Great Northern £2 flat fare to Cuffley

[James H]

Need to travel with a group of children from London to Cuffley.

BRfares indicates a £2 child flat fare is available.

The Great Northern website says that journeys in zones 1 to 9 are excluded from the flat fare deal.

Cuffley has recently joined zone 9.

Any opinions on the status of these tickets?

 

[alistairlees]

If the GN website will sell it to you, then I would say that's fine surely.

 

[MikeWh]

Cuffley, like Epsom, is only partly in zone 9. All tickets and caps involving zone 9 are valid there, but weekly and longer outboundary tickets to zones 1-6 are significantly cheaper than the equivalent for zones 1-9.

 

[JBuchananGB]

Great Northern website says
https://www.greatnorthernrail.com/tickets/discounts-and-railcards/kids-for-2

Book your Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak ticket online and up to four children can travel with you for just £2 each on most journeys* across our network.

You can also take up to four children for just £2 each at off peak and super off peak times if you hold a valid season ticket*.

The discount will be automatically applied when you book your tickets online with the exception of certain journeys that cross London or if you are just buying child rate tickets as you already have the adult ticket for your journey. For these journeys, please visit one of our ticket offices where we will be happy to help.

 

[James H]

Yes I’ve read that. But the first line of the terms and conditions is pertinent here as Cuffley’s status as to the zonal system has changed in the past few weeks, creating an anomaly.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Yes I’ve read that. But the first line of the terms and conditions is pertinent here as Cuffley’s status as to the zonal system has changed in the past few weeks, creating an anomaly.

If you are sold the ticket to Cuffley, that is all that matters. They cannot sell you a ticket and then claim it isn't valid, despite them having sold it on the basis of being valid - that's just not how it works!

 

[James H]

I haven’t actually checked to see whether the ticket can be bought online.

I won’t actually be travelling with the group and I want to be able to issue unambiguous instructions to the leaders travelling with the group that will avoid them having any argument at the ticket office about what can or can’t be issued

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I haven’t actually checked to see whether the ticket can be bought online.

I won’t actually be travelling with the group and I want to be able to issue unambiguous instructions to the leaders travelling with the group that will avoid them having any argument at the ticket office about what can or can’t be issued

Simply buy them online to avoid this!

 

[James H]

Final numbers might not be known till a few minutes before departure

 

[JBuchananGB]

I have checked and the ticket is unambiguously offered online on their website. So there should be no doubt about it at the ticket office, adhering to the rule that 4 children is the limit with any one adult. I understand the issue with numbers being uncertain, but you could buy online the day before for the best estimate, or even go to a ticket office and buy them ahead of time, just topping up with extras on the day if one or two short. There is of course the risk of writing off a couple of quid if you actually have no-shows.