season ticket holders only. The
mailshots were produced manually and any non-SWT season ticket holders were
not included.

The mailshots were then automatically produced from our season ticket
database and all annual season ticket holders were included, if the ticket
was purchased from a SWT outlet, as it was very difficult to differentiate
journeys.

As from this year, the system has been upgraded and any non-SWT journeys
are not included in the mailshot. Below is the extract from our website
explaining the qualification for the 6 free tickets.


Free travel at weekends – We issue South West Trains season ticket holders
who exclusively travel on South West Trains services*, with 6 one-day
tickets allowing unlimited travel on South West Trains services only at
weekends and public holidays. (Tickets are not valid for cross-Solent
travel to/from the Isle of Wight.)

* Travel must be wholly on South West Trains services




As your journey from Haywards Heath is not a SWT jouney I am afraid you
will not qualify in the future"

Any advice?

Don't really get what you are on about. Their reply is pretty clear. If you travel from Haywards Heath then why on earth would SWT give you free tickets?

Some years ago,for 4 or 5 years,I had a "Ryde" Gold Card,always bought from an SWT station. Only one year did I get the free SWT tickets,which I assumed was a mistake,although naturally I used them. It didnt happen again!

 

[James Wake]

Sorry, one thing I missed out is that I bought it from SWT to use the offer, I bought my previous annual season from Southern, but will now try and see if I can cut the costs of my travel a bit.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Maybe so I get a free travel offer that I could use, is it a good idea to purchase it from Chiltern at Marylebone?

 

[Tetchytyke]

Maybe so I get a free travel offer that I could use, is it a good idea to purchase it from Chiltern at Marylebone?

Outboundary Travelcards have to start at a Chiltern Railways station to benefit from the Chiltern Railways free travel offer.

 

[James Wake]

Better make the most of my last 5 SWT free tickets, maybe try and do as much of the network as I can in a day, my coverage of SWT is about 80-85% of the network. I will get planning.
Have not done on SWT:
Worcester Park to Epsom
Tolworth to Chessington South
Staines to Windsor
Surbiton to Hampton Court
Addlestone to Weybridge
Romsey to Eastleigh via Chandler's Ford
Leatherhead to Effingham Junction
Fulwell to Shepperton
Salisbury to Bristol/Exeter
Brockenhurst to Lymington
Strawberry Hill direct to Fulwell via Fulwell curve (had chance last week but poor information from SWT during disruption cost me the chance)

Other than that, the rest is coloured in on my sheet of paper, so all good.

 

[455driver]

So you used a loophole to get 6 days free 1st class travel which you ordinarily would not be entitled to and because the loophole has been closed you think it unfair, is that the gist of it?

 

[James Wake]

I was unaware at the time of purchase that it was perhaps a loophole, I don't mind too much, it will be a shame, but I enjoy doing bus related days out too, and there is an excellent value ticket I use around my way which is valid on about 12 different bus operators, so all is well.

 

[Wolfie]

So you used a loophole to get 6 days free 1st class travel which you ordinarily would not be entitled to and because the loophole has been closed you think it unfair, is that the gist of it?

I'm not quite sure where the 1st class bit came from - the free tickets are the same class as the season ticket. I hope that I'm not caught out by this - I have an Annual Z1-2 Travelcard purchased at Waterloo but do actually use SWT services as part of my regular journey....

 

[MikeWh]

Free travel at weekends – We issue South West Trains season ticket holders
who exclusively travel on South West Trains services*, with 6 one-day
tickets allowing unlimited travel on South West Trains services only at
weekends and public holidays. (Tickets are not valid for cross-Solent
travel to/from the Isle of Wight.)

* Travel must be wholly on South West Trains services

I hope that I'm not caught out by this - I have an Annual Z1-2 Travelcard purchased at Waterloo but do actually use SWT services as part of my regular journey....

I can see this causing quite a bit of negative publicity if it is applied strictly. Anyone with a travelcard has the opportunity to use services other than SWT so surely they wouldn't qualify. How about someone travelling from Basingstoke to Denmark Hill? Are they really barred because they use LO for a few stops from Clapham Junction? If a travelcard is ok, because surely they know lots of people work other than around Waterloo itself, then shouldn't any journey where say 75%+ is on SWT be ok?

I wonder if they've thought this through?

 

[kieron]

I wonder if they've thought this through?

SWT seem to be a bit hesitant about the change, as they say "who exclusively travel on South West Trains services" on the season ticket page, but say "who regularly travel on South West Trains services" on the season tickets conditions page, where the full paragraph reads:.

Free travel at weekends – We issue South West Trains season ticket holders who regularly travel on South West Trains services, with 6 one-day tickets allowing unlimited travel on South West Trains services only at weekends and public holidays. (Tickets are not valid for cross-Solent travel to/from the Isle of Wight.)
​

If you (or someone affected by this) don't use them several times a week, this offer isn't really meant to be for you. If you do, it may be worth getting in touch with them.

 

[455driver]

I'm not quite sure where the 1st class bit came from - the free tickets are the same class as the season ticket. I hope that I'm not caught out by this - I have an Annual Z1-2 Travelcard purchased at Waterloo but do actually use SWT services as part of my regular journey....

Oops my bad, I thought they were 1st class tickets, I am reading the title of the thread as free weekend 1st, sorry for the confusion.

Either way a Z1-2 season (which may or may not be normally used on SWT services) or a Haywards Heath to London ticket (which probably wouldn't be used on SWT services and for which SWT probably wouldn't get any/much revenue from) and gives 6 days rover validity is a bit of a good deal really isn't it.

Is it any surprise they have tightened this up!

 

[Kite159]

Will you still get the freebie tickets with a Ryde season ticket (if purchased from a SWT station)? [even if the chance of using said season ticket are quite remote]

 

[A60K]

Oops my bad, I thought they were 1st class tickets, sorry for the confusion.

Either way a Z1-2 season (which may or may not be normally used on SWT services) or a Haywards Heath to London ticket (which probably wouldn't be used on SWT services and for which SWT probably wouldn't get any/much revenue from) and gives 6 days rover validity is a bit of a good deal really isn't it.

Is it any surprise they have tightened this up!

I'm not too surprised they've tightened up, although the extra revenue from someone buying such a ticket at an SWT station rather than their natural home station on the route would have been the seller's commission - how much would that be worth to SWT?

 

[infobleep]

What about for example, someone who travels from Petersfield to Dorking on an Annual season ticket? You can travel to any of the three stations in Dorking.

Are they now covered by the offer or not? There journey involves travel on both South West Trains and Great Western Railway. I've not checked the routing guide to see if their is an exclusive route via South West Trains only but there is a route that allows travel via Great Western Railway even if there is.

 

[455driver]

Maybe SWT should just say 'eff it' and not bother!
Why cant people just accept things at face value and say thank you instead of always looking to either abuse it as much as possible or moaning like hell because their free ticket (for use on SWT services) wont get them to Edinburgh!

 

[infobleep]

Maybe SWT should just say 'eff it' and not bother!
Why cant people just accept things at face value and say thank you instead of always looking to either abuse it as much as possible or moaning like hell because their free ticket (for use on SWT services) wont get them to Edinburgh!

I wasn't talking about going to Edinburgh, purely services that straddle more than one TOC, one of which is SWT.

I was only wondering out of interest point of view as I'm interested in the railways.

Saying that I do find that times people who need to travel across multiple TOCs are disadvantaged. For example no advance purchase tickets exist that straddle South West Trains and Govia Thameslink. That's a separate argument and discussion to this though and one I think far more important than whether one gets six free tickets or not.

 

[sushiuk]

Has there been another change to the free tickets as the SWT website says:
'.... 6 one-day tickets allowing unlimited travel on South West Trains services only at weekends and public holidays'

I've used the free tickets on Fridays before. The T&C's on the back on the free tickets I have say :
'2. This ticket is valid for travel on any South West Trains service on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and designated Bank holidays ..... The ticket is not valid for travel from London Waterloo or Clapham Junction on trains departing between 1600 & 1900 inclusive on Fridays.'

 

[455driver]

I wasn't talking about going to Edinburgh, purely services that straddle more than one TOC, one of which is SWT.

It wasn't actually aimed at you but was meant as a general comment.

I was only wondering out of interest point of view as I'm interested in the railways.

so are most of us on here with a few notable exceptions!

Saying that I do find that times people who need to travel across multiple TOCs are disadvantaged. For example no advance purchase tickets exist that straddle South West Trains and Govia Thameslink.

They are not disadvantaged, they can use the free tickets just like everyone else!

That's a separate argument and discussion to this though and one I think far more important than whether one gets six free tickets or not.

The free tickets are just that free.

 

[Starmill]

It depends how you look at it really. The rover ticket costs SWT £0 - or maybe £0.000001 in increased train energy usage from having one marginal passenger.

In exchange they get the season ticket comission - about 2%?

So really the only people getting something for nothing are SWT, not the poor sod getting their 5 Grand a year season.

 

[PermitToTravel]

I'm not too surprised they've tightened up, although the extra revenue from someone buying such a ticket at an SWT station rather than their natural home station on the route would have been the seller's commission - how much would that be worth to SWT?

2% of the ticket value (so about £100 on a Hayward's Heath travelcard). To be honest I thought the intention of offers like this one was to reward people for buying their London travelcard from SWT/Chiltern/etc, as opposed to travelling with them - but evidently not

 

[Starmill]

Almost all TOCs run some sort of benefit scheme for season ticket holders - they don't do it out of the goodness of their heart, they do it to make people buy their ticket from them or for a longer period than they otherwise might. In other words these perks make them money and make people feel good about them, so they definitely wouldn't scrap them.


Six day rover tickets is a bit stingy as an incentive for that £100 when you think about it!

 

[infobleep]

It wasn't actually aimed at you but was meant as a general comment.

so are most of us on here with a few notable exceptions!

They are not disadvantaged, they can use the free tickets just like everyone else!

The free tickets are just that free.

No I was talking about advanced purchase tickets. If I want a ticket from Bournemouth to Waterloo I can get an advanced purchase one. However if I wanted a Bournemouth to Brighton ticket I doubt an advanced purchase ticket exists because it straddles TOCs.

Yet if I was going to say York and travelling via Virgin East Coast Trains, I could get an advanced purchase ticket.