Difficult to plan. Help please - From Leicester to Birmingham airport

Can anyone offer some help please with a journey that I am finding difficult to plan.

From: Leicester
To: Birmingham airport
Date: Friday 16th August
Arrive Birmingham airport before 8am.

and a return
From: Birmingham airport
Date: Sunday 25th August
Depart: After 17:45pm

For information:
1. I have a senior railcard
2. I have a Leicester City Bus Pass. I think??? this gives me half price travel from Leicester to Nuneaton.

Forgive me being stupid, but I have tried various ideas on how to do this journey and non of them seem cheap. I suppose the problem is travelling out at peak time.

Can anyone please offer any solutions?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks

Where did you find out about the discounted train tickets?

You might need to visit a ticket office if you want that discount as far as Nuneaton.

Anyway Trainsplit is offering flexible fares arriving at 0733 and departing at 1757 (but you can take other trains within the validity of the tickets) for under £25 which is about £10 less than the price I saw on Crosscountry's website.

If you are happy with that price it should be a straightforward process to purchase it.

An Advance ticket going out on the 0640 arriving 08:13 is £6.35
The earlier arrival is at 0744; there are no advance tickets for that, so the Anytime single price is £13.40.
(The 0733 arrival is going via Rugby, which would require separate tickets)

For the return, there is an Advance single on, for example, the 18:04 for £4.80; or the flexible off-peak ticket is £10.20
(You may need to use a website that lets you select 'Crosscountry only' to see this Advance fare)

There is a direct National Express coach on 16th leaving St Margaret's Bus Station at 0520 and arriving Birmingham Airport at 0615 for £6.30, and on 25th there is a coach leaving Birmingham Airport at 2255 arriving St Margaret's Bus Station at 2350 for £4.

You cannot beat that on price, convenience or comfort, even if you have to get taxis at both ends.

Many thanks both bb21 and tony-mac and yorkie

For information this is the link for the bus pass concession - you are right I can only get these at the ticket office:
https://www.leicester.gov.uk/transp...sses-and-concessionary-fares/senior-citizens/https://www.leicester.gov.uk/transp...sses-and-concessionary-fares/senior-citizens/

I use this a lot as I travel to Nottingham often using my bus pass to get a better discount than with my senior railcard.

The outward journey is a bit too tight on time so I would have to get the 06:18 from Leicester which arrives at Birmingham airport at 07:44.

As for the return. I am not sure what time I will have cleared the airport but anytime between 5.45pm and 6.15pm would be a good estimate. But if I land late then I will, presumably???, not be allowed to use an advance ticket and so must pay full fare.

Incidentally, is there a way to buy the return journey (a single ticket), which is valid on any train but which is also a non full priced ticket?

Finally, are there any strikes planned for those two days?

Thanks again all of you. Much appreciated.

suzanneparis said:

As for the return. I am not sure what time I will have cleared the airport but anytime between 5.45pm and 6.15pm would be a good estimate. But if I land late then I will, presumably???, not be allowed to use an advance ticket and so must pay full fare.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's the risk. Transpennine have some tickets that allow this for Manchester & Liverpool, but there's nothing for Birmingham.

suzanneparis said:

Incidentally, is there a way to buy the return journey (a single ticket), which is valid on any train but which is also a non full priced ticket?

Click to expand...

No.

Many many thanks everyone.

Is there a place I can go to online in order to check for industrial action on 16th and 25th August?

Separate question. My partner is travelling from London to Leicester on Saturday 24th. Will there be industrial action then?