Buying a Season Ticket - Southeastern

[wimbledonpete]

Hi

After years of buying a Travelcard on Oyster, I'm moving into Southeastern territory and need to buy an annual paper ticket. Would appreciate some advice as their website is a bit confusing - on the season ticket page it says:

"All season tickets must be purchased at least 7 days in advance of the start date."

Elsewhere, in the ticket FAQs, it says:

"If you're buying a new ticket starting on a Monday or Sunday, it can be issued from noon on the previous Friday. If the start date falls on any another day, you can buy the ticket after noon the day before."

If the latter is true and I'm buying from Folkestone West to start on a Friday, I can only buy it between 12.00 and 13.05 (when the ticket office closes) on Thursday? Or do I have to buy it at least 7 days in advance?

Don't want to turn up and be told I'm far too late or far too early.

Thanks!

 

[Romilly]

Although the site is unclearly laid out, I think that the rule about having to buy from 7 to 14 days in advance applies only when buying online - in order to give time for the ticket to be posted out to you.

If you will not be travelling on the Saturday or Sunday, you may want to check whether it is cheaper to buy a day return for the Friday, and then buy a season ticket to start on the Monday.

You may also want to note that as well as weekly, monthly and annual season tickets, season tickets can be bought for any period between a month and a year. So if you commute Monday to Friday, you may save by buying a season for a month and a couple of days, where the first day of validity is a Monday and the last is a Friday. Similarly, if you have a holiday starting 6 weeks after the end of one season ticket, it is likely to be cheaper to buy a season for 6 weeks rather than a monthly and two weeklies. This is because the price for an odd-period season is (roughly speaking) calculated at the daily rate under a monthly, rather than using the higher daily rate under a weekly for the odd days.

 

[causton]

Officially, "I can only buy it between 12.00 and 13.05 (when the ticket office closes) on Thursday" is the correct interpretation. Many ticket offices are lax with it though, so any time on Thursday should be fine I'm sure!

 

[wimbledonpete]

Fantastic, thank you both for your help.