Avanti West Coast offering ludicrous routing (and seemingly also the wrong tickets)

[py_megapixel]

Avanti's questionable journey planner strikes again.

I was looking for tickets between Stonehouse and Gloucester . To give some context for those not aware, they are consecutive stations on the Cheltenham-Paddington route and usually the journey between them takes barely more than 10 minutes.
However, for some reason, in addition to the direct trains, Avanti offers the option of a route via Swindon, Bristol and Cheltenham, taking almost 11 times as long.

The strangest thing is that it is offering it on the same tickets as the direct trains. Surely there is no way that a SHU-GCR "Any Permitted" Off-Peak Day Single* which costs £5.30 can be valid to go that way? (especially when the Off-Peak Day Single to Swindon is £8.70!). There's no reason why it should be, considering that it will never be quicker to go that way than to just wait for the next direct train.

* All websites seem to be offering these off-peak tickets, even on journeys before 9am. That seems wrong to me but because it's not just a single retailer I am assuming that there is some reason for it

 

[alistairlees]

The Avanti booking engine has thousands of errors in it. For example, Euston to Manchester shows journeys via Grantham. It is really unacceptable.

 

[Watershed]

The strangest thing is that it is offering it on the same tickets as the direct trains. Surely there is no way that a SHU-GCR "Any Permitted" Off-Peak Day Single* which costs £5.30 can be valid to go that way? (especially when the Off-Peak Day Single to Swindon is £8.70!). There's no reason why it should be, considering that it will never be quicker to go that way than to just wait for the next direct train.

It's not valid as per the Routeing Guide. But, as always, if you're offered an itinerary in conjunction with the purchase of a given ticket, you are contractually entitled to follow that itinerary. So it is valid if you buy it like that.

* All websites seem to be offering these off-peak tickets, even on journeys before 9am. That seems wrong to me but because it's not just a single retailer I am assuming that there is some reason for it

It's not wrong - the Off-Peak Day Return from Stonehouse to Gloucester has restriction code C6, meaning valid from 5am onwards. As the first train at Stonehouse isn't until around 5:20am, it's a de facto Anytime Day Return (SDR).

As far as I can tell, the only circumstances where someone would be sold the SDR would be if they failed to use available ticketing facilities at Stonehouse and were sold a ticket onboard the train. It may also be used in calculating the refund due on a season/Flexi Season ticket (though that does strike me as unfair in these circumstances).

 

[Haywain]

As far as I can tell, the only circumstances where someone would be sold the SDR would be if they failed to use available ticketing facilities at Stonehouse and were sold a ticket onboard the train. It may also be used in calculating the refund due on a season/Flexi Season ticket (though that does strike me as unfair in these circumstances).

Or it could be in those, albeit rare, circumstances where a discount applies only to the SDR and makes it a cheaper ticket.

 

[yorkie]

....., Avanti offers the option of a route via Swindon, Bristol and Cheltenham, taking almost 11 times as long.

If you book the journey, you are entitled to travel in accordance with the itinerary.

* All websites seem to be offering these off-peak tickets, even on journeys before 9am. That seems wrong to me but because it's not just a single retailer I am assuming that there is some reason for it

The restriction data matches the restriction text, so it doesn't seem wrong to me.