Availability of Avanti Advance fares?

[ScottGallagher]

Have Avanti suspended the usual Advance tickets at the moment, im just speculating that I'll be able.to travel London Euston to Millom in Cumbria during July or early August and the fares are extortionate

 

[Starmill]

Have Avanti suspended the usual Advance tickets at the moment, im just speculating that I'll be able.to travel London Euston to Millom in Cumbria during July or early August and the fares are extortionate

Have you checked it's the Avanti service that's causing that, and not the Northern one? Try splitting it up into London to Preston and see if any Advance tickets are available.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Have you checked it's the Avanti service that's causing that, and not the Northern one? Try splitting it up into London to Preston and see if any Advance tickets are available.

Bang it into Trainsplit (other splitting engines are available) and see what that comes up with?

 

[paul1609]

If trainsplit doesnt come up with an acceptable price try splitting in Manchester, I often find that works wonders for the Northwest albeit with a time penalty.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If trainsplit doesnt come up with an acceptable price try splitting in Manchester, I often find that works wonders for the Northwest albeit with a time penalty.

Yes, that's true, or using the slower service via Brum, or even LNR to Crewe if you've got all day!

 

[paul1609]

Yes, that's true, or using the slower service via Brum, or even LNR to Crewe if you've got all day!

In this football season Ive got in the habit of using the 07 or 08.46 LNR services to Crewe throughout for the £5.95 advances. Usually only have to share the coach with a couple of customers.
These trains dont normally seem to get overtaken by a Pendolino until well along the Trent Valley, you generally seem to lose more time at Crewe waiting for the connection than you do in the journey to Crewe. In the opposite direction the Avanti evening services never seem to be short of cheap advances.

 

[ScottGallagher]

Yes, that's true, or using the slower service via Brum, or even LNR to Crewe if you've got all day!

Thanks, I've gone via Manchester a number of times , but I guess it's correct they have no incentive whatsoever to offer discounts right now, I'll just keep checking!!!

 

[Trackman]

Release dates for Avanti advances are as of today:
Saturday service:28th June
Sunday Service: 12th July
Monday to Friday Service: 17th July

I've checked early July and there are some advance singles at £34.

 

[ScottGallagher]

Release dates for Avanti advances are as of today:
Saturday service:28th June
Sunday Service: 12th July
Monday to Friday Service: 17th July

I've checked early July and there are some advance singles at £34.

Thank you Trackman, do you know if this release date covers the second half of of August?

 

[jfollows]

Thank you Trackman, do you know if this release date covers the second half of of August?

I think you're misunderstanding Trackman who is saying that, on 28th. May, advance tickets were available until the dates quoted.
As of today, 16 June, I can see no advance tickets for days later than these (http://www.thetrainline.com gives a monthly view option). So nothing yet for August at all.

 

[mmh]

Yes, that's true, or using the slower service via Brum, or even LNR to Crewe if you've got all day!

LNR to Crewe is down to 2h10 now, making splits using it very attractive when advance fares around £10 are often available the day before. I've done it a few times despite thinking those trains really should be for Trent Valley passengers and MK commuters and not filled with tourists like me!

 

[infobleep]

When I looked up return tickets from Euston to Penrith travelling on 8 July and returning 15 July, both Wednesdays, I saw no advanced purchase tickets for sale.

Have they all sold out?

I didn't try Train Split as I wasn't looking to book yet, just an idea of prices. As it is the train may not get me and my friends to Penrith early enough and once there we need to reach a campsite in the Lake District, that is first come first served in terms of pitches as they don't do advanced booking.

We however don't know if people from different households will be allowed to car share by then.

 

[30907]

I saw a tweet - I think from Avanti - saying they are only loading Advances a week ahead. This is consistent with how the journey planners are being updated.

 

[paul1609]

LNR to Crewe is down to 2h10 now, making splits using it very attractive when advance fares around £10 are often available the day before. I've done it a few times despite thinking those trains really should be for Trent Valley passengers and MK commuters and not filled with tourists like me!

On the Saturday morning trains ex Euston pre Covid you were unlucky not to get exclusive use of a coach. You didn't get overtaken by a pendolino till halfway down the Trent Valley either.

 

[Jamesrob637]

LNR to Crewe is down to 2h10 now, making splits using it very attractive when advance fares around £10 are often available the day before. I've done it a few times despite thinking those trains really should be for Trent Valley passengers and MK commuters and not filled with tourists like me!

I quite like using LNWR and Northern down to London but I think Avanti should have lots of Advance Singles on the trains around 9pm. These are rarely if ever busy in my experience (last time being December '19).

 

[Trackman]

Thank you Trackman, do you know if this release date covers the second half of of August?

You can find the dates here: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/44703.aspx
As it stands today, it's gone backwards from my previous post:

Saturday service:13 June (No advances now on Saturday and Sunday services hence date is in the past)
Sunday service:14 June (see above)
Monday to Friday service:3 July

Also quotas are really low, so book early.

 

[infobleep]

Perhaps the short notice is due to not knowing what the timetables will be far enough ahead. Although if that is the case, you'd think more companies would only issue advances for a few weeks ahead.

 

[ScottGallagher]

You can find the dates here: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/44703.aspx
As it stands today, it's gone backwards from my previous post:

Saturday service:13 June (No advances now on Saturday and Sunday services hence date is in the past)
Sunday service:14 June (see above)
Monday to Friday service:3 July

Also quotas are really low, so book early.

Thank you Trackman

 

[Trackman]

As for weekends and after some investigating there is a 24hr (Sat) and 48hr (Sun) advance booking window.
I‘ll try it tomorrow.

 

[Trackman]

As for weekends and after some investigating there is a 24hr (Sat) and 48hr (Sun) advance booking window.
I‘ll try it tomorrow.

It did open today, found out NRE only updates each Friday, although Avanti tells you Thursdays (for the time being).
The Mon-Friday advances are still at 3rd July.

 

[infobleep]

Whilst I appreciate it is possible to sign up for an alert, do Avanti have a web page listing the dates of advanced purchase tickets? How does one find the most up-to-date date?

Looking just now for Penrith I notice only early morning or evening trains on the 8 July have cheap advanced prices. However, National Rail Enquiries are not saying advanced purchase tickets are on sale yet for that date. If Avanti put tickets on sale on a Thursday and NRE only update weekly on a Friday I can see how this would occur. If only they could have an automatic feed that auto-updates when TOCs update that would help. I imagine it's not high on their list of priorities right now.

When TOCs send out e-mails notifying of advanced ticket sales, do they send it in advance of the release or after it's just been realised?

There are £31 tickets on the way out but nothing on the way back, which, if tickets were released today, suggests perhaps some people were very busy this morning buying tickets.

In fact, buying an advanced purchase on the way out and an off-peak single on the way back comes to £110.40. An Offpeak return is only £113.50. Not much of a saving unless you were to travel out on the 05:31 train from Euston. Alas it's still too expensive for a friend who is on a budget and Avanti don't offer group save discounts. There is two-together but it doesn't work when there are three-together! three-together each 2ms apart I may add!

Edit: I actually used the following page:

Best Fare Finder Error | Avanti West Coast

When you click on a £31 fare it says last checked 50 days ago! That's a bit worrying. Select it and go further and eventually, it says no fare available. So have all the advanced fares not been put on sale yet or were they on sale and then removed from sale and still due to be put back on sale. It's confusing but I should expect nothing less as there is a pandemic on.

 

[Grumpy Git]

I booked a £23 advance this morning for LIV-EUS next Thursday, (there were only 2 available at that price). This is despite me signing-up to The Trainline app automatic notifications, which on Monday this week emailed to say there would be NO advance fares on this route this week?

Ticketing/fares in the UK are an absolute joke.

 

[SteveM70]

When I bought tickets last weekend for a trip in October to Glasgow, Avanti’s website was offering Advances from one of the stations I could connect into their service at (Preston) but not the other (Wigan). Obviously there are pre-lockdown Northern delay repay freebie tickets for the connections. Seems a bit random what is and isn’t available

 

[infobleep]

I checked with Avanti and they don't have a web page where you can find this information. They suggested just tweeting them, as I'd just done.

If the government changed the advice on car sharing it would make things easier and I could avoid Avanti but I appreciate we are in a pandemic. For example, I looked up Enterprise car rental for next week. You could get a small SUV for £217.50. That isn't the cheapest car available either. I appreciate fuel costs on top of that.

However 3x£113.50=£340.5. With a together Rail Card it would be £149.80 (for 2) + £113.50 = £263.2

On top of this, you wouldn't get any use of the train whilst you are away from Penrith, you would with a car. I appreciate train travel might be cheaper than owning a car if you doing it regularly enough but for one-offs when you don't own a car, the car wins. Or it does in this case. Alas, guidance is not to car share unless no alternatives and you regularly car-share.

 

[infobleep]

I must add a correction. Avanti does normally offer group save discounts. It is just that during June, July and August they are not offering this.

In line with current Government guidance, we are unable to sell group travel for travel dates in June, July & August. Sorry. Our top priority is always the safety of our customers and colleagues, so we’ll continue to work closely with our teams and commit to safe travels for everyone. We will closely monitor the government guidance on social distancing and when it’s safe to do so we will accept future bookings.

Group Train Tickets | Avanti West Coast

Book group train travel for school trips, events or an extra special journey.

www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk

Trainline didn't list them so I assumed they didn't participate as Trainline points out not all TOCs do.

So it could be seen if my interpretation of their wording is correct, that the government are trying to discourage group travel this summer.