Advance Tickets......

[Edyhun]

Apologies if this has been answered before but I'm a newbie here and couldn't find it elsewhere......

Just a query really if anybody has any knowledge - I understand how advance tickets come out about 12 weeks before travel and there is an allocation for certain trains at certain prices etc in general. How is it though that I can book these tickets on 3rd party websites (e.g. redspottedhanky) before the advance fares are shown on the train operators OWN website? For instance I have just booked a FGW advance fare for the 23rd June on RSH, however the fares are not yet available on on FGW itself! This also happened on Cross Country where I managed to make seat reservations and buy advance fares even though the advance fares were not yet showing on Cross Country's own site? No problem really to me but does seem a bit strange.....

Thanks

Ed

 

[OwlMan]

Apologies if this has been answered before but I'm a newbie here and couldn't find it elsewhere......

Just a query really if anybody has any knowledge - I understand how advance tickets come out about 12 weeks before travel and there is an allocation for certain trains at certain prices etc in general. How is it though that I can book these tickets on 3rd party websites (e.g. redspottedhanky) before the advance fares are shown on the train operators OWN website? For instance I have just booked a FGW advance fare for the 23rd June on RSH, however the fares are not yet available on on FGW itself! This also happened on Cross Country where I managed to make seat reservations and buy advance fares even though the advance fares were not yet showing on Cross Country's own site? No problem really to me but does seem a bit strange.....

Thanks

Ed

Advanced tickets are usually released on a Thursday. The different websites will download them at different speeds.

Peter

 

[cuccir]

It's not the only anomaly. Some websites will sell advance tickets after the 16:00 deadline on the day before travel, selling them up till midnight if they are still available.

With regards to the specific question you had- Redspottedhanky's website is powered by 'WEBTIS', while FGW and Cross Country are powered by The Trainline. It may well be a difference in the updated time between these two online bookers.

The most recent summary I can find of who uses what is here. I don't think its changed much since then, although Northern have launched a journey planner using a new type of booking software I think?

 

[Zoe]

It's not the only anomaly. Some websites will sell advance tickets after the 16:00 deadline on the day before travel, selling them up till midnight if they are still available.

The deadline is 18:00.

 

[wibble]

The deadline is 18:00.

It varies by TOC - e.g. SWT and Virgin have a 23:59 cut off, EMT has 19:00, Southern and Greater Anglia use 18:00.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Advanced tickets are usually released on a Thursday. The different websites will download them at different speeds.

Peter

It's a live feed so they don't download anything as availability can change quickly on more popular routes.

 

[Zoe]

It varies by TOC - e.g. SWT and Virgin have a 23:59 cut off, EMT has 19:00, Southern and Greater Anglia use 18:00.

It does but 18:00 is the earliest and I seem to remember it was 18:00 even back in the days of Superadvance fares. Some TOCs have extended this now as you say but I don't know of any TOC that had an earlier deadline than 18:00.

 

[cuccir]

The deadline is 18:00.

Ah yes, sorry, I always get my head muddled when I try and do the twenty-four hour clock: 6 pm became 16:00!

 

[Edyhun]

Thanks for the replies, just seems strange that a 3rd party seller can sell out an operators advance fare before the operator even puts it on sale.

ta

ed

 

[IanD]

It's not the only anomaly. Some websites will sell advance tickets after the 16:00 deadline on the day before travel, selling them up till midnight if they are still available.

On March 3rd I almost accidentally bought some EMT/XC advance tickets on RSH at 1000 for travel at 1927 the same day from Sheffield to Birmingham. I actually wanted them for March 24th and hadn't noticed that the date had been reset after I'd put some other tickets in my basket then selected to book another journey. It was only when I found that the second set of tickets could not be posted that I realised.