Should there be a discount when buying tickets before the day of travel?

[beeza1]

I usually buy my tickets for long distance travel a couple of days before travel so I can reserve a seat, this seems to be the only advantage of buying early, it can be a disadvantage if you have to change your plans when they will charge you £10 to alter your ticket.
I do think there should be some incentive to "buy early", perhaps by offering a discount on walk up fares, or at least doing away with the £10 charge, they don't charge you for changing a seat reservation after all.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I do think there should be some incentive to "buy early"

There is - Advance tickets!

For walk-ups I'm not sure what advantage would exist to the TOC to encourage you to book them in advance.

 

[beeza1]

There is - Advance tickets!

For walk-ups I'm not sure what advantage would exist to the TOC to encourage you to book them in advance.

Advance tickets on the journey I make actually work out considerably more expensive than an Off Peak Return, this wasn't the case a few years ago when I could travel both ways for half the cost of an Off Peak Return, even booking them up to a couple of days before travel.
With regards to advantages for the TOC's I guess you are correct there would be no financial advantage, but it would be good "customer service", something sadly lacking these days.

 

[185143]

They don't charge £10 to change a seat reservation? Presumably you mean to refund the ticket? Book through Southern who I believe only charge you when the ticket is collected.

 

[beeza1]

They don't charge £10 to change a seat reservation? Presumably you mean to refund the ticket? Book through Southern who I believe only charge you when the ticket is collected.

No, I don't mean a ticket refund, I mean changing a seat reservation, for example if I have a seat reserved on the 14:30 departure I can change it for a reservation on the 15:30 departure and it won't cost anything, done it loads of times, I have even changed my reservation to a different day, again without charge, these are all using the return half of an Off Peak Return.