Buying three tickets with a family railcard, when the Advance quota is two

[dracos]

I received an email from ScotRail that Advance tickets had just gone on sale for a particular journey; I was looking to buy three tickets – two adults, one child, with a Family Railcard, one-way.

If I enter those details, on a variety of different booking sites including this forum's, I am offered only 3 Anytime Day Singles, with the Railcard discount; no Advance tickets.
If I enter one or two adults, I can see the Advance tickets being offered.

I confirmed via Avanti's site (that shows the quota) that there are only two advance tickets available (and these have just gone on sale, this appears to be the full quota, looking at other days/times):



So my assumption is that if I try and buy more tickets than the quota (I want three, there are two Advance tickets), there's no way for the systems to combine using up the quota of Advance tickets and then adding on an Anytime on top. Now, if we didn't have a Railcard, okay, that's annoying, but I could buy two tickets in one transaction to get the two Advance tickets, and then buy a third Anytime ticket separately. But I can't do that here - because the system won't let me buy a third adult ticket on its own with a Family Railcard, as I'm not buying a child ticket. Even though I think we would meet all the criteria for travelling with the Railcard.

Is there any way to buy three tickets with a Railcard including the two Advance tickets, or is this an(other) annoying peculiarity of the system?

 

[crablab]

Is there any way to buy three tickets with a Railcard including the two Advance tickets, or is this an(other) annoying peculiarity of the system?

I suspect the answer is you'll need to visit a ticket office or phone them up. I doubt online journey planners can cope with this.

What does the forum's ticketing site suggest, out of interest? (TrainSplit)

 

[bcarmicle]

You might be able to do so at a ticket office, but I think it’s unlikely you’ll be able to do this online.

 

[dracos]

I suspect the answer is you'll need to visit a ticket office or phone them up. I doubt online journey planners can cope with this.

Thanks, yeah, that was my conclusion, but thought I'd check

What does the forum's ticketing site suggest, out of interest? (TrainSplit)

The same, as far as I can see; Advance tickets up to the quota, ignores Advance entirely over the quota; won't let you buy an adult ticket with a Family Railcard on its own.

 

[crablab]

The same, as far as I can see; Advance tickets up to the quota, ignores Advance entirely over the quota; won't let you buy an adult ticket with a Family Railcard on its own.

Someone like @Adam Williams or @yorkie will, I'm sure, be able to confirm what the RDG specification requires in this situation

 

[Adam Williams]

I seem to recall there are some limitations with the journey planner that TrainSplit uses underneath when it comes to the idea of assigning different products to different passengers, which is likely playing a part here. I've seen similar issues with Duos as well:

https://beta.trainsplit.com/results?FromStation=7025490&ToStation=7029700&Adults=2&OutboundDate=26/06/2025&OutboundTime=11:30&UseSplits=0&searchBy=0&firstClass=false&flexible=true&selectionMethod=Grid (surfaces 2x Duo)

https://beta.trainsplit.com/results?FromStation=7025490&ToStation=7029700&Adults=3&OutboundDate=26/06/2025&OutboundTime=11:30&UseSplits=0&searchBy=0&firstClass=false&flexible=true&selectionMethod=Grid (surfaces 3x Anytime Day Single, which overcharges customer £6.70 compared to 2x Duo + 1 Anytime Day Single)

I don't think this is addressed explicitly in any standards, but I think the expectation is that you will usually be selling the same products to all passengers when the customer performs a journey search, which also makes it more difficult to accommodate the use-case discussed in this thread. There are generally few exceptions to this when it comes to online retail; child flat fares being the most significant case I can think of.