First class breakfast train premium

[trainophile]

Having just booked on VTWC* (EUS-BHM) I noticed that for 1st Class tickets departing before the breakfast cut-off time there is a £25 premium (excluding any railcards) compared with the first departure post-0959. Therefore I'd say they consider breakfast to be worth £25, so if it is not provided then surely they are overcharging.

I know that wouldn't stand up in court, as they would rely on the comparative popularity of the various timings, rather than what you get on board, but it's all a bit open to question.

(*Presume same principle applies on VTEC.)

 

[Chrism20]

Breakfast trains tend to be peak time services whereas mid-morning will be off peak/leisure driven.

I'd imagine if you were to query it that is what they would say as opposed to it being linked to the food offering.

 

[Starmill]

Having just booked on VTWC* (EUS-BHM) I noticed that for 1st Class tickets departing before the breakfast cut-off time there is a £25 premium (excluding any railcards) compared with the first departure post-0959. Therefore I'd say they consider breakfast to be worth £25, so if it is not provided then surely they are overcharging.

I know that wouldn't stand up in court, as they would rely on the comparative popularity of the various timings, rather than what you get on board, but it's all a bit open to question.

(*Presume same principle applies on VTEC.)

I've had a ticket that costs £25 (the lowest tier) on the 0943 EUS - BHM before now.

 

[trainophile]

I've had a ticket that costs £25 (the lowest tier) on the 0943 EUS - BHM before now.

Don't know how you found that one! Was it definitely a weekday? Railcard price I presume? A few years ago maybe?

There's cheap weekday 1st tickets on LM but I'm amazed that you found one on Virgin.

Spot-checking the 0943 on Monday 28th Sept and the railcard price is £49.50, full price £72.

Edit: Aha, just remembered - they did away with the cheapest tier of Advances didn't they? That explains it.

 

[Starmill]

Don't know how you found that one! Was it definitely a weekday? Railcard price I presume? A few years ago maybe?

There's cheap weekday 1st tickets on LM but I'm amazed that you found one on Virgin.

Spot-checking the 0943 on Monday 28th Sept and the railcard price is £49.50, full price £72.

Edit: Aha, just remembered - they did away with the cheapest tier of Advances didn't they? That explains it.

I wouldn't quote a Railcard price without saying so unless I had made a mistake and looked up the wrong fare. I semi-regularly travel First between Birmingham and London on VT for £16.50, the railcard fare. You won't get it on the certain early morning services unless you book ~8 weeks in Advance. You as a rule only get it on the xx:03 and xx:23 from London, and the xx:30 and xx:50 from Birmingham. And if its a Voyager you've relatively little chance (although a reasonable chance if it's the 1023 to Birmingham New St and Shrewsbury).

Test case: it's now 2140 on Sunday night, on this Monday (27 Jul) morning here's the availability with a railcard (full price in brackets) trains in red continue to Scotland:

London Euston - Birmingham New Street

1003 £16.50 (£25)
1023 £33.00 (£50)
1043 £39.60 (£60)
1103 £16.50 (£25)
1123 £16.50 (£25)
1143 £52.80 (£80)
1203 £16.50 (£25)
1223 £16.50 (£25)
1243 £52.80 (£80)
1303 £16.50 (£25)
1323 £16.50 (£25)
1343 £16.50 (£25)

They will only be on sale until midnight though :P

The soonest date on which the £16.50 fare is available on the 0943 is Tuesday 4th Aug.

Set the booking engine up like this to find them:

 

[trainophile]

Thank you, and I stand corrected! That's amazing, well done you, and thanks for the screen shot of how to look for this fare.

I'm annoyed now, because I was checking every day for 9th October tickets to be released (mind you I was looking for Euston to Hereford via BHM, so maybe that makes a difference) and when they eventually appeared all the pre-10.00 departures were at least £25 more than the 1003. As there's three of us travelling I wasn't prepared to pay an extra £75 when we can buy a sandwich in Euston, and will no doubt get the bacon roll etc. too.

I'll have a play with the selection options later (just off out now) to see if I could have done better!

Edit: With your help I now see there's £16.50 (railcard) on the 0943 that day, but we'd have had to pay another £10.35 to continue to Hereford, so our £18.15 through tickets don't seem so bad, even if we are sacrificing breakfast. So long as we don't spend more than £8.70 each on food-to-go we'll have done the right thing. Breakfast would have been nice though...

 

[Starmill]

If what I think you're attempting to achieve is right, you will need to use Trainsplit.

Set it up like this, and you will be offered a through fare from London Euston to Hereford via Birmingham New Street. The reason you aren't offered this on WebTIS is because the xx:03 departure from Euston connects better with thee direct Birmingham > Hereford service. Breaking that connection by adding more minimum connection time allows the itinerary you would like - London to Birmingham on the 0943, followed by (a nice coffee in the First Class lounge!) and the next available London Midland train to Hereford



You should get offered the fare, but if not change it to First Class only:



And finally accept the itinerary and there you go, £18.15 London to Hereford in First Class.

 

[trainophile]

WOW! And all that is on Trainsplit? I've had a quick look on there (not relating to this booking) but had no idea how you could drill down and find such great bargains!

Shame I already booked our tickets - Advances on the 1003 - so too late for this occasion, but I will definitely use it for next time.

Gives the lie to my assumption that breakfast is valued at £25 then!

Thanks again, I know who to ask in future!