London on Zones 2-6 travelcard

[zoneking]

I have a Guildford to London zones 2-6 annual season/travelcard.

Are there any conceivable routes that could involve London? Obviously I do not go to London very often or I would have a zones 1-6.

I normally get off at Vauxhall and use the bus to get to central London, Vauxhall being one of the closest zone 2 stations to central London.

If time is tight, and I want a fast train to Waterloo, I can't see a way of using PAYG osyter without getting a non fast train and swiping in at Vauxhall.

Ideally, I would be issued with an oyster travelcard as part of my ticket, which I can use as PAYG from zone 2 built in. However, this does not happen. I purchased season from Southern.

Incidentally, last Saturday I was told by a new chap at ticket office that I can't use my gold card before 10 am on weekdays, including Saturdays. I tried to explain different but he was insistent and I didn't want to argue.

 

[island]

Outboundary Travelcards can't be issued on Oyster.

There are no time restrictions on Gold Cards on Saturdays.

 

[Deerfold]

Incidentally, last Saturday I was told by a new chap at ticket office that I can't use my gold card before 10 am on weekdays, including Saturdays. I tried to explain different but he was insistent and I didn't want to argue.

You could try printing

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/prc08c7ad3f74ac88236c9cef703a96b/details.html

Or complaining to management that their training.

I can't off-hand think of anything that has restrictions on a Saturday except for West Yorkshire Day Rovers (and that's a restriction that's very hard to find out about and not mentioned on the NR or Metro website so could be hard to enforce - it's only in the leaflets).

 

[LexyBoy]

Are there any conceivable routes that could involve London? Obviously I do not go to London very often or I would have a zones 1-6.

Depends what you mean by London - obviously it's valid at any station in Zones 2-6, all of which are in London. It is not valid at any station in Zone 1, which excludes all London Terminals except Vauxhall (dual zoned 1&2). A point-to-point season between Guildford and a Zone 2/3/4/5/6 station could well be valid for travel via London, but permitted routes for zonal tickets are not worked out on the same basis - they are simply valid anywhere within the zones covered.

You cannot use PAYG without touching in, as you say - an Anytime Day Single between Vauxhall and Waterloo is £2.60 or £1.70 with Gold Card, and would be valid on non-stop trains (providing you bought it prior to boarding of course). The only way to have the ability to use Oyster would be to split your ticket into (for example) Guildford-Z56 paper, and Z2-4 Oyster, although this is likely to cost more (there are some routes where this is cheaper, but only from the East of London IIRC).