Cardiff to London

[ValleyLines142]

Hi guys,

Six of us (all adults) are heading up to London from Cardiff on Sunday 15th January 2012, hoping to catch the 1415 from Cardiff, and we're planning on returning on Thursday 19th on either the 2115 or the 2245 from London. The current price for a return is £36.50 per person (£219 for all six of us), which I feel is ever so slightly pricey. However, I was looking at this:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/pr354fdc0a0400020101fea1769fbf60/details.html

Do children HAVE to be in this, or can it be us 6 adults? Would be great if we could use this, otherwise I might have to consider purchasing a 16-25 railcard.

If anyone can confirm this, or give me any other options/ideas, could you let me know?

Many thanks

 

[adtrainz]

You definitely do not have to bring children to use Groupsave.

 

[yorkie]

Children may travel in the place of Adults on an Adult ticket to take advantage of this offer. There must be at least one adult in each group. The fare will be roughly the same whether there are 6, 7 or 8 people, and it doesn't matter what age any members of the group are.

GroupSave offers the opportunity for three or four people (minimum one adult) to travel for the price that two adults would normally pay on various off-peak ticket types.
Up to four additional children can accompany the main party, and travel at the flat fare of £1 each, single or return (not valid on ScotRail). In addition two children under the age of five can travel free of charge with each fare paying passenger.
GroupSave is NOT available for travel on Stansted Express services.

Children may travel in the place of Adults on an Adult ticket to take advantage of this offer. There must be at least one adult in each group.

• All members of the group must travel together for outward and return journeys
• There must be at least one adult in each group
• There may be restrictions on when you can travel. Please ask for more details
• On Scotrail services, GroupSave is only available between Edinburgh and Glasgow Queen Street, available anytime at weekend and off-peak Monday to Friday
• There are certain days when GroupSave cannot be used on some services. More Information

 

[aleph_0]

Hi guys,

Six of us (all adults) are heading up to London from Cardiff on Sunday 15th January 2012, hoping to catch the 1415 from Cardiff, and we're planning on returning on Thursday 19th on either the 2115 or the 2245 from London. The current price for a return is £36.50 per person (£219 for all six of us), which I feel is ever so slightly pricey. However, I was looking at this:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/pr354fdc0a0400020101fea1769fbf60/details.html

Do children HAVE to be in this, or can it be us 6 adults? Would be great if we could use this, otherwise I might have to consider purchasing a 16-25 railcard.

If anyone can confirm this, or give me any other options/ideas, could you let me know?

Many thanks

No, children don't have to be part of this, but the promotion is either 3 or 4 adults may travel for the price of 2. So you could buy two groupsave-3 tickets.

A Super Off Peak Return is £64. So I make that £256 for 6 people on groupsave-3.

Alternatively, if 4 people can travel on groupsave on the Super Off Peak (£128 for 4, so £32 each), then 2 using railcards on advance tickets (currently available at £66.40 return for 2 people - you may be able to get this cheaper by split-ticketing at Swindon). This gives us a current price of £194.40 (plus the cost of 2 people buying railcards).

Advance tickets are quota based, hence when trying to travel as a group they often don't offer the same savings as just one person travelling.

 

[yorkie]

Rather than have 2 x GroupSave 3, I'd have 1 x GroupSave 4, with the remaining 2 people on their own tickets (and Railcard discounted if eligible).

 

[ValleyLines142]

Rather than have 2 x GroupSave 3, I'd have 1 x GroupSave 4, with the remaining 2 people on their own tickets (and Railcard discounted if eligible).

So Yorkie how much would one GroupSave Ticket cost?

Two people on their won tickets is £36.50, that's £73 (this would be cheaper when combined with GroupSave right?)

And how do you buy GroupSave tickets online? I've never used it before :L

 

[dzug2]

One Groupsave 4 is effectively half price - 4 adults travel for the price of 2

You put it in as a railcard - on the FGW site anyway - some won't sell it online

 

[aleph_0]

So Yorkie how much would one GroupSave Ticket cost?

Two people on their won tickets is £36.50, that's £73 (this would be cheaper when combined with GroupSave right?)

And how do you buy GroupSave tickets online? I've never used it before :L

So, to buy groupsave online, you select Groupsave 4 on the FGW website (some websites don't support groupsave). Or you can just buy this ticket on the day.

Unfortunately, you're a bit mistaken about ticket prices. The Super Off Peak Return (valid on any Super Off peak trains), is £64 return per person. With Groupsave-4, 4 people can travel for the price of 2.

The price you are quoting, £36.50 return, is formed of a £25 advance single outwards, and a £11.50 advance single for the return journey. Groupsave isn't compatible with Advance tickets.

Hence, my suggestion (applying yorkie's suggestion) is that 4 of you travel on a groupsave ticket (so £32 each, pretty good value).

We just then have 2 people to deal with. One can either buy Super Off Peak Returns, or Advance tickets. A railcard, costing £28 each, would give an instant saving of £21 on the Super Off Peak, or £12 on the advance, so it might be worth getting one.

The Advance tickets (i.e. the £36.50=£25+£11.50) should be bought in advance, and will go up in price as time passes. But the super off peaks can be bought on the day - I would normally suggest buying these closer to the time, or on the day, in case plans change (although the price of the Super Off Peak Return might change after Christmas, other forum members are more knowledgeable than me on this).

 

[ValleyLines142]

Ah fab. thanks guys

 

[bb21]

The Advance tickets (i.e. the £36.50=£25+£11.50) should be bought in advance, and will go up in price as time passes. But the super off peaks can be bought on the day - I would normally suggest buying these closer to the time, or on the day, in case plans change (although the price of the Super Off Peak Return might change after Christmas, other forum members are more knowledgeable than me on this).

Super Off-Peak tickets bought after 5th December for travel after 4th January will be at next year's prices as that is the date the prices for next year goes "live".

If, however, they are bought before 5th December, they will be at this year's prices. There might be a price difference, or there might not.