How to buy London Terminals tickets

[Cdd89]

Hi,

Normally I buy tickets using Trainline selecting London (any), which gets me a ticket saying London Terminals rather than a specific station. This is useful e.g. when travelling to Oxford, where a return train could go to Paddington or Marylebone.

I tried to do the same thing with a day return to Gatwick airport, selecting London (any). It appears I have ended up buying an off-peak day return from and to London Bridge for £11.80 (I selected the more expensive one so as not to be restricted to either just Thameslink or Southern) which isn’t valid to return to Elephant and Castle. In other words, it doesn’t say London Terminals, it says London Bridge.

Clearly there is a bit of a misunderstanding on how this works on my part. And it would be uneconomical to change these tickets now I’ve printed them

1) Can this in fact be used to any London Terminals Station, even though it says London Bridge?
2) Assuming not, to avoid throwing away the ticket, could I at least go via Blackfriars (since I chose the £11.80 ticket rather than the £11.30 one), and break my journey there, then buy my own onward ticket to E&C? I’m assuming straying further to E&C would not be a legitimate route?
3) What’s the best thing to do next time I want to go out and back to different stations on one ticket?

 

[BluePenguin]

Hello,

Selecting London (any) as an origin simply displays all of the possible fares from permitted London Terminals to Gatwick. This doesn't mean that all of them are valid at any London Terminal unfortunately such as the one in your case. There are a LOT of different fares between London and Gatwick which is why it is so easy to buy the wrong ticket. There has been a lot of debate on this forum as to the validity of the fares from London to Gatwick and it is a gigantic can of worms.

The £11.30 the ticket you bought is for the Thameslink route from London Bridge to Gatwick. If it isn't routed Thameslink then the Southern service is also possible. However had you bought the one for £10.90 then it would be valid on Southern trains only.

But anyway, to answer your questions simply:
1. Not you can't use the London Bridge ticket to/from anywhere other than London Bridge (e.g Victoria). If you ask nicely at Blackfriars they might let you through. Thameslink Trains between Blackfriars and London Bridge aren't running at the moment so I doubt they could excess you to London Bridge. Also, buying your own ticket to E&C would still not cover you. You could buy a return to East Croydon as the trains from London Bridge diverge there.

2. I was going to say no but as you highlighted that your ticket is 50p more expensive, you might be able to excess it to the Blackfriars fare. You could even excess it to the London Terminals fare so that you aren't restricted to London Bridge on your return. If I were you, walk over to Waterloo and change train at Clapham Junction for one to Gatwick. Waterloo East is closed at the moment otherwise I would have suggested buying to London Bridge from there and then using your original ticket.

3. Next time, it is best to select the "return" option and to type in two different London Terminals (whether or not you actually want to travel to them doesn't matter) so the system displays only the fares valid to multiple London Terminals.
It is worth noting that the Thameslink tickets usually the cheapest so if you prefer Blackfriars E&C, it is probably your best bet to go for that. Otherwise the Southern Only one allows you into London Bridge and Victoria.

Here are the return fares, their validity and their prices for next time:
£10.90 - Valid only on Southern services (London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross & Victoria)
£11.30 - Valid only on Thameslink services (London Bridge, E&C, Blackfriars)
£11.80 - All services from London Bridge
£15.80 - Not valid on Gatwick Express (Southern services from Victoria and any other London Terminal)
£33.20 - Any Permitted (Both Southern and Gatwick Express services from Victoria)

I hope this helps!

 

[gazthomas]

Also avoid Trainline as they charge fees whereas train operators (generally) don’t

 

[Cdd89]

Thanks so much - this helps a ton and is actaully very educational!

So it sounds like I should have bought the £15.80 ticket, which (following your 'two stations' advice) now clearly shows up - and this is clearly how I've managed this before, just without realising it! But due to the service suspensions at the moment, it's a moot point.

I guess I will stick with the London Bridge terminus on the return and get a bus or something - which is probably the best option anyway!

Thanks

 

[Cdd89]

Also, re Trainline, they seem to keep their iOS app marginally better than the others (from a ticket purchasing perspective) to be worth the 1-2% extra in booking fees. I tried a few other TOC apps, many of which look very suspicious like Trainline, but the purchasing experience tends to go through a web page which is unpleasant to use. Open to suggestions though!

 

[Chrisgr31]

I have recently complained to Southern about the difficulty of finding London All Terminals tickets online although if I recall correctly their own website does show them.

 

[ajb690]

I can't answer the wider questions, but I can safely say that over the past three years I have been let through the barriers at Blackfriars after showing an any permitted or Thameslink only London Bridge ticket without issue. Not sure if this will still apply after Jan 2nd, and pretty sure a Southern only ticket would cause further issues.