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Best place to buy tickets?

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freddie1729

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Sorry if this has been posted before. Is there a comprehensive list of where the best place to buy tickets from is?

Some places charge a booking fee and some don't, some give Nectar points, some allow you to amend certain tickets for free.

Is there a list with all these benefits listed?
 
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yorkie

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Sorry if this has been posted before. Is there a comprehensive list of where the best place to buy tickets from is?

Some places charge a booking fee and some don't, some give Nectar points, some allow you to amend certain tickets for free.

Is there a list with all these benefits listed?
What do you require? A site with plenty of via/avoid point options and offering split ticketing? Or a site that allows to get a refund of walk up tickets that have not been collected? There is no one website that offers every benefit so it depends on your priorities.
 

Greenback

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I don't care about Nectar points or other similar schemes. I used to collect Red Spotted Hanky points but they weren't of any great value to me. I now just look for train company sites where there's no fee for postal delivery, I buy at the ticket office, or I collect the tickets from the TVM. I'm lucky that I live close to the station, bu what I do depends on circumstances.
 

Marton

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LNER for their services. Seat selector is good but interface terrible. Nectar only for LNER tickets.

EC and then Irvin was better. With open tickets rebooking seats was excellent. The redesign stopped that and no longer gave the collection reference on calendar downloads. That changed recently

LNER
TPE for the rest. I like the interface and nectar points. I didn’t know about free changes. That’s good.
 

ForTheLoveOf

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There have been previous threads on this, but for me:

TPE if I want to use TPE Advance ticket discounts or make use of the fact that they post out tickets for free (and allow free modification of Advances through excesses sent by post), plus that it's MixingDeck which can produce 'interesting' journey results ;)

CrossCountry if I just want to book an Advance and be able to change it quickly (e.g. for a train after a meal out), or if I want to be able to use a discount on CrossCountry Advances.

Southern if I want to book walkup tickets in advance (e.g. because I want to ensure that timetable changes don't impact my journey rights), but with the option of a fee-free refund if I don't pick the tickets up.

TrainSplit for researching the kinds of combinations which are optimal, and for booking them when I'm not the one paying the commission ;)

TrainsCanBeCheaper when I want an itinerary to validate a wacky route - as only TCBC has so many via and not via points available! Also when I want to increase the availability of cheap Advance tiers by preventing the use of reservable services where this is avoidable.

And occasionally I will use a TOC's own website where there is a ticket they are selling which they would claim was "missold by the retailer" if I bought it from anyone else! Oh and of course if there's a specific seat I want to reserve on a seatmap (e.g. LNER/VT/XC).
 

bspahh

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Greater Anglia offer 3% cashback for trains from any company if you go via www.quidco.com 3.03% via www.topcashback.com You can get this paid out in cash.

Sometimes you will find tickets on the TOC's own site, that aren't available anywhere else. For example www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk sell Advance tickets for their trains up until 15 minutes before the start of the journey.

For split ticketing, there are sites like www.splitticketing.com and www.trainsplit.com If they take a cut of the saving you may be able to get the same tickets for less if you book them somewhere else.

www.loco2.com is good for tickets for journeys between different countries across Europe.

www.bahn.com is good for London-Germany tickets. www.seat61.com/Germany.htm explains the trick to find these. With www.eurostar.com its easier to pick a seat.
 

ForTheLoveOf

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Sometimes you will find tickets on the TOC's own site, that aren't available anywhere else. For example www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk sell Advance tickets for their trains up until 15 minutes before the start of the journey.
CrossCountry Advance Purchase on the Day tickets are, in common with all other TOCs' APOD tickets, available for sale on all participating online retailers. I don't think there are any retailers out there nowadays that sell Advances but which don't sell APODs.

There are other kinds of Advances only available through the TOC (e.g. Stansted and Heathrow Express Advances, both of which are total misnomers!), but APODs aren't one of them.
 

bspahh

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CrossCountry Advance Purchase on the Day tickets are, in common with all other TOCs' APOD tickets, available for sale on all participating online retailers. I don't think there are any retailers out there nowadays that sell Advances but which don't sell APODs.

A few weeks ago, I tried to buy a Cross Country Advance Purchase on the Day ticket. York ticket office couldn't sell it to me, and it wasn't listed at www.lner.co.uk, so I used www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

I just tried a search for the 11.42 from Birmingham New Street to Cheltenham. There is an Advance ticket at www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk but not at www.lner.co.uk. Perhaps they have different quotas.
 
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