London KX to Aberdeen

Hi All

We will be over in the UK for a holiday and rather than flying from LHR-ABZ we quite fancy going by train from London Kings Cross to Aberdeen on Wed 1st July. There will be 4 adults and two kids(11&6).
I would only be interested in a direct train(there is one that leaves around 1000, which is perfect)

My questions would be, what would be the cheapest ticket we could get once the fares are released? Also, is it worth paying to go First class, and would anyone know the chepeast price a first class fair would be?

I've been told to buy a Friends and family railcard as well (even though this is the only train journey(except tube) we will take when we are there.

Thanks in Advance

Here's some initial detail on fares available for the route:

http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=KGX&dest=ABD

(The cheapest fares aren't the 10p ones!)

I looked up the fares for 8th April, and standard class without the F&F Railcard would be £217.50. With the F&F Railcard it's £123.30. First Class is £819 and Railcard discounts do not apply. These fares are for travel on the 1000 train only. The railcard costs £30. You can order the tickets online as soon as they become available, for collection either at the booking office or from a ticket machine at Kings Cross. You don't need to have the Railcard when you book the tickets but you must have it when you travel, but you can buy it at Kings Cross on the day of travel.

PS I checked for 22 April, the furthest in advance I can go now, and the standard F&F Discounted fare is £82.40 - So make sure you get in early for the best price!

Welcome to the forum - and to the wonderful world of British railway ticketing. It won't just be you who finds things confusing!

One of the bizarre things about train tickets in Great Britain is that sometimes you can do better by 'split ticketing' - instead of buying a ticket from A to B, you buy tickets from A to C and from C to B. Among the ticket agencies who provide this is one that pays a (small, I think) commission to this forum : details are at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/railuk-forums-partnership-with-trainsplit-com.125025/ .

Using their website for an arbitrary weekday, that gives a standard class fare for your party of 4 adults plus 2 children of £226.32, plus £30 for the Family and Friends Railcard. As the F&F Railcard doesn't do first class, the best first class price Trainsplit gives is £882.60 for your party.

But what about using Two Together Railcards for the adults? That would give first class fares for each pair of adults of £196.79, plus £30 for each of two Railcards, and £149.06 for the pair of children, so a total of (£196.79 + £196.79 + £30 + £30 + £149.06 =). £612.64 for the whole party. There would be no guarantee that all the seat reservations would be together; hopefully someone who knows that train will be along shortly so could comment.

I know 7 hours in a train is along time, but you can walk up and down and find other ways to pass the time. I'm not sure that the OP will do better than £112.40 for the whole job by booking Standard Class Advance tickets with F&F Railcard. Even your best suggestion for First Class is £500 more and I find it hard to imagine that there's £500 worth of benefit to be had. The LNER web site says tickets on this route can be booked up to 24 weeks in advance but for the OP's date not released yet. He could set up a ticket alert to get notified when they are released.

JBuchananGB said:

. I'm not sure that the OP will do better than £112.40 for the whole job by booking Standard Class Advance tickets with F&F Railcard. Even your best suggestion for First Class is £500 more and I find it hard to imagine that there's £500 worth of benefit to be had.

Click to expand...

I am purely providing advice, not making a recommendation.

Incidentally, are we comparing the same size of party? I understand it to be 4 adults plus 2 children, for which your £112.40 (plus Railcard) seems to be an excellent fare.

£264.30 (plus £30) for 4+2 on 15 April is the furthest ahead LNER will do. It's Easter week, so comparable with early July. The split is marginally cheaper, as already stated.
First class at double the price (using the 2Tog railcard as suggested) gives you the legroom, plus two medium sized meals each plus drinks. It is not likely to be less crowded though. You should be able to select seats together.

Fawkes Cat said:

... no guarantee that all the seat reservations would be together; hopefully someone who knows that train will be along shortly so could comment.

Click to expand...

.
I recommend booking through a retailer who offers an online seat selector.

The LNER website will do this (for their own trains only), as will Trainsplit (for any operator offering reservations, including LNER).

This way you can see where the seats are before you commit.

The only time you won't be able to change seats if if you have the last seats at a particular price point; the Trainsplit site still lets you see where the seats are though.

Seat reservations can sometimes be suspended due to various factors, meaning it's a free for all, but you are starting at the origin and if you board early this shouldn't be an issue for you.

My mistake. I was pricing 2 adults & 2 children. Others have done it properly with 4 adults & 2 children. Apologies.

WOW!! Thanks everyone, and here is me thinking it would be easy

I will do a bit more digging, but can fly for around $800(about 400GBP) for us all, just thought the train would be a good way for the family to see the UK Countryside.

It is easy to simply buy the tickets once they go on sale.

It's also easy to get good seats (using either site mentioned in this thread)

But the decision on what is best value, such as whether to pay a lot more to travel in 1st class, may be difficult.

As with airlines, we can't say the exact price of the best value fares will be if they aren't yet on sale.

What time do you land at Heathrow? What time are you planning to depart London? Do you have accommodation booked in London?

If the OP is going to get a railcard and they are only going to use it while here on holiday, they should look out for a discount code for these as these can often appear (sometimes up to 20% off) between now and when they arrive in the UK. If they can get one of those they could buy the railcard sooner at the lower price. They should also have a look at the Family Railcard website and see if they might make use of the railcard for any other shorter journeys or travel within London where railcard discounts are allowed too.