digitaltoast
Member
- Joined
- 19 May 2008
- Messages
- 132
I hear a lot of people are getting caught out by the "simpler" fare structure, and I also remember the pregnant woman fined for standing in first class as there was no-one else. Well....
My girlfriend used to travel by train a lot for business, often multi-point journeys, and she was introduced to a "private" ticketing agent who was retired from the railways, but still operated a "convenience" ticket service for complicated business - you paid a small subscription per year, and a couple of quid premium on each ticket, and in return, he would save her often hundreds. He was a ticketing genius and knew all the tricks the normal agents didn't. Lets say you had to go (oh, something daft like) Gatwick > Waterloo > Swindon > Birmingham > London in a day, the normal price would be, say, £180, and he'd get it for £60 by doing something weird like making her buy a £3 covering ticket which did something strange around London, and making her ticket valid via Gomshall or somewhere I've never heard of, allowing her to use an off-peak fare at a peak time. Don't ask, all I know is that part of the service was that he would provide, with the tickets, a printout showing how he'd done it and what part of the fare book rules covered what he'd done.
And so, the ticket inspector would come along. And he would get one chance and one chance only. If he didn't understand the ticket, she would suggest he check his fare manual for (eg: section 15 para 7, "travel via Gomshall on the Gatwick express where the first tuesday in the month falls on a full moon"). If he accepted, everything would be fine.
If he dared to try and charge her a full fare, that was it! Her business partner told me it was a thing of glory to watch - she would verbally beat the little Hitler down in front of a full carriage. She would not stop until she got an apology. Then she'd settle in for 5 more minutes scolding, and as soon as he managed to escape, she would flip open the laptop and get going on a letter to report him, and she ALWAYS got an apology and a train voucher!
Of course, there are many good inspectors (sorry, should that be "Customer Experience Revenue Advisor Team Leader" now?) but those bitter unsmiling know-it-alls who don't know it all fully deserve the ire! So, got any good similar stories?
My girlfriend used to travel by train a lot for business, often multi-point journeys, and she was introduced to a "private" ticketing agent who was retired from the railways, but still operated a "convenience" ticket service for complicated business - you paid a small subscription per year, and a couple of quid premium on each ticket, and in return, he would save her often hundreds. He was a ticketing genius and knew all the tricks the normal agents didn't. Lets say you had to go (oh, something daft like) Gatwick > Waterloo > Swindon > Birmingham > London in a day, the normal price would be, say, £180, and he'd get it for £60 by doing something weird like making her buy a £3 covering ticket which did something strange around London, and making her ticket valid via Gomshall or somewhere I've never heard of, allowing her to use an off-peak fare at a peak time. Don't ask, all I know is that part of the service was that he would provide, with the tickets, a printout showing how he'd done it and what part of the fare book rules covered what he'd done.
And so, the ticket inspector would come along. And he would get one chance and one chance only. If he didn't understand the ticket, she would suggest he check his fare manual for (eg: section 15 para 7, "travel via Gomshall on the Gatwick express where the first tuesday in the month falls on a full moon"). If he accepted, everything would be fine.
If he dared to try and charge her a full fare, that was it! Her business partner told me it was a thing of glory to watch - she would verbally beat the little Hitler down in front of a full carriage. She would not stop until she got an apology. Then she'd settle in for 5 more minutes scolding, and as soon as he managed to escape, she would flip open the laptop and get going on a letter to report him, and she ALWAYS got an apology and a train voucher!
Of course, there are many good inspectors (sorry, should that be "Customer Experience Revenue Advisor Team Leader" now?) but those bitter unsmiling know-it-alls who don't know it all fully deserve the ire! So, got any good similar stories?