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App with google pay & google wallet for everyday purchase-on-phone tickets?

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tornado

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Most TOC phone apps will issue mobile tickets, but the issue is that these are held within their own app. Some of these will helpfully log you out while you are walking to the station (yes I'm pointing at you GWR!)

TrainSplit is great, but it's awkward for buying non-split tickets e.g. an off-peak return from A to B when I don't want to choose times.

In theory I should be able to save a favourite non-advance ticket --> buy with google pay --> store in google wallet. All of this with 3 clicks.

Are there any apps that offer this?

LNER doesn't have google pay. Avanti has google pay, but not sure about wallet support.
 
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Hadders

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GWR send an e-ticket as a pdf. There's no requirement to have or use their app although the ticket can't be added to an apple wallet.
 
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tornado

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Yes, but that's not a 3-click process to buy and store the ticket. Having to open up my email inbox on the phone, and then save multiple .pdfs to some kind of external viewer is clunky. The GWR buying process is not smooth on a phone either.
 
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Hadders

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I agree. Can't you just open the PDF when required, no need to store it anywhere. That's what I do.
 
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tornado

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I still need to open up my phone email app, and find the correct email. Not so handy at a ticket gate.

Trainsplit's google pay+google wallet process is basically exactly what I'm looking for, but their engine is not geared towards buying single flexible tickets.
 
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pedr

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Isn't https://trainscanbecheaper.info the same engine as Trainsplit but without the split ticketing?

Also XC send an email with an Apple Wallet button - that still means opening the email app but not downloading/storing a PDF; the email includes a button which loads the ticket into the Apple Wallet (I'm guessing it also has the Google equivalent for Android).
 
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tornado

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Trainsplit allows me to press the google pay button to pay for the ticket, then a window pops up and I press another button to send it to my google wallet. The ticket remains as a notification on my phone so when I approach the gateline it's the first thing I see when I touch the phone screen.

This is the perfect way to do it. I don't need to find a computer. I don't need to enter a credit card. I don't need to open my email. Just a few clicks in their app.

The only annoyance is that selecting a flexible ticket is a bit clunky with trainsplit, and it doesn't have a favourites list.
 
td97

td97

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tornado said:
Avanti has google pay, but not sure about wallet support.
Click to expand...
Since late summer Avanti on Android has supported storing tickets in the Google Pay app, which means the ticket shows as a lockscreen notification at the relevant time.
 
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mikeg

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LNER allows saving into Google pay and is probably one of the better TOC apps, in fact it's probably my favourite booking app full stop.
 
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mikeg

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Ah I I think I misunderstood, whilst lner doesn't use Google pay for payment although you can save tickets into it. To be quite honest it suits me as I can just store my credit and debit card details in the app anyway and then use Google pay to present my tickets. I don't know what if any advantage there is to using Google pay online.
 
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tornado

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I try to store my credit card in as few places as possible. Not really comfortable with it in LNER's app.

I used Avanti today and it's pretty good. Nearly 10 clicks and a fingerprint authorisation to purchase and send to google wallet a flexible day ticket, but can be done in less than a minute. Also it's much quicker to get the "QR" code visible when approaching a gateline then faffing around with .pkpass/emails/pdfs/TOC apps.

Unfortunately the lockscreen notification disappeared before my return journey, but perhaps that's some setting on my phone.

So overall Avanti has the best setup for on-mobile purchase of flexible and non-split tickets out of all the TOC apps (I've tried quite a few now!).
 
td97

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Northern's app now offers the full "Google experience" including payment by Google Pay (with biometric authentication), and ticket storage in Google Wallet.
Tickets are added to Google Wallet from the ticket confirmation email
 
Class172

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tornado said:
Most TOC phone apps will issue mobile tickets, but the issue is that these are held within their own app. Some of these will helpfully log you out while you are walking to the station (yes I'm pointing at you GWR!)

TrainSplit is great, but it's awkward for buying non-split tickets e.g. an off-peak return from A to B when I don't want to choose times.

In theory I should be able to save a favourite non-advance ticket --> buy with google pay --> store in google wallet. All of this with 3 clicks.

Are there any apps that offer this?

LNER doesn't have google pay. Avanti has google pay, but not sure about wallet support.
Click to expand...
You may already be aware that you can explicitly search for flexible, non-split tickets on the Trainsplit app. Perform a search as normal, then when the initial results are presented, tap on the filter icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. You’ll be presented with options to filter results (including flexible only and/or without split tickets) as shown in the screenshot below.
 

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yorkie

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tornado said:
I still need to open up my phone email app, and find the correct email. Not so handy at a ticket gate.

Trainsplit's google pay+google wallet process is basically exactly what I'm looking for, but their engine is not geared towards buying single flexible tickets.
Click to expand...
pedr said:
Isn't https://trainscanbecheaper.info the same engine as Trainsplit but without the split ticketing?
Click to expand...
As mentioned above, in the latest version of Trainsplit, you can do this using the normal Trainsplit site (or the forum's version of it!), once you have done the search, turn split tickets off, then click "flexible". No need to use a separate site any more.
 
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jon81uk

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Greater Anglia accepts Apple Pay to pay in the app and then the email with the PDF tickets also contains links to add to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
Or you can view the tickets in the Greater Anglia app.
 
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sk688

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The GWR app logging you out thing is a pain but they do now let you save e tickets to Google Wallet, and I just use PayPal which works out almost as quick for purchases
 
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fandroid

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This may just fit my usual journeys but I switch to "Arrive By" for my outward journey when buying an offpeak return on the Forum (Trainsplit) site. That stops it searching for cheaper tickets requiring a later start. That's on top of switching off the split ticket option. I can normally get a ticket into the wallet in the time it takes to walk
yorkie said:
As mentioned above, in the latest version of Trainsplit, you can do this using the normal Trainsplit site (or the forum's version of it!), once you have done the search, turn split tickets off, then click "flexible". No need to use a separate site any more.
Click to expand...

between the station carpark and the ticket gates!
 
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CharlieSpotted

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The West Mids Railways app now allows you to save the ticket to Google / Apple Wallet... but you can't do it from inside the app, you do it from the email they send you. Slightly clunky, but it does work.
 
miklcct

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In contrast which Android app has the best Apple Wallet integration and PayPal as payment method? I prefer using Apple Wallet instead of Google stuff.
 
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londonbridge

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Whilst appreciating this thread is primarily concerned with Google and Android phones, I have an iPhone, if there is an ”add to Apple Wallet” option I’ll use that, if not I save pdf tickets for trains (and gigs/concerts) into the files app so that all tickets are in one place and I can just go to the app to find the one I want.
 
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James H

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FirstGroup seem to have refreshed their iOS apps and reduced the number of taps needed to buy a ticket.

They also no longer refer to their e-tickets as m-tickets which is a step forward.

Though they do call them 'Mobile e-Tickets'
 
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