Changes to Annual Gold Card benefits from 2nd January 2015

[jkdd77]

Question - Is the Gold Card discount allowable on the limited Hull Trains services which stop at Stevenage?

Interestingly, the Hull Trains website will show Gold Card discounted tickets, and indeed Network Railcard discounted tickets, as being valid on its services, and will presumably allow seat reservations, notwithstanding that it is not listed in the relevant T & Cs as being a participating operator in either scheme.

I make no comment as to validity.

 

[yorkie]

Interestingly, the Hull Trains website will show Gold Card discounted tickets, and indeed Network Railcard discounted tickets, as being valid on its services, and will presumably allow seat reservations, notwithstanding that it is not listed in the relevant T & Cs as being a participating operator in either scheme.

I make no comment as to validity.

If the route is "Any Permitted", then given Condition 10 states that any such restriction will be "printed on the ticket", my understanding of validity is clear. No doubt others who don't believe the Conditions of Carriage take precedence will disagree, however!

 

[Tetchytyke]

The restriction- GOLDC- is printed on the ticket...

 

[talldave]

I agree. My cynicism for Southern's inability to organise anything leads to my assumption that they won't have thought to update the barriers from a 10am rule, ... so it'll be interesting to find out.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
TVMs st Gatwick refused to give annual gold card discount this morning after 9.30 (tried 3 machines) despite one of them being the one that happily gave the discount at 9.20 last Thursday. I missed 2 Gatwick Expresses in the meantime as I had to queue for the ticket office.

Of course if Southern would sell Boundary Zone tickets online my life would be so much easier.

News of my first illogical response of 2015 from Southern's useless customer services department...

I called them to ask why their machines were refusing to apply Gold Card discount to my Gatwick - Boundary Zone 6 ticket.

They've replied that it wouldn't apply the discount because Travelcards from outside of zones 1-9 are subject to a minimum fare of £17.

An interesting and factually correct answer - but it's not the answer to the question I asked! I don't know whether to laugh or cry really.

 

[zoneking]

talldave, I had the same problem last Saturday (17 Jan) when trying to buy a boundary Z6 to Tunbridge Wells CDR from Redhill TVM. The goldcard discount did not work at all - I used the network card option as this has the same discount.

 

[talldave]

talldave, I had the same problem last Saturday (17 Jan) when trying to buy a boundary Z6 to Tunbridge Wells CDR from Redhill TVM. The goldcard discount did not work at all - I used the network card option as this has the same discount.

That's interesting, I wonder how often they update the software in the TVMs? If it was weekly, that might explain why things were OK, then broken, and now OK again?

Of course, Southern will never get to the bottom of the issue because they can't understand a simple question posed to them in plain English, never mind go to the trouble of investigating.

 

[bb21]

£17 is the minimum fare for a discounted Anytime Day Travelcard.

Someone is getting his products mixed up.

 

[Tibbs]

So if I buy the £140ish Gold Card Ticket, does that mean I need to spend £420 (undiscounted) on tickets over the course of a year to break even?

Does this include ALL Oyster spend? Buses, Tubes Overground, the lot?

I'm projecting that I'll spend about £1200 on Oyster/Contactless travel alone in the next year, so worth the discount if it works on buses and tubes...

 

[jon0844]

A Network railcard would cost £30 anyway, and have the £13 minimum, so you need to take that into account if you haven't already.

Plus, a Network card can't be put on Oyster, so that's another reason for getting the Gold Card as Oyster is usually cheaper than paper tickets point to point within the zones.

I guess if a partner also wanted a railcard, getting that for just £10 is a further £20 'saving'.

 

[MikeWh]

So if I buy the £140ish Gold Card Ticket, does that mean I need to spend £420 (undiscounted) on tickets over the course of a year to break even?

Does this include ALL Oyster spend? Buses, Tubes Overground, the lot?

I'm projecting that I'll spend about £1200 on Oyster/Contactless travel alone in the next year, so worth the discount if it works on buses and tubes...

It works on off-peak rail fares of any description (NR, LU, DLR) and off-peak rail caps (which include buses as well). It doesn't work on bus single fares although the bus cap is reduced by 15p if you don't use rail or only use it in zones 1-2.

 

[stephy]

So I asked a lady on EMT what the upgrade situation is with a gold card. She said London to Bedford upgrades are 11.50. I said yes but is it different for gold card holders? She kept saying 'the upgrade is 11.50' but that's just for anyone right? What is the deal? Sorry there's a lot of pages to track back through. She also said EMT had 'never' offered £5 upgrades and kept talking as if Thameslink has different ticketing. I said isn't ticketing pan-operator and she got angry... Surely gold card benefits are benefits no matter what

 

[bb21]

The £5 upgrade is no longer available.

 

[lightbulb]

So I asked a lady on EMT what the upgrade situation is with a gold card. She said London to Bedford upgrades are 11.50. I said yes but is it different for gold card holders? She kept saying 'the upgrade is 11.50' but that's just for anyone right? What is the deal? Sorry there's a lot of pages to track back through. She also said EMT had 'never' offered £5 upgrades and kept talking as if Thameslink has different ticketing. I said isn't ticketing pan-operator and she got angry... Surely gold card benefits are benefits no matter what

The former £5 gold card first class supplement was not valid between London and Bedford on EMT, only First Capital Connect (now Thameslink). If using a Std class ticket with an Annual Gold Card, it will usually be cheaper to purchase the EMT 1st upgrade at £11.50. There are no railcard discounts permitted on this, as it is a supplement, rather than a ticket.

If travelling out and back the same day, then an FCR is the cheapest option at £22.75.

 

[talldave]

So I'm now a third of the way to the break even point on my Gold Card. But I hadn't appreciated what a pain it would be to use - Southern's crap TVMs randomly refusing to give a discount and ticket barriers rejecting tickets when they're valid.