Is there ever any advantage to using the Trainline over other websites?

[Samuel88]

I've never used them because of the booking fees but are there times where it's more advantageous to use them?

 

[robbeech]

I find the app quite easy to use so will SOMETIMES buy a walk up e ticket on it if that makes sense to me on the day. I wouldn’t buy anything else through it as a rule.

From time to time their appalling algorithms can allow some otherwise non permitted journeys which passengers may find advantageous but of course this can come with its own set of complications.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I find the app quite easy to use so will SOMETIMES buy a walk up e ticket on it if that makes sense to me on the day. I wouldn’t buy anything else through it as a rule.

From time to time their appalling algorithms can allow some otherwise non permitted journeys which passengers may find advantageous but of course this can come with its own set of complications.

Agreed - the only time it is worth using is to get an in-app ticket straight away if there isn't enough time to go to the ticket office - as they 'mercifully' do not charge booking fees for tickets purchased for same day use. Or if they are giving you an anomalous itinerary. Sadly instances of the latter are now much reduced (though still not completely eliminated) compared to where we were one or two years ago!

 

[paddington]

I occasionally get Amex offers for 3% back on trainline spending. As the booking fee is £1.50 as long as I'm buying more than £50 of tickets I will be in profit.

The last time I did this I booked 10 different tickets and trainline gave me the option to collect them all with one booking reference. That was a positive over having to insert and remove my card 10 times as well as type in 10 different codes, although I don't know if other sites allow this as I would usually just book one at a time to avoid losing my basket (with those 10 tickets, I did have to redo all the searches 3 times as the trainline site kept erroring)

In the past you could just pull your card out slightly so the chip was no longer in contact, and leave it in the slot. But now TVMs make you pull it out entirely before they will progress to the screen where you can type in the code. This means more things to hold with one hand while the other tries to type the code.

The above may actually be a good thing because in 2016 I left my card (not fully inserted) in the machine after collecting 5 different sets of tickets. (All the machines I refer to were/are VTWC.)


Also trainline often offers 5% cashback on some websites when booking as guest, which could cover the booking fee compared to the next best option (currently TPE at 1%). However cashback is not guaranteed so I won't use them unless there is an Amex offer or other guaranteed offer.

I tried Chiltern which also offers 5% on topcashback but it didn't track as well as completely messed up, so I won't use them again.

 

[AM9]

Agreed - the only time it is worth using is to get an in-app ticket straight away if there isn't enough time to go to the ticket office - as they 'mercifully' do not charge booking fees for tickets purchased for same day use. Or if they are giving you an anomalous itinerary. Sadly instances of the latter are now much reduced (though still not completely eliminated) compared to where we were one or two years ago!

Are you aware of any of these 'anomalous' itineraries that have actually been challenged by a TOC during the journey, - and has the traveller been able to get recompense from Trainline?

 

[_toommm_]

Are you aware of any of these 'anomalous' itineraries that have actually been challenged by a TOC during the journey, - and has the traveller been able to get recompense from Trainline?

I had one I used for a while - Denby Dale to Sheffield, with TheTrainLine showing validity via Manchester or via Leeds. I only really had one issue with a TPE guard who threatened to call the police and completely reputed the fact that an itinerary made it a valid route because 'That's TheTrainLine, we're TPE'.

 

[Altfish]

Occasionally I have found cheaper fares on Trainline; I usually use TPE because I get Nectar points, but occasionally I can beat their prices using Trainline.

 

[_toommm_]

The only good thing about TheTrainLine is the smaller fees for some ticket refunds, and I believe it's the same for advance tickets (although TPE and XC allow the latter free of charge)

 

[yorkie]

Are you aware of any of these 'anomalous' itineraries that have actually been challenged by a TOC during the journey, - and has the traveller been able to get recompense from Trainline?

If the passenger was travelling in accordance with the itinerary, the TOC is not allowed to charge the customer. The itinerary is evidence of a contract; if it's been issued incorrectly then there are internal procedures to handle this which TOC staff should be following. So in this case, the customer should get recompense from Trainline.

Most of the bugs @robbeech refers to have recently been fixed. They started appearing in early 2018. See https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...orden-to-hebden-bridge-via-accrington.163469/ for a good example of the most spectacular that was reported by @ForTheLoveOf (and very quickly correctly analysed by @Starmill)

Easements are perhaps the hardest thing to get right. Some easements are encoded incorrectly too.

There are numerous other things that can go wrong but it's best that I don't go into detail here. Suffice to say the Worldline (Atos) WebTIS sites can have the most spectacular bugs; far more so than Trainline, and several interesting ones remain to this day. But even SilverRail, who are RDG's supplier for National Rail Enquiries, have bugs of their own. No-one is perfect. But some implementations are better than others.

Most suspected bugs tend to not actually bugs in the journey planner at all, but data issues caused by the TOCs themselves.

Occasionally I have found cheaper fares on Trainline; I usually use TPE because I get Nectar points, but occasionally I can beat their prices using Trainline.

If the itinerary is identical, and if both sites support the same fares, the price should be the same. There may be some obscure reasons why not.

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