Other train operators have provided cashback, e.g. through cashback sites in the past. How is this different to scheme such as LNER perks or the
I'll make a new thread about this in due course but basically some TOCs appear to be cross-subsidising their retail side of the business in what I think is a clear abuse of a dominant market position and gives them an unfair advantage over third party retailers.
I rarely find any significant savings on the route between Ipswich and Edinburgh, I think the most I've found that could just about work would be £20, and would potentially mean an awkward timing on different trains.
By all means pay the premium if you've got the cash to do so, but the saving can be a lot more than £20
Example shown: 1242 IPS - EDB on 10/08; Trainsplit charges £83.53 while LNER charges £183.40. The trains either side are similar in price, with Trainsplit saving around £8-£5 for those. Prices shown are 1 undiscounted adult
The odd train I find for the dates and times I'm travelling are only small discounts. If there's disruption it then limits the trains that you can get as you have to go on trains via those stations (unless there's some exception I'm not aware of).
If you're still referring to having Advance fares, there is no difference whether you have a split ticket or a through ticket, in respect of which trains you may take where disruption occurs. The principle is exactly the same in either case.
If you are referring to walk up fares, which is beyond the scope of this thread, that can be a bit different, for example if a delay occurs which is not long enough to invoke ticket acceptance, then yes you could be required to take slower trains than would have been possible if you had a through fare.
Splitting doesn't give you fewer
rights and it does not change your entitlement to be re-routed in times of disruption; for example a London to Edinburgh Super Off Peak ticket holder has no more rights to use the West Coast route from Euston than the holder of London to York + York to London tickets. If ticket acceptance is not in place and the passenger would not otherwise be stranded, neither can travel that way, whereas if it is in place, both can.
I find the seat selectors really fiddly, especially for groups of 4 travelling together. I've had a problem in the past on the LNER seat selector where I couldn't batch confirm all 4 seats, and instead had to confirm each seat separately. Also the LNER one requires you to click the seat you want to edit which jumps you back to the carriage you are already on. On train split I've discovered whilst writing this, you can click each seat one after the other and it'll choose it for different people, however it's not obvious that this is possible, even so it make it a better experience. Those experiences have really put me off using seat selectors.
Oh look there seems to be errors saving the change of seats in the seat selector just now.
View attachment 118060
I've found a possible bug on the train split seat selector where it is only showing half the carriage.
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Sorry, I seem to be finding all the problems.
Loads of problems with seat selectors will continue to occur until the new reservation system is fully rolled out.
I've had this issue in the past when booking only 1-3 weeks ahead and most seats are booked already, particularly when wanting a table too. Sometimes it's hared to book ahead. Or maybe I wasn't spending long enough looking through all of the carriage to find a combination that works. When you can't edit all journey segments at the same time and have to take notes etc. Maybe having the booking open in multiple windows works fine, however having had bad experience in past with this, maybe not. I've had issues where I can't save the seat selections.
To be fair, if a table for four isn't available between London and Edinburgh then you aren't going to be able to select it, regardless of whether or not you have a through fare or not!
There are times when splitting can get you better seats, e.g. one table may be available from London to York and another from York to Edinburgh, with no one table available throughout.
Sometimes it's the only way to book as there may be availability of 1 advance fare but no seat available for the through journey, but one seat may be free to the split point, with another free from there.
None of these should be considered downsides of splitting.
Once the issues with seat selectors are sorted, I believe sites like Trainsplit could try to issue a through seat by default. If I recall correctly there was a brief period where this was possible. I understand the current system is a sort of hybrid with a broker translating requests between the old and new systems and this is not an ideal situation but no retailer can offer a seamless experience until the system is amended.
Excellent to hear.
Oh, I hadn't tried the change at option. However at something like 1400 minutes, I just get no trains found, whereas DB will at least provide a journey, though can't sell anything for the UK other than an interrail pass, which of course wouldn't be valid as I'd be in the same country and not travelling internationally. It's a feature that I use frequently when travelling to Germany that I'd find useful here, particularly for 1 or 2 night stops en route somewhere else.
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If you want really long interchanges, such as overnight, you have to plan each leg separately unfortunately.
And yes the system in Germany is great for this sort of thing however in the UK some TOCs have a bee in their bonnet over starting/finishing short (which gets lumped into "break of journey") and so I don't think they'd be keen on allowing overnight stays to be specified in this way. The Government seems afraid to stand up against the TOCs on such issues.
TOCs are able to get away with all sorts of things!
