First Advance single more expensive than First Anytime single

Title explains it. Why would anyone set an advance fare to be more expensive than the anytime fare? If I post the route will the anytime fare get increased?

cumbrianbill said:

Title explains it. Why would anyone set an advance fare to be more expensive than the anytime fare? If I post the route will the anytime fare get increased?

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Maybe the TOC think that people will pay more for the advance as you get a seat reservation with it and that is worth paying extra for. I am assuming it is a TOC that offers seat reservations.

3rd rail land said:

Maybe the TOC think that people will pay more for the advance as you get a seat reservation with it and that is worth paying extra for. I am assuming it is a TOC that offers seat reservations.

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Nowt stopping you (on most TOCs) reserving a seat with the Anytime ticket.

It'll be one of two things:
- A mistake
- One of those old "packaged First Class" ticket+meal+parking type tickets which has been converted to a simple Advance on simplification but the fare level not changed in error (so back to "a mistake").

Sounds very unusual: is it exactly the same routing, TOC for each ticket type?

Virgin are devils for this.

It can often occur as a result of 'clustering', where the 1st class Advance fare from one station to several dozen other stations is priced the same for simplicity, but the walk-up price differs.

For example, Nuneaton to Stoke is £46.30 on the day, but the most expensive Virgin 1st class Advance is £41.00, the cheapest £13.50.

Birmingham to Stafford is £15.80 on the day, but the Virgin 1st class advance prices are the same, with the most expensive being £41.00, the cheapest £13.50.

A similar thing - I noticed yesterday that an Anytime single ticket was cheaper than an Off Peak one. Wish I could remember the details but it was a bit weird.