Now a convert to RailUKforums for my ticket purchases!

[sholland]

Until recently joining, really just for advice on delay repay, for which assistance was just great. (THANK YOU ALL!) I had only ever used Trainline for buying tickets
However, half hour ago I did a comparison for a hypothetical return trip from Spalding to Lincoln, 2 adults, both senior railcards on a Wednesday morning in June.
RailUK tickets were £27.30. Trainline £34.15!

I know who we will support in the future!
Thank you one and all for such a great Forum!
Rob

 

[Stewart2887]

I'm sure thats great-are you actually travelling? Try Oxford-Edinburgh over a long weekend-the only split I ever looked into. Went by car instead

 

[AlterEgo]

I'm sure thats great-are you actually travelling? Try Oxford-Edinburgh over a long weekend-the only split I ever looked into. Went by car instead

The site doesn't set the fares, so this is quite a bad faith post.

Trainsplit (the backend for the RUK site) has the best splitting engine I've come across, and consistently delivers better savings than Trainline or Trainpal. Where it doesn't automatically come out with the best saving, a small tweak to the search in Advanced usually brings a saving or equivalence.

In any case, the forum site has very good customer service and is run by people who understand what "power users" want from the service.

Of course, sometimes even with splits, train travel is very uncompetitive, which is regrettable, but not the fault of third party retailers.

 

[mangyiscute]

In any case, the forum site has very good customer service and is run by people who understand what "power users" want from the service.

Yeah in some ways the best part of using the forum's website for tickets is that any issues that arise can be sorted quickly by a simple message on the forum which is so much easier than trying to battle with large corporations' customer service channels.

 

[sholland]

#2, yes, it is a journey planned in a few weeks time.
Car (fuel only) would be far cheaper, bu I neec tot account for the lease charge. But then there is parking charges and the drink drive law to take into account.
Rob

 

[Silver Cobra]

I am also a recent convert to the forum's ticket website, with two purchases in particular highlighting the benefits of the system versus the TOC websites.

The first is a same-day return trip I booked from Hitchin to Barry Island for 19th July. While the tickets I've booked were offered by both GWR and the forum's ticket website (so no savings), the forum offered a seat selector for the GWR legs between Paddington and Cardiff Central, which GWR themselves do not offer. Being able to select specific seats rather than relying on the 'preferences' system giving me a good seat is quite the blessing.

The second is a trip from Stevenage to Scarborough for two, of which one person has a senior railcard, with the outbound on 5th August and the return on 9th August. Looking at departing around 11am from Stevenage on 5th August and returning from Scarborough around 11am as well on 9th August, LNER offered through advances for the trip that totalled just over £111. The forum's website, in comparison, was able to offer alternatives that cost only £80.60. The tickets were still through advances, so no splits were involved; the forum's website simply offered alternative itineraries to LNER. The itinerary LNER offered was:

Outbound: 1127 Stevenage to York, 1404 York to Scarborough​

Return: 1048 Scarborough to York, 1202 York to Stevenage​

In comparison, the forum's website offered:

Outbound: 1045 Stevenage to Peterborough, 1159 Peterborough to York, 1404 York to Scarborough​

Return: 1048 Scarborough to York, 1220 York to Leeds, 1315 Leeds to Stevenage​

I'm quite surprised that I could get a through advance routed via Leeds. While both journeys will take longer than what LNER offered, saving over £30 makes it definitely worth it. Add in that, like with GWR, I could use a seat selector for TPE's services.

As such, I will definitely be making more regular use of the forum's ticket website for sure