Apologies if in wrong place, debated either posting here or the Fares section.
Anyway, last month I was booking a journey from Cambridge to Manchester, specifying a change at Stevenage and avoiding London. Simple enough, right? Wrong.
NRE would often "forget" my details or interchange my "Change at SVG" to "Via SVG", thus taking me through London, and attempting to change these details often required a lot of refreshing, restarting and unnecessary stress.
Once I'd finally found the fare I was looking for, it got worse.
There specified was a £31.70 First Advance, CBG to MAN, changing at Stevenage and Doncaster. Very nice. Go to buy it from EC, and the fare simply doesn't exist. I tried on practically every other site I could think of. VT, EM, GA, FCC, TTrainline, absolutely nothing.
Tried different browsers, tried different devices (android phone and tablet), same stuff. I had to eventually settle for splitting the journey at my cost, an anytime single CBG to SVG, then the original plan from there to Manchester. What happened to cause that exact fare to vaporise just before purchase? It baffles me.
The return leg was far smoother though, so there's that. It's left me somewhat anxious that if the first leg between CBG and SVG gets delayed at any point, I can kiss the rest of my journey goodbye as it's considered two separate parts.
More recently however, booking an off peak ticket between CBG and London LST, it got confused. I selected one that was GA Routes only, but the return legs it offered told me to take the tube to King's Cross and go from there. I'd understand if it was due to engineering works, but this is a Wednesday evening, there are no works. FCC's website reports it correctly however and I'm able to select trains as applicable.
For a system that's supposed to use the same database, it's very fragmented and glitchy. The only reason I use it is the ability to be very specific about your routing (multiple via/avoid/interchange) - when it works. Other systems really lack that functionality and it saddens me.
On a further note, a friend purchased an advance single from LST to CBG. Direct train under any other circumstance, but the ticket he got was via Ipswich. I don't even understand how that's possible.
Anyway, last month I was booking a journey from Cambridge to Manchester, specifying a change at Stevenage and avoiding London. Simple enough, right? Wrong.
NRE would often "forget" my details or interchange my "Change at SVG" to "Via SVG", thus taking me through London, and attempting to change these details often required a lot of refreshing, restarting and unnecessary stress.
Once I'd finally found the fare I was looking for, it got worse.
There specified was a £31.70 First Advance, CBG to MAN, changing at Stevenage and Doncaster. Very nice. Go to buy it from EC, and the fare simply doesn't exist. I tried on practically every other site I could think of. VT, EM, GA, FCC, TTrainline, absolutely nothing.
Tried different browsers, tried different devices (android phone and tablet), same stuff. I had to eventually settle for splitting the journey at my cost, an anytime single CBG to SVG, then the original plan from there to Manchester. What happened to cause that exact fare to vaporise just before purchase? It baffles me.
The return leg was far smoother though, so there's that. It's left me somewhat anxious that if the first leg between CBG and SVG gets delayed at any point, I can kiss the rest of my journey goodbye as it's considered two separate parts.
More recently however, booking an off peak ticket between CBG and London LST, it got confused. I selected one that was GA Routes only, but the return legs it offered told me to take the tube to King's Cross and go from there. I'd understand if it was due to engineering works, but this is a Wednesday evening, there are no works. FCC's website reports it correctly however and I'm able to select trains as applicable.
For a system that's supposed to use the same database, it's very fragmented and glitchy. The only reason I use it is the ability to be very specific about your routing (multiple via/avoid/interchange) - when it works. Other systems really lack that functionality and it saddens me.
On a further note, a friend purchased an advance single from LST to CBG. Direct train under any other circumstance, but the ticket he got was via Ipswich. I don't even understand how that's possible.