[WelshBluebird]

There is a bit of confusion here.
If you book in advance you get the choice of buying an advance ticket (cheaper, but limit you to a specific train, and are not always available) or a walk up ticket (off peak or anytime depending on the time of your journey). If you buy advance tickets, you will buy two singles. If you buy a walk up ticket, then its nearly always cheaper to buy a return.
If you do not book in advance, you do not have the option of the advance ticket. Buy the walk up ticket will not be any more expensive than if you bought the walk up ticket in advance.
I would personally avoid the trainline as they charge a booking fee.

[W.H.T]

(Original post by Linzikins)
I do agree with the time but it saves a lot of money and all you have to do is wait and you still travel between the times you desired. It depends on the amount you wish to spend I always go for the cheapest possible option I can without disrupting my journey.

The thing about buying it on the day is that you may get charged the highest possible rate for your journey (they tend to do this)

I paid £21.45 for a train and I missed it. I called the train company and they charged me around £60 on the day!

ouch, sorry to hear about that!

but why would you be charged the 'highest'? wouldn't they just charge you the same amount on the day as they do online?

Obviously theres the advance booking discount, but surely there can't be much difference in the way of price between booking online now, and turning up like two days later to pay at the counter?

Or do you mean if I miss the lower priced train online, then Id have to pay for the next one which is priced higher just as it is online?

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by W.H.T)
ouch, sorry to hear about that!

but why would you be charged the 'highest'? wouldn't they just charge you the same amount on the day as they do online?

Obviously theres the advance booking discount, but surely there can't be much difference in the way of price between booking online now, and turning up like two days later to pay at the counter?

Or do you mean if I miss the lower priced train online, then Id have to pay for the next one which is priced higher just as it is online?

Read above.
If you specifically book an advance ticket, then you are getting a significant discount. If you miss your train, then your ticket is no longer valid and you have to buy a new ticket (at walk up cost, so you do not get that significant discount).
That doesn't apply if you buy a walk up ticket in advance.

[Linzikins]

(Original post by W.H.T)
ouch, sorry to hear about that!

but why would you be charged the 'highest'? wouldn't they just charge you the same amount on the day as they do online?

Obviously theres the advance booking discount, but surely there can't be much difference in the way of price between booking online now, and turning up like two days later to pay at the counter?

Or do you mean if I miss the lower priced train online, then Id have to pay for the next one which is priced higher just as it is online?

Yes the second bit you said. I had got the earlier cheap train with the exact same journey but they didn't do the lower rates over the phone or at the station so I had to pay the usual fee of £60 to get home. Even though when I had booked online the later trains also had a few times for £21 but I still got charged the full rate.

Sometimes the tickets also go up online closer to the day but with it only being two days away you will more than likely be charged the amount you see on the website for the specific time you chose.

[W.H.T]

(Original post by WelshBluebird)
There is a bit of confusion here.
If you book in advance you get the choice of buying an advance ticket (cheaper, but limit you to a specific train, and are not always available) or a walk up ticket (off peak or anytime depending on the time of your journey). If you buy advance tickets, you will buy two singles. If you buy a walk up ticket, then its nearly always cheaper to buy a return.
If you do not book in advance, you do not have the option of the advance ticket. Buy the walk up ticket will not be any more expensive than if you bought the walk up ticket in advance.
I would personally avoid the trainline as they charge a booking fee.

By 'walk up', you mean 'anytime' tickets (which is the term used in the national rail website), right?

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by W.H.T)
By 'walk up', you mean 'anytime' tickets (which is the term used in the national rail website), right?

anytime or offpeak, depending on the time you are travelling .

[Norfolkadam]

(Original post by Linzikins)
Whatttt! £149! It costs me £21 for a return from Yorkshire to London. I bought myself a 16-24 railcard for £25 and save over £100 every time I travel to London! I loveee it!

I use trainline.com and find that the best, I used to use other ones but I always found they just ignored my seating requests where as trainline doesn't.

EDIT: I just looked and saw a return for £33 From London to Birmingham

PM me which station and i'll find you the cheapest tickets I can.

a. A railcard will never save you £100 on a £21 fare. You just bought different types of tickets.

b. thetrainline.com charges booking fees where the train operating companies don't.

c. There are only two types of booking 'engine' around and a seat request made on thetrainline.com will be processed in the same way as one booked on ScotRail or Southern.

The moral of this story is to never use a website which charges a booking fee and to use the website of the train operating company covering the most expensive section of your journey on the (very unlikely) chance they have website-only offers (I know First Great Western and Cross Country sometimes do this. Cross Country also offers an NUS Extra discount on their tickets). Failing that use East Coast as their booking engine is the best and if your tickets don't arrive in the post they're always happy for you to pick them up at the station.

Also, between London and Birmingham, it is cheaper (significantly cheaper in fact) to buy off-peak or anytime tickets from London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor St with Chiltern Railways. With advance tickets it's worth checking out both Virgin from Euston to New St and Chiltern's availability.

[Linzikins]

(Original post by Norfolkadam)


a. A railcard will never save you £100 on a £21 fare. You just bought different types of tickets.

b. thetrainline.com charges booking fees where the train operating companies don't.

c. There are only two types of booking 'engine' around and a seat request made on thetrainline.com will be processed in the same way as one booked on ScotRail or Southern.

The moral of this story is to never use a website which charges a booking fee and to use the website of the train operating company covering the most expensive section of your journey on the (very unlikely) chance they have website-only offers (I know First Great Western and Cross Country sometimes do this. Cross Country also offers an NUS Extra discount on their tickets). Failing that use East Coast as their booking engine is the best and if your tickets don't arrive in the post they're always happy for you to pick them up at the station.

Also, between London and Birmingham, it is cheaper (significantly cheaper in fact) to buy off-peak or anytime tickets from London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor St with Chiltern Railways. With advance tickets it's worth checking out both Virgin from Euston to New St and Chiltern's availability.

1. I meant a single is £21.45 and it would normally cost between £70 - £110
2. It's only like £1
3. That was my opinion that Trainline is better .

Infact I just looked and a ticket now would cost me £131 for a single without my railcard. £73 with my railcard, saving £58 now if that was a return it would be over £100.

[Norfolkadam]

(Original post by Linzikins)
1. I meant a single is £21.45 and it would normally cost between £70 - £110
2. It's only like £1
3. That was my opinion that Trainline is better .

Infact I just looked and a ticket now would cost me £131 for a single without my railcard. £73 with my railcard, saving £58 now if that was a return it would be over £100.

1. A railcard saves you a third. Two thirds of £70-£110 is not £21.45.

2. It charges a £1 booking fee which you don't have to pay for other sites plus a £3.50 fee if you pay on a credit card. It's a scam.

3. thetrainline.com as a company provides the software that the majority of train operators use on their webiste. What I'm saying is that the experience of buying a ticket on a train operator's website is exactly the same as buying it on thetrainline.com but £1-£4.50 cheaper. If you use thetrainline.com you are basically just falling for their scam and that's not very clever.

On your last point this is flawed because of the way tickets work. I don't know where you live so I'll use Selby:

Selby - London (w/out railcard)
Super Off-Peak Single: £87.60
Super Off-Peak Return: £88.60

Selby - London (w/ railcard)
Super Off-Peak Single: £57.80
Super Off-Peak Return: £58.50

So, as you can see due to a rather strange pricing system you would never save £100 unless you were stupid enough to buy two off-peak/anytime single tickets (costing twice the price) than a return.

[Rakas21]

The best website to use is eastcoast.co.uk, the user interface is far superior to any other and you can still get the services from other train operators.

The reason for the difference in price between the station and internet is because at the station they only sell 'open' tickets which is why you can use them at any time that day.

From the internet, you are able to book a particular seat on a particular train. This is something else overlooked because despite paying more for an 'open' ticket, that ticket only gives you the right to travel on the train and if you are on a busy service with a lot of reserved seats then you can and will be asked to move (i once paid £6 for a ticket to Manchester on a packed train and had the conductor remove an elderly women who had paid £40 on the grounds that i had booked the seat, as a result she had to stand).

Even if you miss the particular train, the best thing to do is get straight back online because it will still likely be cheaper than getting the 'open' ticket.

[Rakas21]

You can get from Leeds to London for £21 however that is buying a ticket for an individual train, your student card likely saved you nothing on that ticket.

[Linzikins]

(Original post by Norfolkadam)
Selby - London (w/out railcard)
Super Off-Peak Single: £87.60
Super Off-Peak Return: £88.60

Selby - London (w/ railcard)
Super Off-Peak Single: £57.80
Super Off-Peak Return: £58.50

I don't pay by credit card so only pay £1 which I don't think is extortionate when I have use it plenty of times and know its reliable. After looking at an off peak return it still saves saves me £60 which may not be £100 but is still a high amount of money to save.

Return w/ railcard - £178.40
Return w/ railcard - £117.75

Saving a total of £60.65

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by Rakas21)
The reason for the difference in price between the station and internet is because at the station they only sell 'open' tickets which is why you can use them at any time that day.

Not true at all. You can buy advance fares from stations (also not all walk up fares can be used anytime, if you have a off peak ticket you can't use it at peak times).
And walk up fares are not the same thing as open tickets.
An open ticket is a return ticket when you do not know when you will be returning. You can also get normal singles, or normal day returns (returning the same day), or normal returns (where you are returning within 30 days - not available on some smaller lines). Or offpeak versions of those where available.

(Original post by Rakas21)
Even if you miss the particular train, the best thing to do is get straight back online because it will still likely be cheaper than getting the 'open' ticket.

Not true. You can only book an advance fare the day before you travel.
On the day, any fare you can buy online you can also buy at the station.

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by Linzikins)
I don't pay by credit card so only pay £1

But why pay £1 when you don't have to? It makes no sense.

[Norfolkadam]

(Original post by Linzikins)
I don't pay by credit card so only pay £1 which I don't think is extortionate when I have use it plenty of times and know its reliable. After looking at an off peak return it still saves saves me £60 which may not be £100 but is still a high amount of money to save.

Return w/ railcard - £178.40
Return w/ railcard - £117.75

Saving a total of £60.65

It saves you a third, which is how much a railcard saves you. This is what I'm trying to say. You're not giving very good advice if you're telling people to use a scam site to book tickets and buy a £28 railcard to save amounts they can't save.

Given the choice between Product A that costs £1 and Product A that is free I don't know very many intelligent people who would take the £1 one.

[W.H.T]

(Original post by Rakas21)
The best website to use is eastcoast.co.uk, the user interface is far superior to any other and you can still get the services from other train operators.

The reason for the difference in price between the station and internet is because at the station they only sell 'open' tickets which is why you can use them at any time that day.

From the internet, you are able to book a particular seat on a particular train. This is something else overlooked because despite paying more for an 'open' ticket, that ticket only gives you the right to travel on the train and if you are on a busy service with a lot of reserved seats then you can and will be asked to move (i once paid £6 for a ticket to Manchester on a packed train and had the conductor remove an elderly women who had paid £40 on the grounds that i had booked the seat, as a result she had to stand).

Even if you miss the particular train, the best thing to do is get straight back online because it will still likely be cheaper than getting the 'open' ticket.

Wait, can't you buy a ticket for a specific train (i.e. the departing time) at the station?

[Rakas21]

(Original post by W.H.T)
Wait, can't you buy a ticket for a specific train (i.e. the departing time) at the station?

No, just peak/off peak as described a few posts above.

[duracell]

(Original post by Linzikins)
I don't pay by credit card so only pay £1 which I don't think is extortionate when I have use it plenty of times and know its reliable.

Well if you only use the trainline... then say in the past 3 months or so you've booked 10 journeys. Everyone else has effectively saved £10 by not using the trainline.
Yes, on its own £1 isn't very much. But when you start adding it up... probably best to use the train companies' own websites.

On another note, if you use East Coast to book your tickets, they sometimes give a discount on their own fares, so you're definitely getting a better deal.

[feelbetter]

Hi guys, I will be commuting to Leeds from Huddersfield (all in West Yorkshire) for Uni, what would be the cheapest options? I've seen this: http://www.wymetro.com/TicketsAndPas...sMetroCard.htm
but could the railcard be used in conjuction? Any help would be appreciated

[Rakas21]

(Original post by feelbetter)
Hi guys, I will be commuting to Leeds from Huddersfield (all in West Yorkshire) for Uni, what would be the cheapest options? I've seen this: http://www.wymetro.com/TicketsAndPas...sMetroCard.htm


but could the railcard be used in conjuction? Any help would be appreciated

The student plus metrocard costs £67.50 per month and entitles you to free bus and train travel in Yorkshire. Your rail card will not apply. (although if going to Manchester, you would only have to pay from Stalybridge)