I want to send someone a link to buy a specific itinerary

[bakerstreet]

I’m helping a colleague save some significant money for a journey. It does not involve splitting but does involve using specific trains and companies.

Their brain is currently going BOOM.

Do any vendors offer the ability for me to search the journey and then for me to send a URL with a specific itinerary set so that all the recipient has to do is put in their payment details.

My colleague will definitely get where they’re going but I don’t want them liable to a huge excess on board.

Many thanks

 

[Fawkes Cat]

If this relies on Advance fares, I suspect it's logically impossible, in that there are only so many advances at a given price, and the fact that you've looked up a fare doesn't mean that a ticket at that price will be kept for you (or the friend you want to tell about it) until you choose to make the purchase.

And from my (layperson's) understanding of the IT, I don't think a link to the particular webpage will persist such that you can send a link to your friend.

So maybe
- buy the tickets for them and post them
- stand over them and instruct while they buy the tickets
- take a screenshot of the webpage that shows what they want, email that and let them buy their own tickets, or
- something else.

It all depends on where you are, where your colleague is, and how IT- and railway-minded they are.

 

[gray1404]

Would it be possible to add the ticket to a basket, where it is saved for 2 hours, and then the other party logs onto the same account from another computer, goes straight to the basket and pays.

 

[alistairlees]

With some journey planners a URL can be saved.

Here's one (for a journey from London to Manchester via Banbury):

https://ticket.southeasternrailway....tes=no&showCheapest=no&tocSpecific=no&via=BAN

Trainline (as an example) doesn't have the parameters in the URL, so you can't do this.

 

[Haywain]

Or create an account in the friend's name, find the tickets and add them to the basket, then send the friend the link to the log-in page and the details that you have used to create their account.

 

[bakerstreet]

Would it be possible to add the ticket to a basket, where it is saved for 2 hours, and then the other party logs onto the same account from another computer, goes straight to the basket and pays.

that is a great solution ! Thank you

 

[bakerstreet]

Or create an account in the friend's name, find the tickets and add them to the basket, then send the friend the link to the log-in page and the details that you have used to create their account.

Thank you. I didn’t have this lateral thinking capacity today

 

[bakerstreet]

With some journey planners a URL can be saved.

Here's one (for a journey from London to Manchester via Banbury):

https://ticket.southeasternrailway.co.uk/journeys-grid/1072/0438/2020-03-19T13:45//1//SRNx1?departNow=no&realTime=no&searchPreferences=,,,&showAdditionalRoutes=no&showCheapest=no&tocSpecific=no&via=BAN

Trainline (as an example) doesn't have the parameters in the URL, so you can't do this.

Thanks Alistair - that is the thing I was after

 

[AlexNL]

And from my (layperson's) understanding of the IT, I don't think a link to the particular webpage will persist such that you can send a link to your friend.

It's not technically impossible, but if the functionality is available depends on how the site is built.