Two Together discount not working on London-Beverley route

[staticsteve]

Hello

I wonder if anybody is able to offer any thoughts on the ticketing systems refusing to give me a discount using my 2 Together railcard.

The problem is encountered when trying to book a "HULLTRNS&NORTHRN" ticket from London to Beverley.

When attempting to book this ticket, the 2 Together Railcard discount does not work. The discount does not work no matter whether it's a single, return, or advance single.

(Other railcard discounts do work with this ticket, e.g. 16-25 Railcard).

For example, when searching for tickets London-Beverley, 24th December:
15:48-18:58, 2 tickets, advance singles, no railcard: £93
15:48-18:58, 2 tickets, advance singles, 2 Together railcard: £93 [i.e. NO DISCOUNT APPLIED]
15:48-18:58, 2 tickets, advance singles, 16-25 railcards: £61.20

The 2 Together discount does work when booking "EC&CONNECTIONS" tickets for London-Beverley or Hull Trains only tickets London-Hull, and Northern only tickets Hull-Beverley. However, booking these tickets would not allow me to travel on the services I want or would end up costing me more.

It appears as though there's an error in the system?

 

[plastictaffy]

Can you not just split-ticket it??

 

[Merseysider]

You should have no trouble obtaining these tickets from your local staffed station. It is odd that the discount isn't applied correctly; neither Hull Trains' own website nor Virgin Trains were able to apply it.

Which website were you using?

 

[lemonic]

I think that the error is in the fares database, not on a website in particular, so even obtaining the ticket from a ticket office may not prove possible.

e.g. on BRFares, the HULLTRNS&NORTHRN tickets don't appear if you select the Two Together Railcard discount.
http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=1072&dest=BEV&rlc=2TR

Your best bet is probably to try and contact Hull Trains and hope the message gets through to the Pricing Manager. Of course, he/she may see this post anyway as many Pricing Managers do read this forum!

 

[staticsteve]

Thank you for your suggestions. I wanted to check that I hadn't missed something, but it seems there is indeed an error.

I did try to buy this ticket from Kings Cross ticket office a few months ago, and had the same problem there. The clerk couldn't provide an explanation. Unfortunately I forgot to follow it up at the time.

I have now contacted Hull Trains and Northern too. I'll update this thread with their response.

In regards to possibly splitting the ticket (London-Hull & Hull-Beverley), this works out as being more expensive than the London-Beverley ticket, due to the high ticket price Hull-Beverley section.

 

[Paul Kelly]

For a walkup single ticket you can save a few pounds over the through Hull Trains & Northern Off-Peak Single (£96.90 w/out railcard discount) by splitting as follows:

OFF-PEAK S: LONDON TERMINALS to RETFORD (HULL TRAINS ONLY) £63.40
ANYTIME DAY S: RETFORD to DONCASTER. (HULL TRAINS ONLY) £7.90
ANYTIME DAY S: DONCASTER. to HOWDEN (DIRECT) £7.90
ANYTIME DAY S: HOWDEN to BEVERLEY (ANY PERMITTED) £12.20
Total £91.40

 

[RJ]

I am in the ticket office for the rest of today. Neither RJIS nor the TIS are allowing the 2TR discount on any tickets routed "HULLTRNS&NORTHRN"

 

[staticsteve]

I am in the ticket office for the rest of today. Neither RJIS nor the TIS are allowing the 2TR discount on any tickets routed "HULLTRNS&NORTHRN"

Thank you for checking.

Do train companies have the ability to 'opt out' of providing railcard discounts for certain tickets? Or will this just be a system error?

 

[starrymarkb]

I'm thinking error, these things happen, someone forgets to tick the right box when inputting the fares

 

[greatkingrat]

Yes, I think it is a mistake in the raw fares data. There are no Two Together Railcard fares for advances from London to anywhere between Cottingham and Nafferton. The same error also affects Family Railcard tickets, but other railcards seem OK.

 

[staticsteve]

Thank you for everybody's responses on this before.

I'm updating this thread with a happy ending: Hull Trains identified the error in the fares databse, and have now corrected it. They also refunded me the difference between what I had paid for my tickets and what I should have paid.

I'd also contacted Northern Rail and thetrainline about the error, to cover all bases. However, the customer service for both of those companies was abysmal - they denied that a problem existed and implied I was in the wrong, even when I took them step by step through the issue!

 

[najaB]

I'd also contacted Northern Rail and thetrainline about the error, to cover all bases.

TheTrainLine only sell tickets that the database allows them to sell. They probably had no idea at all what you were talking about, and for their business model they don't have to.

 

[yorkie]

I'd also contacted Northern Rail and thetrainline about the error, to cover all bases. However, the customer service for both of those companies was abysmal - they denied that a problem existed and implied I was in the wrong, even when I took them step by step through the issue!

That is exactly in line with my expectations of Northern Rail and thetrainline, so this isn't at all surprising.

Admittedly the problem isn't their fault, but their customer service staff are lacking the required training (and perhaps more) to have any clue whatsoever, and therefore unsurprisingly unable to identify the issue. Neither company has 'customer service' in its list of priorities, nor do they need to; their business models work perfectly fine without because they know that plenty of people will use their services regardless.

However it's great to hear that Hull Trains resolved the issue. I am not surprised you got a good response from them; in contrast with the other companies, customer service is important to them.