GroupSave WebTis error Hayes&Harlington to Staines?

[dvboy]

I'm looking on London Midland's website, at fares for 5 people from Hayes & Harlington to Staines on Monday 9 September

There's an Off Peak Day Single Groupsave (route via Windsor) at £25.20 valid on trains from 9:32, but there's also an Anytime Day Single Groupsave at £34.20 which isn't showing valid on the trains before 9:32 - should it? Can anyone confirm if this is an error on WebTIS? I'm struggling to find this fare on brfares.com

Basically we are looking for a return but probably want to go before 9:30, so the £34.20 anytime outward ticket combined with the £25.20 ticket for the return leg makes it £59.40 total, which is cheaper than buying five anytime day return tickets at £15 each.

If anyone can suggest a better/cheaper way to do this journey, without taking much longer, while we're here, that would be great. We like the idea of breaking the journey in Windsor on the return journey (since there's a walking leg anyway).

 

[Top Cat]

Group save becomes available when the off peak fare for the journey being made becomes available - in this case the CDR has a B1 restriction, meaning that Group Save is only available for journeys starting after 09:30.
Break of journey is allowed on SDR and CDR tickets, so no problem with breaking your journey at Windsor on the way back.

 

[John @ home]

Group save becomes available when the off peak fare for the journey being made becomes available

Agreed, but the National Rail Enquiries site doesn't help the potential passenger in this respect. Its GroupSave page states

There may be restrictions on when you can travel. Please ask for more details.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/pr354fdc0a0400020101fea1769fbf60.aspx

The Manual states that discounts are available on Anytime Ticket types SDS and SDR where CDS/CDR fares are not available, and includes this on time restrictions:

GroupSave tickets have the same restrictions as the corresponding non-discounted ticket.

If no morning restriction applies to the undiscounted ticket, travel is permitted at or after 09:30 (09:15 from Bedford) on weekdays and at any time weekends and public holidays.

No time restriction on Stansted Express services from London Liverpool St or Tottenham Hale to/from Stansted Airport.

 

[dzug2]

The journey is as quick by bus - either via Hatton Cross or Heathrow.

And almost certainly cheaper.

Though it doesn't allow for Windsor

 

[dvboy]

Thanks for the advice dzug2, we took the bus each way in the end, changing at Hatton Cross. With us all having Oyster cards this was a no-brainer at £4.40 each in total.