Hi everyone
I thought I'd try the splitfare website for tickets from Inverness to Llanelli on Friday 30 October. After several minutes of searching, it came up with an Anytime single from Inverness to Crewe at £214 each, plus an advance single Crewe - Llanelli at £14. The site informed me that this represented a saving of 25.99% on the 'normal price' of £327. Sadly, I am no more likely to pay £428 for tickets for my wife and I to travel than I am going to pay £654! In the same time that it took split fare to work, I found an Inverness - Manchester advance for £20 each, and a Manchester - Llanelli advance at £14 each! Admittedly this does take a bit longer than the splitfare suggestion, but I don't care about two hours when I can save £360!!!
As the splitfare site links into the trainline, is this a rail industry attempt to 'cash in' on the growing awareness of splitting tickets? The % saving indication seems very similar to the adverts used by the trainline when they claim that tickets bought with them are xxx% cheaper than at the station. I'm sure that most of the regular posters on here will be wary of splitfare anyway, but my guess is that the site is aimed at those people who have read an article in a newspaper and have little knowledge of the intricacies of ticketing system! At the end of the day, if I hadn't been able to find the advances via Manchester, and if I didn't have a bit of knowledge and understainding of the railways, I would have been completely put off by the fares quoted and flown to Bristol for £5.99 (plus tax I guess) each instead!
What does everyone else think?
I thought I'd try the splitfare website for tickets from Inverness to Llanelli on Friday 30 October. After several minutes of searching, it came up with an Anytime single from Inverness to Crewe at £214 each, plus an advance single Crewe - Llanelli at £14. The site informed me that this represented a saving of 25.99% on the 'normal price' of £327. Sadly, I am no more likely to pay £428 for tickets for my wife and I to travel than I am going to pay £654! In the same time that it took split fare to work, I found an Inverness - Manchester advance for £20 each, and a Manchester - Llanelli advance at £14 each! Admittedly this does take a bit longer than the splitfare suggestion, but I don't care about two hours when I can save £360!!!
As the splitfare site links into the trainline, is this a rail industry attempt to 'cash in' on the growing awareness of splitting tickets? The % saving indication seems very similar to the adverts used by the trainline when they claim that tickets bought with them are xxx% cheaper than at the station. I'm sure that most of the regular posters on here will be wary of splitfare anyway, but my guess is that the site is aimed at those people who have read an article in a newspaper and have little knowledge of the intricacies of ticketing system! At the end of the day, if I hadn't been able to find the advances via Manchester, and if I didn't have a bit of knowledge and understainding of the railways, I would have been completely put off by the fares quoted and flown to Bristol for £5.99 (plus tax I guess) each instead!
What does everyone else think?
