just checking this price out on NR timetables / fare and shows a return ticket Earlestown to Chester with senior railcard discount as £4.80 but it doesn't show via Crewe. anyone able to confirm that via Crewe is a valid route for this ticket.
The £4.80 ticket is routed WARRINGTON (it's 50p more for a route ANY PERMITTED, for what it's worth), so you must go through Warrington (either station will do, although I rather suspect it'll be Warrington Bank Quay).
Earlestown and Chester are both routeing points, so we go straight to the maps. The permitted routes are CL and ML.
Map CL takes you from Chester to Runcorn (via Hooton if you like), on to Warrington, then Earlestown.
ML is a bit more roundabout; you go to Liverpool either via Hooton or the long way around via Wrexham and Shotton, then you can either go on to Earlestown via Huyton, or instead do another runaround and go to Wigan then Manchester (via Bolton or Atherton) and back to Earlestown via Newton-le-Willows. That is not a valid route for the cheaper WARRINGTON ticket.
I doubt the National Rail system will pull up that route since it's longer, unless you tick for "Include slower trains".
For Earlestown to Chester read in reverse.
Also do the Avantix tables show which routing points are valid for each class of ticket???. Afraid i cant get to grips with routing points maps
No, Avantix is primarily for fares and restrictions.