South West Trains offer six free tickets which can be used on Fridays (with some restrictions I think), Saturdays and Sundays. They are valid for as long as you have a good card rather than a set cut off date. If you like going to places by train I think it's a good deal. Just recently got my next six.
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Changes to Annual Gold Card benefits from 2nd January 2015
- Thread starter CyrusWuff
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Ah, that's good to know. I didn't get anything this year as the Island Line seasons don't qualify for any benefits (or so I was told) so that's a nice bonus.
How many days before the start date can you buy from a station? Is it a week? I am abroad until the 4th January, so I am not sure how or when I can get one before the price rise.
Otherwise, I might buy now online and then seek to get the ticket changed to Gold Card stock after the 2nd, but I can't help but feel that's going to be a b*** ache!
How many days before the start date can you buy from a station? Is it a week? I am abroad until the 4th January, so I am not sure how or when I can get one before the price rise.
Otherwise, I might buy now online and then seek to get the ticket changed to Gold Card stock after the 2nd, but I can't help but feel that's going to be a b*** ache!
When did Island Line stop being part of SWT and surely they should give the 6 tickets like evrywhere else. We all know why they aren't due to the Ryde cheat but this change wasn't publicised anywhere that I saw?
What's this about a Ryde cheat? As far as I'm aware you can buy your season from any operator and they will give you any extras they offer.
Clearly if you lived in Scotland, getting a season ticket from South West Trains for travel there might be less of interest, unless you travel down to the south a lot and can make use of the six tickets.
I wouldn't call it that, but I would be interested to know if I should have received any benefits from SWT after buying my IOW season ticket.
As I said before, SWT stands to lose quite a lot of money now that people only wanting a Gold Card will now buy a season ticket for use with another operator. It must have been great for SWT - money without the passengers to add to congestion!
As I said before, SWT stands to lose quite a lot of money now that people only wanting a Gold Card will now buy a season ticket for use with another operator. It must have been great for SWT - money without the passengers to add to congestion!
There has been a requirement for a long time for the season ticket journey to be on a South West Trains route before qualifying for the six free tickets.
They are valid on Island Line services even if an Island Line ticket doesn't qualify for them.
They are valid on Island Line services even if an Island Line ticket doesn't qualify for them.
When I bought an island line season ticket one year through South West Trains ticket office, I was given 6 free tickets. The tickets came in the post. That would have been autumn 2012.
My Z1-2 annual Travelcard bought at Waterloo gets me the 6 freebies every year...
2nd January! How long before the various websites selling tickets will all offer appropriate journeys for people wanting to use the discount in the extended area, I wonder? Will some specific discounted tickets prove impossible to buy online?
- When requesting journeys in the extended area, the Annual Gold Card 'railcard' needs to become available for selection through all the relevant interfaces. (Obvious, surely, but one website I tried didn't do this...)
- When travelling North from Oxford through Birmingham with a Gold Card, the systems will need to offer journeys where you change train (XC to Chiltern) at Banbury just because your search specified a particular 'railcard' - and then know not to put you back onto XC at Birmingham.
- The nationalrail.co.uk 'Buy' button should stop sending people to websites that are incapable of selling the selected ticket! (Crowd source this information by having another link on the 'purchaseticket/handoff' page for trying an alternative provider letting people provide a reason optionally?)
- When requesting journeys in the extended area, the Annual Gold Card 'railcard' needs to become available for selection through all the relevant interfaces. (Obvious, surely, but one website I tried didn't do this...)
- When travelling North from Oxford through Birmingham with a Gold Card, the systems will need to offer journeys where you change train (XC to Chiltern) at Banbury just because your search specified a particular 'railcard' - and then know not to put you back onto XC at Birmingham.
- The nationalrail.co.uk 'Buy' button should stop sending people to websites that are incapable of selling the selected ticket! (Crowd source this information by having another link on the 'purchaseticket/handoff' page for trying an alternative provider letting people provide a reason optionally?)
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greatkingrat
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Do you have any specific examples? I've tried a couple of sites and they seem to be offering the discount in the new area correctly.
RJ
Established Member
Not showing on RJIS for the Anglia Plus Day Ranger. Only the usual railcards, plus Priv and the Suffolk railcard.
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Sleepy
Established Member
of course the Suffolk railcard does not exist ....... and AFAIK never has !!
Kite159
Veteran Member
Who wants to bet when TVMs will be updated to reflect the 9:30 start and will sell you a Gold discounted ticket?
Sleepy
Established Member
01/04/20 ??SWT expect TVMs to offer Gold Card discounted tickets at the new start time, and in the extended area. However they may not yet offer First Class discounts and may still sell the Child £2 flat fares. The TVM I had a play round with today was offering everything correctly though. I was unable to check whether it was correctly selling tickets between 0930 and 1000 though.
Haven't the flat £2 fares gone now? (They were fantastic) And replaced with 60% discounted instead?
I assume most/all TOC were unwilling to sell £2 fares, but might consider selling the reduced fares as less likely to be used for fare evasion?
RJ
Established Member
It did seem to be a bit of a mystery, no information anywhere! It even offered a 50% discount on Advance tickets between London and Norwich! Normally irrelevant railcards do no such thing...
Yes, they have gone. But some SWT TVMs may still be selling them at the moment, and they will still be accepted.
I was looking on the East coast site just now and the Gold Card is not listed when trying to apply a railcard discount. I have had no problems getting the gold card discounts through EC in the past. in this case the journey was Potters Bar to Reading both of which are in the ex-NSE area. (& I was looking for times around 11am on a weekday for the outward journey & returning on a Sunday)
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IanD
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I was just about to post the same about Red Spotted Hanky (not that I'm using them to buy tickets anymore). London Midland show it OK though.
bakerstreet
Member
Southern were also not showing Gold Card discount on their online mixing deck last night and this morning - network railcard was there but not gold card
Prepare for Southern's standard 5 month delay to fix even the most trivial of website issues :cry:....
The FGW app has Gold Card still and can offer discounted fares to some new destinations, but I just tried looking up Birmingham and it only offers routes via Virgin (the mobile app doesn't let you do anything clever like via) and so doesn't show discounted fares at all.
Seems like a lot of work needs to be done. Question is, when ATOC talked about the changes months ago and even put up posters and produced leaflets and pocket guides, why the hell weren't all online booking engines and TVM software being updated so they'd all be done on 2nd Jan?
Seems like a lot of work needs to be done. Question is, when ATOC talked about the changes months ago and even put up posters and produced leaflets and pocket guides, why the hell weren't all online booking engines and TVM software being updated so they'd all be done on 2nd Jan?
greatkingrat
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Southern website is showing Gold Card as an option for me.
class303
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I'm curious, is it really worth paying so much more for a gold card than just the Network Card? I have a gold card, perhaps i'm not using it to it's full potential?
I'm curious, is it really worth paying so much more for a gold card than just the Network Card? I have a gold card, perhaps i'm not using it to it's full potential?
There are six main benefits of a Gold Card over a Network Card:
1. Extended area of the Gold Card area over the Network Card Area (GC now covers East Anglia and most of the West Midlands although excludes travel with Virgin or East Coast).
2. No minimum fare on weekdays (Network Card is £13 minimum discounted fare).
3.The ability to add the Gold Card discount to an Oyster Card.
4. Another railcard can be purchased at the discounted price of £10.
5. Discount can be obtained from 09.30 on weekdays (10.00 for Network Card).
6. Gold Card offers discounts on 1st class fares.
While it's a shame the £5 first class supplements are gone, just as they became more widely available, there are actually a good number of benefits that makes it well worth £108 to me.
0930 instead of 1000 is another big benefit, and could turn out to be the most significant. It actually means I can take a train at 0943 instead of 1025 (or 0955 with an additional non discounted single for one stop).
0930 instead of 1000 is another big benefit, and could turn out to be the most significant. It actually means I can take a train at 0943 instead of 1025 (or 0955 with an additional non discounted single for one stop).
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