Odd period season travelcard with 18+ discount

Evening

I am looking to get a Zone 4-5 travelcard season for my 18+ Oyster Card. However, I'd prefer to just buy one that lasts for 2 months (and possibly a few days on top), and not worry about renewing it until September.

I tried buying it online from TfL but it only allows you to get full priced travelcards from there. A few months ago I asked for an odd period travelcard at London City Airport, but the person there said that the system doesn't allow you to purchase one lasting longer than a month. And you can't get one from an LUL POM either.

So where can I buy an odd period travelcard for Oyster, and how easy will it be to buy one?

1. Will LUL ticket offices be able to do it?

2. What about National Rail stations like Marylebone or City Thameslink?

3. Probably best to avoid LOROL I guess? :roll:

Thanks!

Sigh, TfL used to have a very useful document which told us exactly where to go to buy every single different type of ticket they offered. Of course, something as useful as that didn't deserve to remain available to the public…

Grumble aside, a London Overground station should be able to sell you what you want. If not I'd probably try a visitor information centre; I can't say for certain if they can sell tickets with an 18+ discount but in general I think they sell/sold pretty much every TfL ticket available so it'd be worth a shot.

Go see Chiltern at Marylebone.

Be3G said:

Sigh, TfL used to have a very useful document which told us exactly where to go to buy every single different type of ticket they offered. Of course, something as useful as that didn't deserve to remain available to the public…

Grumble aside, a London Overground station should be able to sell you what you want. If not I'd probably try a visitor information centre; I can't say for certain if they can sell tickets with an 18+ discount but in general I think they sell/sold pretty much every TfL ticket available so it'd be worth a shot.

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Thanks for the replies . So far I haven't had the chance to go buy it. I found a local LUL station still has the ticket office open so I should try there first. If for some reason I can't get it there, I'll try a LO station.

LO stations should be able to do it. Watford Junction and Euston USED to be able to do it... but... you know... we don't any more. :P

Don't know if any other stations have two TIS systems set up, like we did at Watford, where you issue the odd-period travelcard then add it to the Oyster card on a separate TIS machine. FastTIS might be able to do it all in one though!

I completely forgot to update this .

I managed to get the 2 months+1 day Z4-5 travelcard within a minute at Hounslow East with no hassle at all. Didn't have the time to go over to any National Rail ticket office.

However, the time has come to get a 3 months Z1-5 travelcard. I am tempted to try an NLL ticket office Thinking about either Hackney Central or Highbury & Islington, any other suggestions? . (Originally I wanted to get it Barking).

Yesterday the @TflWaysToPay feed said that I could buy it with the 18+ discount online, but no, still only at full price. The other place was a Tube station, but do the machines allow it?
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Guess who should have gone with their original option? :/

Took 4 attempts because I decided to go on a tour of North London. But at least it somewhat cleared up what can be done where (assuming they're correct that is) .

Attempt 1: Highbury & Islington, managed by LUL. No ticket office. First told that an odd-period travelcard does not exist at all, then after seeing the "renew" option for the previous one he changed his mind and said that you can only get it online, from "Customer Services", or at a Tube ticket office. Next I asked him about going to an LO one; he said it can't be done as... wait for it... London Overground is National Rail !!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe anyone actually said that!
(I understand that the "Customer Services" bit is the phone helpline? Can you actually get one from there?)

Attempt 2: Essex Road, managed by Great Northern. Person in ticket office on seeing the 18+ card said their machine did not have the discounted prices loaded onto it .

Attempt 3: Dalston Junction, managed by London Overground. They said they could not do anything for longer than a month.

Attempt 4: Limehouse, managed by c2c. Success! Like at Hounslow East, it required a lot of buttons to be pressed, but in the end I did get a Z1-5 for 2M29D at £430.30 (start 26 September, finish 24 December). My address was required, unlike at a Tube ticket office, but that doesn't bother me.

Suppose I should have gone to c2c (or indeed the highly praised Marylebone) in the first place At least I now know where to get my next renewal, which is in January (and after the closure of LUL ticket offices).

Thanks everyone!

Ugh. So much rubbish you've been told there.

So, yes, first of all, I can quite categorically state that odd-period travelcards do exists. As you well know, seeing as you've bought one. Well done, Highbury & Islington.

Second, any railway station can sell 18+ and/or odd-period seasons. (Well, I've only tested buying 18+ seasons from London stations, but seeing as tickets for anywhere are supposed to be purchasable from anywhere, I assume it's technically feasible to purchase one beyond the London boundary.) When the clerk at Essex Road said the discount wasn't loaded on to their machine, what they probably meant was they didn't know what the discount code was. (LUS, in case anyone who works at Essex Road is reading…)

Third, London Overground ticket offices can sell tickets of any duration, just like National Rail stations. TfL used to have an official document which explicitly stated that they could retail odd-period travelcards to boot.

Your difficulties remind me of what it used to be like (and perhaps still is like…) to get a railcard discount loaded on to one's Oyster. Things like this really shouldn't be that difficult!

hassaanhc said:

Attempt 4: Limehouse, managed by c2c. Success! Like at Hounslow East, it required a lot of buttons to be pressed, but in the end I did get a Z1-5 for 2M29D at £430.30 (start 26 September, finish 24 December). My address was required, unlike at a Tube ticket office, but that doesn't bother me.)

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For the sake of completeness, c2c would have needed to add you to their season ticket database when selling the ticket as, for reasons I would hope are obvious, they don't have access to LU's.

Be3G said:

Ugh. So much rubbish you've been told there.

So, yes, first of all, I can quite categorically state that odd-period travelcards do exists. As you well know, seeing as you've bought one. Well done, Highbury & Islington.

Second, any railway station can sell 18+ and/or odd-period seasons. (Well, I've only tested buying 18+ seasons from London stations, but seeing as tickets for anywhere are supposed to be purchasable from anywhere, I assume it's technically feasible to purchase one beyond the London boundary.) When the clerk at Essex Road said the discount wasn't loaded on to their machine, what they probably meant was they didn't know what the discount code was. (LUS, in case anyone who works at Essex Road is reading…)

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You have added a fair amount of rubbish to that which you claim the OP has been told. The Travelcard in question cannot be bought "anywhere" as it can only be loaded on Oyster - therefore it can only be purchased at those stations that are suitably equipped. That actually rules out a very significant number of stations within London, let alone the vast majority of those elsewhere.

Haywain said:

You have added a fair amount of rubbish to that which you claim the OP has been told. The Travelcard in question cannot be bought "anywhere" as it can only be loaded on Oyster - therefore it can only be purchased at those stations that are suitably equipped. That actually rules out a very significant number of stations within London, let alone the vast majority of those elsewhere.

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Actually, it can be issued as a paper ticket by entering the relevant discount type. The discount indicator prints as "STUDT" IIRC. If it can be issued on Oyster at the location in question, however, it should be.

I was told we were not to give out those tickets in paper as they are only designed to be loaded onto an Oyster card and someone was warned by a TfL revenue inspector about having one when we issued one and then it would not go onto the Oyster card.

I think it is just there for where there are two TIS systems in operation, where the first prints the paper ticket and the second loads it onto the Oyster card.

Just because a ticket can be printed doesn't mean it should - the amount of times I accidentally selected a Smart ticket for the Thameslink route and they print just like a normal ticket...

causton said:

I was told we were not to give out those tickets in paper as they are only designed to be loaded onto an Oyster card and someone was warned by a TfL revenue inspector about having one when we issued one and then it would not go onto the Oyster card.

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I would suggest that said RPI reads the TfL Conditions of Carriage...Condition 7.2.1 thereof states:

TfL Conditions of Carriage said:

If a photocard is needed, you can only use your ticket or Oyster card when you have your photocard with you. This also applies to Oyster photocards when used with a printed ticket.

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As is constantly stated on here: Oyster is a medium, not a product in its own right. The product is a Travelcard, and nothing in the CoC precludes them being issued on paper.

One thing that you can't do on FasTIS+, meanwhile, is issue Student Travelcards on Oyster that include validity in Zones 7-9, due to the way they're implemented in the fares database.

causton said:

Just because a ticket can be printed doesn't mean it should - the amount of times I accidentally selected a Smart ticket for the Thameslink route and they print just like a normal ticket...

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In that case, the ticket type in question (like PAP/POP for Oyster PAYG fares) is explicitly there for Smartcard purposes, and there's a magnetic alternative.

Yes, I can categorically state that 18+ discounted travelcard seasons are available as paper tickets, not just on Oyster. It's a concession agreed with all of the TOCs who serve London and should equally be available for any travelcard season in the zones to facilitate discounted travel for those who wish to use National Rail rather than just LU/LO. For example, a fellow student of mine used to purchase one from West Norwood (whence he travelled to uni exclusively on National Rail) and therefore had to have it issued as a paper ticket.

The only difference with retailing 18+ seasons is that if an annual is sold, it mustn't be issued as a gold card.

CyrusWuff said:

In that case, the ticket type in question (like PAP/POP for Oyster PAYG fares) is explicitly there for Smartcard purposes, and there's a magnetic alternative.

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Can you explain what PAP and POP are please?? If I ask Avantix to produce a WFJ-EUS single, they are just some of the many bewildering options there are. What are they, and when might I use them?

PAP and POP are Oyster fares. PAP is Anytime and POP is Off Peak. They should not be used when selling paper tickets.

So it's like a pre-loaded fare that can be put on an Oyster card, is it?

plastictaffy said:

So it's like a pre-loaded fare that can be put on an Oyster card, is it?

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Not really. I think it is just there for info and says so in the ticket description, it is intended to just show that the alternative is available. Not that they come up for some journeys correctly...
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Be3G said:

Yes, I can categorically state that 18+ discounted travelcard seasons are available as paper tickets,

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Thanks for the clarification