How Far In Advance Can You Book Train Tickets?

[RollingJ 2,017]

1 minute ago, Mr Allen said:

Yep, hence I'm looking at Train tickets now, in late May, for the second Sunday in August.

 

 

Fair enough, but I suspect some will still be subject to the restrictions imposed at the start of the pandemic, plus the added complication of the pending ticket 'simplification'.

[Mr Allen 0]

Thing is I did used to have a disabled rail card a few years ago, but I only used it about 3 times in a year so I didn't save enough money to warrant the price of the card.

 

 

 

 

[butlers 259]

I would there's not a lot to save on the York trip ,you should be as to get it at reasonable times for £19.90. rtn.

 

 

[RollingJ 2,017]

1 minute ago, Mr Allen said:

Thing is I did used to have a disabled rail card a few years ago, but I only used it about 3 times in a year so I didn't save enough money to warrant the price of the card.

 

 

 

 

That's a pity - my Senior 3-year card pays for itself in about six months.

[butlers 259]

Course I am missing a trick

If you can travel to Leeds for nothing ,then do LDS-YRK return.

That can be had from £6.80, granted it's slower

My commission is a pint for this tip😀

Edited May 22, 2021 by butlers

[Mr Allen 0]

4 minutes ago, butlers said:

Course I am missing a trick

If you can travel to Leeds for nothing ,then do LDS-YRK return.

That can be had from £6.80, granted it's slower

My commission is a pint for this tip😀

Yeah go on then, gimme a shout by PM and I'll meet you in any Hillsborough pub this week.

 

[butlers 259]

Likely my best bargain was.

My folks rent out a cottage and 2 adults, 2 kids were coming up from Bristol for a weekend,they had been once before.

Anyhow  as I was taking the booking the fellow said it was about £160 for them to travel.

At the time one of the TOC ,an offshoot of Stagecoach I think, had limited seats only bookable online that did not even show up on National Rail 

Upshot being it was £24 for the 4 of them to travel.

 

[Mr Allen 0]

Sheffield to York via Leeds probably would be cheaper, but it's a very long way round, Leeds is in West Yorks, York is in North Yorks so it'd probably take all day to get there.

 

 

[butlers 259]

I doubt it's more than 50 mins more if you pick your connections.

££ versus time

[BigAl1 143]

On 22/05/2021 at 19:33, butlers said:

Likely my best bargain was.

My folks rent out a cottage and 2 adults, 2 kids were coming up from Bristol for a weekend,they had been once before.

Anyhow  as I was taking the booking the fellow said it was about £160 for them to travel.

At the time one of the TOC ,an offshoot of Stagecoach I think, had limited seats only bookable online that did not even show up on National Rail 

Upshot being it was £24 for the 4 of them to travel.

 

£6 per head from Bristol to Sheffield pull the other one

 

hard to believe that Stagecoach would have had deals that were not Stagecoach trains only that were not available on National rail

 

Going back to the original question Rolling J was right at #3 

 

it is typical of a company run by Virgin that they take a commission from the train operator and from the customer and I have never understood why anyone would use it when all the TOCs did not add commission.

 

I would add that on some train companies sites you could register for an alert when tickets were released on your dates and you can book them online and collect your tickets from the machine anytime up till the moment of travel (as long as you have the card you paid on and do not loose the booking code

 

Splitting has long been a issue as has the use of roundabout routes and highly profitable if you can work your way through the maze and I will be very interested to see how the government (at arms length of course) aim to tackle this because the likelihood will be significant price rises on some point to point fares (you can bet they will not be wishing to lower the higher through ticket fares watch this spot!

[butlers 259]

To be fair it was a long time back .

But the numbers are about right.It was South Western Trains. And it was limited number tickets on very limited services ,only available via their website.

£10 per adult ,must have been £1 per child ,booking fee £1.50.

 

Apparently we have some if the cheapest tickets in Europe but unquestionably some of the most swingeing.

It's quite fun finding the ludicrous disparities.

 

[Mr Allen 0]

1 hour ago, Bigal1 said:

£6 per head from Bristol to Sheffield pull the other one

 

hard to believe that Stagecoach would have had deals that were not Stagecoach trains only that were not available on National rail

 

Going back to the original question Rolling J was right at #3 

 

it is typical of a company run by Virgin that they take a commission from the train operator and from the customer and I have never understood why anyone would use it when all the TOCs did not add commission.

 

I would add that on some train companies sites you could register for an alert when tickets were released on your dates and you can book them online and collect your tickets from the machine anytime up till the moment of travel (as long as you have the card you paid on and do not loose the booking code

 

Splitting has long been a issue as has the use of roundabout routes and highly profitable if you can work your way through the maze and I will be very interested to see how the government (at arms length of course) aim to tackle this because the likelihood will be significant price rises on some point to point fares (you can bet they will not be wishing to lower the higher through ticket fares watch this spot!

Yeah but it's a well known fact nobody reads the Ts and Cs when they buy or sign up for stuff.