Tickets from London Thameslink

Tried to book a ticket yesterday on the LNER app from London Thameslink to Hitchin. Whilst I was able to select London Thameslink as the origin, when it got to the screen where I had to select a journey it was only offering times from London St Pancras, and would only offer a ticket from London St Pancras to Hitchin (not sure if the ticket would state St Pancras or London Terminals, as I didn’t proceed).

So I changed the origin to Farringdon, and it issued me with a Farringdon (not London Thameslink) to Hitchin ticket.

So my question is, can it issue a ticket from London Thameslink through the LNER app? It would have been useful, as on the return I’d have preferred to alight at Blackfriars rather than Farringdon - just hadn’t decided that when booking.

And the reason I was using the LNER app was because of a cash back offer on my credit card. I don’t know if other online retailers can issue a ticket from London Thameslink.

It's a problem in General, websites are planner based which means rather than going directly from customers request -> show tickets they go customers request -> journey plan -> select journey -> show tickets valid for that journey. If you type a station group, they don't remember that you have done so and only show tickets valid from the whole group.

I don't have the LNER app, but I've just tried the LNER website.

When in the train selection grid, there is a button "view all fares". Unfortunately it doesn't show the origin and destination of the fares, but it does show the route restriction which can often be a hint as to which one is the correct fare (the London Thameslink to Hitchin fares are routed "Not underground"). At the bottom of the page there is a button "view route and ticket details" which can be used to confirm you have selected the right ticket.

I can understand London Thameslink being a problem. Take St Pancras. If your destination is north its a london Terminal. If your destination is Southeastern it depends on the route. if the route is plus HS1 its a London Terminal. If the route is not hs1 its St Pancras or Zone U1. If your destination is GTR its London Thameslink unless your destination is the Marshlink or east Coastway Stations that have a +/ not hs1 fare when its London Thameslink Not hs1 and London Terminals +hs1.

Simply purchase a ticket from London Bridge for the same price which will be valid from Blackfriars, Farringdon, St Pancras etc.

If you choose a ticket to Faringdon, City Thameslink etc beyond St Pancras the ticket tou are offered will almost certainly be one to London Thameslink. This cam be confirmed after selecting a train by clicking the 'Ticket Restrictions' and this will list the London stations at which the ticket is valid and only a London Thameslink ticket will list both London Bridge and Elephant & Castle.

Haywain said:

If you choose a ticket to Faringdon, City Thameslink etc beyon St Pancras the ticket tou are offered will almost certainly be one to London Thameslink. This cam be confirmed after selecting a train by clicking the 'Ticket Restrictions' and this will list the London stations at which the ticket is valid and only a London Thameslink ticket will list both London Bridge and Elephant & Castle.

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Is the answer the same though if/when you‘re going out of London, ie TO Hitchin in this case.

It seems to me the sales systems work better if you’re travelling towards London. Perhaps that’s the only direction in which the functionality gets properly tested…

swt_passenger said:

Is the answer the same though if/when you‘re going out of London, ie TO Hitchin in this case.

It seems to me the sales systems work better if you’re travelling towards London. Perhaps that’s the only direction in which the functionality gets properly tested…

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You could try it and find out?

Haywain said:

You could try it and find out?

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That’s exactly what I was trying - I was travelling from London to Hitchin, but wasn’t able to buy a ticket from London Thameslink, even though it was in the list of origin stations.

island said:

Simply purchase a ticket from London Bridge for the same price which will be valid from Blackfriars, Farringdon, St Pancras etc.

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Yes, when I put my brain to it this morning that was best workaround that I could think of.

alholmes said:

That’s exactly what I was trying - I was travelling from London to Hitchin, but wasn’t able to buy a ticket from London Thameslink, even though it was in the list of origin stations.

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You need to select a specific London Thameslink station, south of St Pancras.

Haywain said:

You need to select a specific London Thameslink station, south of St Pancras.

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That’s what I did, and it issued a Farmington to Hitchin ticket. Whereas the ticket I was hoping for was from London Thameslink, to give the flexibility as to which station I could use.

See above, buy from Elephant, London bridge or Blackfriars.

andythebrave said:

See above, buy from Elephant, London bridge or Blackfriars.

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Yes, we’ve established that already. But my question is why the LNER app won’t issue a ticket from London Thameslink, even though it can be selected as an origin station on their app.

alholmes said:

Yes, we’ve established that already. But my question is why the LNER app won’t issue a ticket from London Thameslink, even though it can be selected as an origin station on their app.

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Most likely because journey search station is not the same as the fare origin/destination station.

It's two separate parts of the ticket purchase process. You'd have the same scenario when searching for a journey from "London Terminals" to Birmingham. You'll likely end up with advances (in this case) from Marylebone and Euston respectively (but as they're not flexible tickets, you'd probably end up with an option of the flexible ticket instead). Just because you searched from "London Terminals", that doesn't mean that you will only see tickets with an origin of "London Terminals".

The journey planner will typically perform a search for potential itineraries from A to B, and then find the fares (if any) that can be used on each of those itineraries. In this case, LNER's journey planner is (presumably) finding the point to point tickets first and prioritising these over (or hiding) the group stations tickets in the case of Farringdon.

The matter becomes more complex for situations where there are tickets from different fare origins/destinations valid on the same services. In reality, GTR should really get rid of the point to point fares from Farringdon, City Thameslink, London Bridge, etc and just encompass them all within a single set of fares to/from London Thameslink.

alholmes said:

But my question is why the LNER app won’t issue a ticket from London Thameslink, even though it can be selected as an origin station on their app.

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You've changed the question then. In your first post it was:

alholmes said:

So my question is, can it issue a ticket from London Thameslink through the LNER app?

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And it has been established that it can and does.

Haywain said:

And it has been established that it can and does.

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Has it been established that it can? Post #2 mentions that it can on the LNER website. But I don’t see how it can be done on the app.

alholmes said:

Has it been established that it can? Post #2 mentions that it can on the LNER website. But I don’t see how it can be done on the app.

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Just tried. Showed first time for a Lon Thameslink to Hitchin search... Had to press "show more tickets" after choosing my journey, though.

Someone might want to fix it saying St Pancras "Ll" (low level) though! (And maybe Thameslink deserves a higher resolution image? )

alholmes said:

Has it been established that it can?

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Yes, I bought one using the method that I described. I was going to post it but I can't find where the edited image (removing the booking number) has been saved!

Edit: found it: