Which Company Gets My Fare?

[alistairlees]

@alistairlees - no doubt there is a logic to it but it's opaque to the end-user and it looks pretty random.

I've just run Brighton to Lewes x 10 on NRE with cookies cleared - the referrals were as follows


C2C
Chiltern
Chiltern
Hull Trains
GWR
Hull Trains
GWR
SWR
TPE
TfWales


Can you explain what is actually happening here - some sort of load-balancing or is it referral management?

No idea what you are doing there. Every time I try it I get Southern, as I would expect.

The rule is, the sale is handed off to:
1. the fare setter
2. if the fare setter can't support the ticket type, a random selection of retailers that can
3. if the fare setter doesn't retail online, a random retailer or (I think, and for example) Northern for West Yorks PTE set fares

 

[JB_B]

No idea what you are doing there. Every time I try it I get Southern, as I would expect.

The rule is, the sale is handed off to:
1. the fare setter
2. if the fare setter can't support the ticket type, a random selection of retailers that can
3. if the fare setter doesn't retail online, a random retailer or (I think, and for example) Northern for West Yorks PTE set fares

Thanks, Alistair.

For the next two departures - 23:02 and 23:11 I'm getting random retailers (at 22:56) as described above .

For subsequent departures 23:21 and after I'm consistently getting Southern - so presubably this is an issue with timing.

 

[kieron]

For subsequent departures 23:21 and after I'm consistently getting Southern - so presubably this is an issue with timing.

I'm sure it is. To me, it sounds as if Southern tell NRE that passengers have to allow so long between booking a ticket with them and and collecting it, and NRE treats Southern as a retailer who can't provide your tickets for orders before then.