I've just spent a hour or so pricing up a fairly long distance journey I intend to make on Sat 2nd June. Bristol to York (for Railfest) and back the same day. Out at 0730, return at 1744.
Starting point for my pricing was the Off Peak Return (Not London) at £67.80 with railcard. Not bad but I know I can do better!
Next I look at 2x Advance Purchase for the through journeys out and return and I get the price down to £55.40. Better....
Next is splitting the journey up so that I can buy a series of Off Peak Day Returns. This brings the price down to £48.40. That's if I've found the best splits....
Finally I looked at a combination of short distance Advance Purchases and Off Peak Day Returns and I got the price down to £39.20. With the bonus of booking a cheaper AP (than XCs 1744) on the 1750 EMT from York to Sheffield (ex Scarborough - HST?) giving me 45 mins at Sheffield to have wander round a station I've not been to in years.
It's that last total price and combination of tickets that made me ponder. I'm just wondering why CrossCountry price their flows in such a way that a combination of short distance XC Advances beats their own longer distance Advance. Thanks to their 'pick a seat' booking service I was able to join up 3 x shorter distance Advance Purchase in each direction and ensure I will be sat in the same seat.
I'm assuming they price these shorter distance Advances to undercut the walk-up fares on that flow that are often set by another operator. By doing so they get all the revenue from the Advance rather than just a share of the walk up. The consequence of that decision though is that these shorter distances Advances, when used in combination, undercut CrossCountry's own longer distance Advances.
So is that their own fault or are CrossCountry a slave to the system, hamstrung by the nature of the routes they run where many flows are priced by others?
Starting point for my pricing was the Off Peak Return (Not London) at £67.80 with railcard. Not bad but I know I can do better!
Next I look at 2x Advance Purchase for the through journeys out and return and I get the price down to £55.40. Better....
Next is splitting the journey up so that I can buy a series of Off Peak Day Returns. This brings the price down to £48.40. That's if I've found the best splits....
Finally I looked at a combination of short distance Advance Purchases and Off Peak Day Returns and I got the price down to £39.20. With the bonus of booking a cheaper AP (than XCs 1744) on the 1750 EMT from York to Sheffield (ex Scarborough - HST?) giving me 45 mins at Sheffield to have wander round a station I've not been to in years.
It's that last total price and combination of tickets that made me ponder. I'm just wondering why CrossCountry price their flows in such a way that a combination of short distance XC Advances beats their own longer distance Advance. Thanks to their 'pick a seat' booking service I was able to join up 3 x shorter distance Advance Purchase in each direction and ensure I will be sat in the same seat.
I'm assuming they price these shorter distance Advances to undercut the walk-up fares on that flow that are often set by another operator. By doing so they get all the revenue from the Advance rather than just a share of the walk up. The consequence of that decision though is that these shorter distances Advances, when used in combination, undercut CrossCountry's own longer distance Advances.
So is that their own fault or are CrossCountry a slave to the system, hamstrung by the nature of the routes they run where many flows are priced by others?