Disappearing fare help! London - Tywyn

[trainosaurus]

Hi all,

I need to book 2 tickets travelling from London - Tywyn, departing Euston on the 16:43 on the 16/4/13 and returning some time on the 20/4/13.

Both of us will be travelling with 16-25 railcards.

I'm absolutely certain that earlier today I found Advance single fares of around £7 each, each way, but now I can't find them at all. Anyone know is this fare is available or was I somehow mistaken? I've no idea how I got them to come up before and subsequent searches haven't thrown up the same results.

Any help appreciated.

 

[district]

Advance tickets are quota controlled which means only a certain limited amount of tickets are available in each price bracket. It may be that all these have been sold in the meantime, and as such the next cheapest bracket is being offered.

 

[trainosaurus]

I do understand that but it seems unlikely that they will have sold out as I looked, found the fare, then searched again literally less than 5 minutes later and can't find anything comparable. I guess it's possible though. Cheers for your reply.

 

[Searle]

It can happen, it's happened to be about 3-4 times. Very annoying indeed, especially if the web page crashes and when you go back, the fare has gone

 

[trainosaurus]

Thoroughly annoying. It does seem extraordinarily cheap though so I think I'll just tell myself I was imagining it.

 

[maniacmartin]

Thoroughly annoying. It does seem extraordinarily cheap though so I think I'll just tell myself I was imagining it.

You probably weren't imagining it. A £7.25 fare does exist, but I'd imagine the quotas would be quite low indeed.

 

[michael769]

The lowest tier fares can run out a few minutes after they are released on some flows.

 

[pinguini]

You have to be quick - as you've learned. I once tried to buy 2x Advance tickets, but only 1 was left at the cheaper price, so I had to buy them at difference prices in the same transaction.

 

[SS4]

You can always try to delete your cookies. Some shadier companies use them to see if you check a particular journey often so they can raise the price.

 

[tony_mac]

If you added them to your basket, but didn't complete the purchase, then they are quite likely 'reserved' for you to buy even though you can't get them back again.
If that is the case, it takes 2 hours for them to return to general sale.

 

[district]

You can always try to delete your cookies. Some shadier companies use them to see if you check a particular journey often so they can raise the price.

I've heard this happens with flights and hotels. Very dodgy indeed!

 

[maniacmartin]

You can always try to delete your cookies. Some shadier companies use them to see if you check a particular journey often so they can raise the price.

Do you have any evidence that this happens for rail tickets? Given that rail ticket prices are the same everywhere, I'm unsure of how this could work

 

[John @ home]

rail ticket prices are the same everywhere

To the extent that this is true, it applies to regulated rail ticket prices only. Broadly, regulated fares are season tickets, the successor fare to the 2003 Saver return and the Anytime Day Return in and around large cities.

I am not aware of any requirement that unregulated fares must be the same everywhere. East Coast and EMT give discounts if their Advance fares are booked through their site; TPE give a larger 16-25 Railcard discount for their Advance fares booked through their site; Virgin offer only from Virgin outlets a Saver Half Return (SVH) for combining an Advance Single with a flexible off-peak ticket in the opposite direction.

In these circumstances, it is not immediately obvious to me that the rules prevent a rail ticket retailer from offering differently priced unregulated fares to different passengers based on their purchasing and/or browsing history. I have no knowledge whether they do this or not, but it would seem to me to be a hazardous activity. I would imagine this could give rise to claims of unlawful discrimination.