In theory yes, a ticket check would weed out the frauds. But would you want the job of bouncing people with a ticket, albeit a dodgy one off the last train of the day from Rannoch or Ardlui?
Tricky one. I'm quite hard line so if someone has deliberately and fraudulantly obtained a discounted ticket I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
It's unlikely there would nothing on any train for 3 months especially as summer has been and gone! I found a load of available dates for someone a couple of weeks ago. You'd be lucky to find something within about 4 weeks but if you can be flexible, there will more choice with more notice than that. If you ever intend to use the service in the future you can PM me and I will check when I am in.
Thanks I might take you up on that in the future. If when attending a booking office, what codes or special wizardry does the clerk need to input into the computer? Would be handy to know what I've got to prompt them with if I come up against a brick wall.
There are four levels of advance fares available for the Night Riviera - £135 / £89 / £74 / £59 (assuming a journey London - Penzance). As far as I can see the staff fares are only available on trains where the public advance fare is £74 or £59. Once it reaches the top two levels, the staff quota seems to be withdrawn.
According to the current Rail Staff Travel Guide, you are only eligible for Priv rates on the most expensive adult inclusive package i.e. the £135 tier. That tallies with the tickets I’ve bought at £33.75 each (quarter of £135).
That is the correct price, but greatkingrat's theory is that it's only available when the £59 and £74 tickets are available to the public. If someone from GWR doesn't confirm in the meantime I will also have a look in the system and see if i reach the same conclusion!
I think confusion exists as to when Option 1 (75% off the most expensive adult inclusive adult package) is available or not. As I recounted above, I attended Paddington recently to be told none of these ticket were available between now and December.
I emailed GWR last week outlining the Rail Staff Travel guidance and asking where sleeper PRVs can be bought and what the quotas are. The reply a week later:
"I have spoke to our telesales team and they have advised that the only place you can buy this type of ticket is at the station. You could go back to the station and maybe try again, but if they say that they don't do them anymore or there is none available there is no where else you can purchase them. Unfortunately we don't no the reason why the clerk had said they are no longer available as we don't sell that type of ticket in our department, the station staff should be able to give you more information regarding this."
A typically unhelpful reply. The bit about telesales is also incorrect as I bought the PRV rate ticket via that method last week.
If you email a company (using the only contact portal on the website) asking for a definitive answer or the corporate line then you expect them to find out the answer, not say "sorry not this department guv". Well do the legwork and find out. If I emailed to complain about the catering provision, I wouldn't expect them to say "sorry we don't cook the breakfasts in this department"!
