Luton Airport (am I missing something here)

[Cundy66]

Yesterday I took my eldest son to Luton Airport from Bedford (friends and family railcard) I checked online for the price of same day return £10.95 for 1 ad 1 ch with railcard.

I prefer face to face customer service so decided to pay at the station and the cashier told me £13.45 I asked for explanation and gone through what I wanted and he told me railcards can’t be used to the airport so I had to buy return to Luton Airport Parkway with discount and purchase a separate ticket to the airport on the shuttle bus. I showed online and he said it was online only and TVMs wouldn’t do it, I went to a TVM and got the £10.95 fare.

According to his colleague they had rules put in place and the regulator for the fares say they aren’t allowed to sell through tickets with railcards.

What am I missing here? Or have they made something up completely?

Six years I’ve made this journey regularly and never paid any different fare at the windows to a TVM or online.

Thanks

 

[Bletchleyite]

The through fares are discountable and I have done this before. He may be getting confused with PlusBus, some of which aren't discountable.

 

[Cundy66]

Apparently the shuttle bus is a separate company therefore can’t get discount.

It’s a fob story I am believing especially when the company is go ahead and they are part of Govia Thameslink.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Apparently the shuttle bus is a separate company therefore can’t get discount.

This is false. The fares are discountable.

 

[greatkingrat]

The Manual says:

Fares
For through fares see LUTON AIRPORT NLC 3667 in your TIS or the Fares Finder.
Railcards, GroupSave and other discounts should only be applied to the rail journey to / from Luton Airport Parkway NLC 3645.
Separate full priced tickets as per the prices below should be issued for the shuttle bus journey between Luton Airport Parkway NLC 3645 and Luton Airport NLC 3667.
Where no through fare is shown to / from Luton Airport, a combination of tickets should be issued from the origin station to Luton Airport Parkway NLC 3645 and Luton Airport Parkway NLC3645 to Luton Airport NLC3667.

So technically he is correct that the through fare shouldn't be discounted. However this rule does not seem to have been implemented in the fares data so online sites / TVMs will sell the discounted ticket.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I stand corrected - however as you say all the Web based sales points will discount the through ticket, as will TVMs!

 

[Paul Kelly]

That's really weird. There are non-standard discount records in the fares data that are normally used precisely for this purpose - to adjust a railcard-discounted through fare so that the discount is a bit less than 34%, i.e. accounting for no discount on the add-on portion of the fare (i.e. the bus in this case). I wonder why the non-standard discount rules are not being used here?

 

[Haywain]

I wonder if it is the way that the ticket issuing system has been set up to deal with these fares?

 

[hooverboy]

I wonder if it is the way that the ticket issuing system has been set up to deal with these fares?

lots of people get caught out with this ticket.

1)TVM's WILL supply tickets to luton airport( not to be confused with luton airport parkway)
2) The tickets for luton airport cost £2.50 more than parkway.
3)if you buy a luton airport parkway ticket it's not valid for through travel to the airport...you have to pay the remainder at the shuttle bus stop, or a seperate ticket from the train ticket office

 

[RJ]

This is a case of the TVMs and online systems selling something they shouldn't, but the tickets are accepted for travel.

Staff aren't always wrong.

 

[RJ]

That's really weird. There are non-standard discount records in the fares data that are normally used precisely for this purpose - to adjust a railcard-discounted through fare so that the discount is a bit less than 34%, i.e. accounting for no discount on the add-on portion of the fare (i.e. the bus in this case). I wonder why the non-standard discount rules are not being used here?

The rules were changed on railcard discounts on through fares a few fare rounds ago - they were previously permitted. I'm sure the database will be fixed in due course but in the meantime, staff will follow what's in the IKB unless they aren't aware of it.

 

[yorkie]

This is a case of the TVMs and online systems selling something they shouldn't, but the tickets are accepted for travel.

I disagree; the TVMs and online systems are selling products in compliance with the data, which is what they should do.

Therefore your argument could be that it is a case of the data not matching what the company wants; this is a matter for the company that sets the fare (in this case GTR).

Staff aren't always wrong.

True; in this case the fault is with the member of staff who did not specify the correct data.

If the ticket had been bought online or from a TVM the discount would have been available.

 

[RJ]

I disagree; the TVMs and online systems are selling products in compliance with the data, which is what they should do.

Therefore your argument could be that it is a case of the data not matching what the company wants; this is a matter for the company that sets the fare (in this case GTR).

True; in this case the fault is with the member of staff who did not specify the correct data.

If the ticket had been bought online or from a TVM the discount would have been available.

It's the same thing. For one reason or another, the TVMs are offering a discount which isn't supposed to be offered and which ticket selling staff are not at liberty to offer if they have read the iKb or been briefed.

It's an unusual situation and one customers are able to and will use to their advantage until it's fixed.

 

[Surreytraveller]

When I used to work in ticket offices, the equipment was 'dumb' in that it would give a discount on the through fare, and us booking clerks were expected to know to charge the correct fare (i.e. The bus add on was not discounted)

 

[RJ]

When I used to work in ticket offices, the equipment was 'dumb' in that it would give a discount on the through fare, and us booking clerks were expected to know to charge the correct fare (i.e. The bus add on was not discounted)

The computer I used allowed virtually any live walkup fare in the database to be issued as a standard paper ticket - 5p travel agent fares, Oyster PAYG fares and so on and the one I use now still allows loads of dodgy illegitimate tickets to be issued. This Luton Airport discount is just another as far as I'm concerned and part of the job is knowing which ones aren't appropriate to sell.

The best solution in this case is to get the database sorted so that the correct fares are sold.