This shouldn't be allowed...

[penaltyfines]

... to be advertised!

For a given journey (in the VT journey planner), super-off-peak single £11, advance single £19.

If a less restrictive ticket is available for less, advance tickets shouldn't be shown at all!

 

[Flamingo]

Maybe somebody WANTS to pay more?

 

[SS4]

I disagree, all the options should be shown - it is then up to the customer to decide which ticket they want.
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After all, you'd get people moaning that they weren't being given the full picture if you did otherwise

 

[ralphchadkirk]

I disagree, all the options should be shown - it is then up to the customer to decide which ticket they want.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
After all, you'd get people moaning that they weren't being given the full picture if you did otherwise

No, you'd get people coming along saying how they're in breach of the Ticket Settlement Agreement or something by not allowing every ticket for sale.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Provided they are offering the cheapest through ticket, what is the problem?

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Provided they are offering the cheapest through ticket, what is the problem?

There are awkward people who will look for any excuse to make a complaint.

 

[Flamingo]

There are awkward people who will look for any excuse to make a complaint.

I don't believe you hock:

 

[ChrisCooper]

It's no different to any other business doing the same. It's very common for shops to have offers than mean a better product ends up cheaper than an inferior one. It's like when I went shopping yesterday, the own brand "premium" pizza was on offer so actually cheaper than the normal own brand pizza. Naturally I got the better one. Other times it will be a bigger pack that is cheaper than the smaller one.

I imagine the only restriction is that they have to make customers aware of the cheaper price. If you went and asked for a ticket (none specific) and were sold the advanced one without being told that there was an open ticket for less, then you would have reason to complain. If you asked for the advanced one I'm not sure they would have to tell you about the cheaper open though.

 

[Zoe]

It's the same as splitting your journey using combinations of two or more tickets. It may well be cheaper but the TOCs don't have to issue the combination unless you ask for it.

 

[yorkie]

... to be advertised!

For a given journey (in the VT journey planner), super-off-peak single £11, advance single £19.

If a less restrictive ticket is available for less, advance tickets shouldn't be shown at all!

Well, there are two separate issues.

The first is a pricing issue. The fares should not exist. Virgin have gone part way to addressing this problem by introducing an Off Peak Single that is half the price of an Off Peak Return, available in lieu of a more expensive AP single. If all operators ensured that there was a walk-on ticket at half the price of the applicable return, for all flows, then it would ensure customers never ended up having to pay more for an Advance ticket than they should.

The other is a presentation issue. The higher priced AP fares should either not be shown, or should not be the default/first option. It should be easy to click on the cheapest available ticket. Some websites are better than others in this area.

If you combine good practice in the two areas, then there is highly unlikely to be a problem.

But combine the bad practice (such as the example I will post in my attachment) and it is a big problem for people who are not familiar with the intricacies of ticketing. In my example, the AP fares appear cheaper (from £7! - yeah right, as if!) and are the first option (many customers who book longer distance journeys may never consider clicking anywhere else!) and yet the Anytime Single is £29 and this is available on board the train at no additional cost. (so no need to worry about booking fees, postage, credit card surcharges, cancellation fees, etc)

 

[Flamingo]

Before FGW changed their fare structure so that the off-peak single was approx half the price of an off-peak return, I used to frequently see passengers who had paid more for their two off-peak advance tickets than the off-peak return. The change in price structure helped (although I see that the only tickets this applied to are FGW only - off-peak tickets involving cross-London transfers can often still have a difference of £1 between single and return).

Whenever I had passengers who had paid more for their "return" than the walk-up fare, I would try to give advice and exercise the infamous "discretion" when they were on the wrong train (even if I should have been "fair" and sold them a new ticket).

 

[yorkie]

Whenever I had passengers who had paid more for their "return" than the walk-up fare, I would try to give advice and exercise the infamous "discretion" when they were on the wrong train (even if I should have been "fair" and sold them a new ticket).

I think that is fair and you did right! They have already been punished enough by paying more than the 'correct' fare in the first place

 

[Flamingo]

I think that is fair and you did right! They have already been punished enough by paying more than the 'correct' fare in the first place

I have some real horror stories. I usually tried to make them feel better by sitting them in 1st.

 

[RJ]

There are awkward people who will look for any excuse to make a complaint.

Never!

 

[TEW]

The first is a pricing issue. The fares should not exist.

Surely in this case the £19 advance fare should exists, as it would be cheaper than an off-peak anytime single presumably. However, they shouldn't be released on trains which super off peak tickets are valid on.

The Trainline based sites have a much better system for showing the tickets in these cases, as they always show the cheapest single first, regardless of whether its a flexible or advance ticket. There is still the problem of two single tickets being more than a return. I don't think any system deals with that.

 

[yorkie]

Surely in this case the £19 advance fare should exists, as it would be cheaper than an off-peak anytime single presumably. However, they shouldn't be released on trains which super off peak tickets are valid on.

Agreed.

The Trainline based sites have a much better system for showing the tickets in these cases, as they always show the cheapest single first, regardless of whether its a flexible or advance ticket. There is still the problem of two single tickets being more than a return. I don't think any system deals with that.

Yes, true. The only way to elimnate that problem is for singles to be priced at 50% of the return ticket. (If necessary, don't allow them to be available singly, like Virgin currently do with the Off Peak Single SVH)