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Advance fares dropping after purchase????

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Bungle73

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On Friday I booked the 6th September 11:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern. The price I paid was £49.65 for a First Advance with Disabled Railcard. Now I go on there and exactly the same ticket is showing a price of £30.75! What's going on?? I've always understood that once Advances fares are released they are released, and prices can only ever go up as each quota sells out, and if you book early enough you get the cheapest price. I'm not very happy about this.

Also a bit odd, is that on the out journey I was offered an e-ticket, but for the return, on the Friday, only a collection.
 
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Bletchleyite

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While the railway can release more tickets later, it's not common for it to do this. More likely is that someone had the lower fare in their basket while you were buying the higher one, and then decided not to buy it so it went back up for purchase.
 

Bungle73

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I would point you towards this thread discussing similar situation, also on GWR.
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/gwr-advance-prices-got-cheaper-since-i-bought-them.218621/

So it's become a lottery as to whether one can obtain the cheapest ticket then, rather than a matter of planning? Great.............:rolleyes:

While the railway can release more tickets later, it's not common for it to do this. More likely is that someone had the lower fare in their basket while you were buying the higher one, and then decided not to buy it so it went back up for purchase.

The price I paid had been there for at least a few days, as I procrastinated about it. The annoying thing that is the price I paid was much higher than that on the two previous occasions I've travelled (last year and previous), and closer to the price that has materialised now (and what I expected to pay).
 

Watershed

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Unfortunately, whilst you're correct that normally Advance prices will only go up, there can be exceptions to this. This would appear to be one such case.

Whilst it may seem harsh, ultimately the way I see it is - you were happy to pay £49.65 for the ticket. The railway doesn't guarantee, as far as I'm aware, that prices will never go down. So I don't really see how the current price being lower changes anything.
 

yorkie

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So it's become a lottery as to whether one can obtain the cheapest ticket then, rather than a matter of planning? Great.............:rolleyes:
Not anywhere near as much as with airlines, but in a word: yes

It has only happened to me occasionally.

The biggest issue I have is not that the practice happens as such (it's very common for air fares), but the way the rail industry acts as if it doesn't happen; some train companies put out misleading messaging in this subject.

But train companies may not be breaking any laws; it depends on exactly what they say. Most are sufficiently vague to enable them to wriggle out of it.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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The flexible walk-on fare (1st Off Peak Return) with railcard is £83.85, which seems better value to me, if a return leg is envisaged.
 

roversfan2001

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Of course, if you purchased the fare you were presumably happy with the price you paid. Why then check again and risk seeing it on sale for less?
 

Wolfie

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Of course, if you purchased the fare you were presumably happy with the price you paid. Why then check again and risk seeing it on sale for less?
I suspect, given what the OP said about the fare being higher than normal, "resigned to" would be much more accurate than "happy".
 

Bungle73

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Unfortunately, whilst you're correct that normally Advance prices will only go up, there can be exceptions to this. This would appear to be one such case.

Whilst it may seem harsh, ultimately the way I see it is - you were happy to pay £49.65 for the ticket. The railway doesn't guarantee, as far as I'm aware, that prices will never go down. So I don't really see how the current price being lower changes anything.

Well I didn't have much choice did I.........

The flexible walk-on fare (1st Off Peak Return) with railcard is £83.85, which seems better value to me, if a return leg is envisaged.

The return trip was £22.75, so I paid £72.40 in total, so lower.
 
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