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Annual gold card to get discount to standard peak (anytime) ticket

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amsjrt

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Hi,

I tried to search for an answer here for my question but not able to find it. So here it is:

I live in Basingstoke and travel to London Waterloo about 2 days per week during peak time. Currently I have an annual season ticket but it is expensive and given that I only travel to London 2 days a week, I felt it is not worthwhile getting the season ticket. While reading some of the questions raised in this forum, I read that I can get a cheap annual gold card (eg Hatton to lapworth) which cost like £164 but can I then use it to buy discounted anytime standard (peak) ticket when I travel from Basingstoke to London before 9am? The fare difference due to the discount is about £15 per standard peak return ticket so it’s a huge saving if this is allowed.

Any comments are welcomed.
 
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LA50041

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Hi,

I tried to search for an answer here for my question but not able to find it. So here it is:

I live in Basingstoke and travel to London Waterloo about 2 days per week during peak time. Currently I have an annual season ticket but it is expensive and given that I only travel to London 2 days a week, I felt it is not worthwhile getting the season ticket. While reading some of the questions raised in this forum, I read that I can get a cheap annual gold card (eg Hatton to lapworth) which cost like £164 but can I then use it to buy discounted anytime standard (peak) ticket when I travel from Basingstoke to London before 9am? The fare difference due to the discount is about £15 per standard peak return ticket so it’s a huge saving if this is allowed.

Any comments are welcomed.

Gold Card discount cannot be used before 0930 Monday-Friday
 

amsjrt

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Thanks. Yes I can see that in the terms and condition of the annual gold card.
 

amsjrt

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Thanks guys, I agree with LA50041 that my original thinking does not work, as the annual gold card discount will not apply to journeys before 9.30am.
Then thanks to Some Bloke and I think the best way to save some money is to buy an anytime single and an off-peak single. But I think I will buy a network railcard (instead of an annual gold card) as that will save me be a bit of money on the off peak single.

My calculation as follows:

Anytime single (Peak) from Basingstoke to London = £24.30
Off peak single from London to Basingstoke = £16.05 (discounted using Network railcard)
Total = £40.35
This is cheaper than buying an anytime return ticket.(i.e. £43)
As I will travel to London 2 days per week, this is cheaper than buying an annual season ticket, which cost £4,564 pa and this is roughly £48 per return ticket ( I assume 48 weeks here for my situation as I will be having holidays and annual leaves etc). i thinks there are very little savings if going through train split tickets (like £0.30 saving) if I want more direct trains instead of those service which stop at more stations.

Any other cheaper ways to save rail fares?
 

kieron

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Another option would be a carnet. A Basingstoke-Waterloo carnet costs £408.50 for the equivalent of 10 day returns, but you don't need a railcard, and you will be able to (say) buy tickets at December's prices to use in January and February without having to commit to specific dates beforehand. Carnets are only available on smartcards, so you'd need to buy a ticket and wait for SWR to post a smartcard out to you before you can travel with it.

A Waterloo-Basingstoke carnet costs £235.60 for 10 days' travel. The SWR site says "Each ticket is valid for unlimited travel between the specified stations for a full day", so this should also meet your needs. I'd avoid putting any other tickets on the same smartcard, though, to avoid confusing it.
 

MotCO

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Another option would be a carnet. A Basingstoke-Waterloo carnet costs £408.50 for the equivalent of 10 day returns, but you don't need a railcard, and you will be able to (say) buy tickets at December's prices to use in January and February without having to commit to specific dates beforehand. Carnets are only available on smartcards, so you'd need to buy a ticket and wait for SWR to post a smartcard out to you before you can travel with it.

A Waterloo-Basingstoke carnet costs £235.60 for 10 days' travel. The SWR site says "Each ticket is valid for unlimited travel between the specified stations for a full day", so this should also meet your needs. I'd avoid putting any other tickets on the same smartcard, though, to avoid confusing it.

Forgive my ignorance, but are you saying a 10-day carnet from Waterloo to Basinhgstoke costs less than a similar ticket from Basingstoke to Waterloo, but both can be used at any time and in either direction?
 

alistairlees

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Forgive my ignorance, but are you saying a 10-day carnet from Waterloo to Basinhgstoke costs less than a similar ticket from Basingstoke to Waterloo, but both can be used at any time and in either direction?
The carnet is based on the price of the Anytime Day Return (SDR), being 5% less than the cost of 10 SDRs. And SDRs have very different prices on this flow, depending on your direction of travel. But because the carnet is meant to replicate a season ticket (in terms of usability), it is valid for unlimited trips each day. It's really not clear what should happen in this situation, though I really can't see why a WAT - BSK carnet would not be valid for doing BSK to WAT and return.
 
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