Missing Advance Ticket - or is it me losing the plot ?

[Scooby]

I woke up the other day with baited breath and eagerly logged onto the various ticketing websites, to see if Virgin had released Advance tickets for Sat 10th November to Richmond (London), from Grange Over Sands

Joy Of Joys, they had, and I managed to snabble up 8 tickets for an absolute steal.

& then I tried to get tickets for the way home.

Gulp - my bread truly was dough.

At an absolute pinch, I could get the 18.30 from Euston, which would cost me £139.20 (4 adults, 4 children with a F&F railcard).
But I'd be MUCH happier getting the 19.30, however, I've logged on repeatedly and so far no sign of any Advance Tickets being offered for sale (not even at £139.20, nor at £52.80 on the earlier services), only Off Peak singles at a wallet bursting £300.80.

I appreciate that understanding ticket issueing and pricing policies is a Dark Art, up there with running the eu, but can anyone on the forum shed any light as to what/when/if Advance tickets may become available for the 19.30 Euston to Preston train, on the 10th November ?


p.s. this may be an impossible question to answer, and if so, I send my apologies in advance.

 

[barrykas]

National Rail are still showing reservations on VT only being open to the 8th November.

 

[pemma]

The ATOS booking engine will offer one adult a £29.50 Advance ticket for the 19:40 departure for Grange-over-Sands from Euston. However, if you try to buy four it won't let you which suggests to me there are less than 4 advance tickets left available for that journey option.

Virgin aren't obliged to offer Advance tickets on every service and they don't on some services that would be busy anyway.

 

[Scooby]

National Rail are still showing reservations on VT only being open to the 8th November.

They are, but the ticketing Companies are selling them for VT services on the 10th November (incl Virgin themselves), but not all services !

 

[island]

If you had booked both legs at once, you might have been able to get an off-peak single (web only) (also known as SVH or Saver Half) at half the off-peak return price for the other leg. But you can't do that now.

 

[Scooby]

Enter "Manchester Piccadilly" in the via option on an ATOS booking engine and you get a 19:40 departure for Grange-over-Sands from Euston with a change at Manchester Piccadilly offering a £29.50 Advance ticket (full adult price.)

Virgin aren't obliged to offer Advance tickets on every service and they don't on some services that would be busy anyway.

But if you ask for 8 tickets, the availability isn't there .

I know that Virgin aren't obliged to sell Advance tickets and it is their job to maximise revenue, but in the past when I've used the 19.20/19.40 to Man Pic, or 19.30 to Preston on a Saturday, they haven't been busy services.

 

[pemma]

But if you ask for 8 tickets, the availability isn't there .

Yes sorry I updated my post after I realised that there only seems to be 3 Advance tickets left on sale for that journey option.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The cheapest option I can see at the moment is:

19:07 Euston departure for Liverpool you can get a £85 Advance ticket for Euston-Crewe for 8 people with 2 F&F railcards.

Crewe to Grange for 8 with F&F is then £115.60 single.

 

[yorkie]

Joy Of Joys, they had, and I managed to snabble up 8 tickets for an absolute steal.

& then I tried to get tickets for the way home.....

If you had looked for the two legs as part of the same journey (ie, specifying a return) then the Virgin website will offer you a half price Off Peak Single (SVH). This is not available if you do the search as two separate single journeys.

 

[Scooby]

The cheapest option I can see at the moment is:

19:07 Euston departure for Liverpool you can get a £85 Advance ticket for Euston-Crewe for 8 people with 2 F&F railcards.

Crewe to Grange for 8 with F&F is then £115.60 single.

thanks jcollins, that particular choice I hadn't considered

If you had looked for the two legs as part of the same journey (ie, specifying a return) then the Virgin website will offer you a half price Off Peak Single (SVH). This is not available if you do the search as two separate single journeys.

In all honesty, I don't find the Virgin website very user friendly, and they don't offer me the booking flexabilty that other sites do.

My trip is to Twickenham, to watch rugby, so the fares that I'm looking for are actually to Richmond, not London (I've now amended my OP to reflect this). The added complicatioon being the length of time to leave the stadium, gett bussed back to Richmond town centre and then train/underground/overground back to Euston -- all in a dignified, unhurried, hassle free way, that ADDS to the day out, rather than detracts from it.

I've now unearthed a Richmond to Man Pic ticket for £100.20 that will get us out on either the 19.20 or 19.40 train and then a £20.40 fare from Man Pic to Grange Over Sands, or a £68.00 ticket on the 18.40 and then a £20.40 onwards to Grange (but we'd have quite a while in Man Pic to coool our heels).

So I'm currently on
£139.20 most direct route, not much time after the game, home early (21.41)
£120.60 time after the game, via Man Pic, late home (23.35)
£88.40 cheapest, via Man Pic not much time after the game, late home (23.35)


OR.......... I hang on to see if any advances become available for the 19.30 from London Euston, which would work out perfectly for us.

Dilemmas, Dilemmas :roll:

 

[All Line Rover]

On Friday afternoons/evenings and Saturdays evenings (after 6pm), Virgin have very limited Advance ticket availability. This is nothing new, unfortunately.

 

[dave87016]

On Virgin trains website Saturday 10th November

19:40pm Euston - Man Piccadilly 4 adults and 4 children with F&F railcard is £85:00 advance single ( total cost ) arriving at Man Picc 21:53pm the same price is available for the 19:20pm departure arriving at Man Picc at 21:28pm

22:16pm Man Picc - Grange-Over-Sands arrives at 23:35pm 4 adults and 4 children with F&F railcard is £20:40 advance single ( total cost )

 

[pemma]

19:40pm Euston - Man Piccadilly 4 adults and 4 children with F&F railcard is £85:00 advance single ( total cost ) arriving at Man Picc 21:53pm the same price is available for the 19:20pm departure arriving at Man Picc at 21:28pm

Strangely when I tried 8 passengers with 2 F&F railcards for 19:40 Euston - Man Piccadilly and not beyond yesterday it wouldn't offer me advances unless I reduced the number of passengers.

 

[Scooby]

On Friday afternoons/evenings and Saturdays evenings (after 6pm), Virgin have very limited Advance ticket availability. This is nothing new, unfortunately.

I've been looking, rechecking and then looking again since Monday and I've finally managed to come up with a winning solution. I've got 8 Advance tickets for the 19.40 train from Euston to Euston and I'm rather chuffed with myself.

On the services to Manchester, the Advance tickets seem to appear and then disappear again very quickly - whether they are sold, or its the way that the software works, but its a PITA.

On Virgin trains website Saturday 10th November

19:40pm Euston - Man Piccadilly 4 adults and 4 children with F&F railcard is £85:00 advance single ( total cost ) arriving at Man Picc 21:53pm the same price is available for the 19:20pm departure arriving at Man Picc at 21:28pm

22:16pm Man Picc - Grange-Over-Sands arrives at 23:35pm 4 adults and 4 children with F&F railcard is £20:40 advance single ( total cost )

We're travelling from Richmond, so the fare that I've got is £102 RMD to MAN and £20.40 MAN to GOS = £122.40 in total.

Strangely when I tried 8 passengers with 2 F&F railcards for 19:40 Euston - Man Piccadilly and not beyond yesterday it wouldn't offer me advances unless I reduced the number of passengers.

I had that again and again and on the earlier services as well. Very frustrating.


At the end of the day I've got 4 adult & 4 child tickets, with a F&F railcard.
Reserved table seats from GOS to EUS, both ways, and Underground/Overground/Southwest train tickets from EUS to RMD & RMD to EUS for £178.60 or £22.33 per passenger.

its not bargain of the century territory, but it does very good value for money - particularly when there is 8 of us and we are being a tad picky as when we can travel.


If it is helpful to anyone, I find that takethetrain.co.uk to be an excellant, user friendly ticket booking website, which is MUCH more user friendly than Virgins own or the (IMO) dreadful RedSpottedHanky site. TTT seems to pick up on som fares that the others don't do, which makes me happy

 

[34D]

If it is helpful to anyone, I find that takethetrain.co.uk to be an excellant, user friendly ticket booking website, which is MUCH more user friendly than Virgins own or the (IMO) dreadful RedSpottedHanky site. TTT seems to pick up on som fares that the others don't do, which makes me happy

All sites should be able to access the same fares: the differences arise from the different ways to search and the different ways the fares are presented.

 

[Scooby]

All sites should be able to access the same fares: .

They should, but they don't ! If I get the chance, I'll find an example for you later on.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

All sites should be able to access the same fares: the differences arise from the different ways to search and the different ways the fares are presented.

hello 34D,

I agree with you, partially . FTPE/Virgin/RSH/Trainline require you to do more work i.e click on the slower routes option, and then click through the ticket options 1 by 1 until (if you're lucky) the ticket that Take The Train offered you on their first screen, magically becomes available. RSH seem to be particularly poor with the trip that I've just looked at !

Where TtT excel, is that they seem to automatically offer a longer route, if it is cheaper, on your original search, as well as the direct/dearer options.