Off peak single vs advance single

[I Once Was Lost]

Have had no joy trying to find the answer to this one so hopefully someone can shed some light on it? Have kept question as simple as possible but will expand information as required.

Trying to book single from Carlisle to Wolverhampton on Saturday dep 13.09and found best advance single is £55.50 but no option for off peak single. If I try to book a return fare say returning a week later the advance single is still there but it also now offers me the off peak single fare of £34.65 each way.
Have tried this with other times/days and routes but does the same. Why can't I buy an off peak single ticket for a single journey that is off peak? :cry:
I know I can split my ticket to save money but the above still applies when I do that i.e no off peak single fare shown when trying to book an off peak single ticket.

 

[90019]

oops

 

[glynn80]

They've probably sold all the off peak singles for that train already.

Err, Off-Peak Singles are walk-up tickets and do not have a quota that sells out.

Having investigated the OPs situation, the fact is there is no Off Peak Single from Carlisle to Wolverhampton. There is an Off Peak Return at £69.30, and this is what the OP has become confused with.

The best option for "I Once Was Lost" is to use the National Express East Coast site (this can sell tickets across the UK) to search for his/her journey options. Bear in mind you must specify your out and return journey legs to be able to get the OPR to appear (this will also reserve you seats on said services) however there is no obligation to stick to the reserved services, as the OPR has no time restrictions at the weekend.

 

[Mojo]

I can't get the Off-peak single to show on NRES or NXEC, but I get the feeling that it is down to the fact that the Off-peak single is a ticket that used to be called something along the lines of a "Saver Half Return" and was half the price of a Saver Return but was only a single (despite the name), in order to allow people to book advance fares for one leg of the journey, but get a cheap ticket on the other where no advance fares are available (traditionally Saver singles are only £1 or less less [sic] than the return). ISTR however that only the Virgin website actually managed to sell this though; they were only issued when buying at the same time as a then-called Virgin Advance (now simply "Advance") ticket.

http://212.104.140.178/index.cfm?articleid=1010

If you go onto the Virgin website, I can book a £34.65 Off-peak single for both the out and return parts of the journey you're trying to make.

 

[I Once Was Lost]

If you go onto the Virgin website, I can book a £34.65 Off-peak single for both the out and return parts of the journey you're trying to make.

Thanks for the replies. I was only trying to book a single but wanted to get the off peak single price as advised when booking a return. I am still confused. Are we saying you cannot buy an off peak single ticket for a single journey?

 

[F Great Eastern]

I still use the FGWtickets.co.uk website to book tickets, I seem to get low price fares on there that don't always show up on other companies Trainline sites, and the NX sites.

 

[glynn80]

Thanks for the replies. I was only trying to book a single but wanted to get the off peak single price as advised when booking a return. I am still confused. Are we saying you cannot buy an off peak single ticket for a single journey?

No, its just for the Carlisle to Wolverhampton flow, there is no Off Peak Single fare. Not all flows have and OPS fare, it all depends on the TOC that manages each particular flow.

 

[90019]

Err, Off-Peak Singles are walk-up tickets and do not have a quota that sells out.

Good point, I wasn't thinking when I posted

 

[tony_mac]

I am still confused. Are we saying you cannot buy an off peak single ticket for a single journey?

To try and clarify a little bit more - the price you were given of £34.65 is not actually for an off-peak single. It is a kind of 'special offer' ticket that Virgin do, called a 'half-return' - but you can buy it only on the condition that you buy the other half of the return from them at the same time.

You can, in general, buy an off-peak single ticket - but not on this journey, there isn't one. Even if you could, it would probably cost much more than half the price of an off-peak return, they usually do.

So, the short answer is no, you cannot buy a £34.65 'single' ticket on its own - it must be sold as one half of a return ticket.
If you think that's bad, other train operators don't sell these 'half-return' tickets at all!

 

[yorkie]

So, the short answer is no, you cannot buy a £34.65 'single' ticket on its own - it must be sold as one half of a return ticket.
If you think that's bad, other train operators don't sell these 'half-return' tickets at all!

Is it me, or did the old "Saver Half" name make more sense than "Off Peak Single" given that it isn't really an Off Peak Single as it's not available singly?

If anyone has some cash to spare, perhaps we can take the TOCs to court over "Simplification" as false advertising. I struggle to find any example of any change that is genuinely more "simple" than it was before simplification!

 

[jopsuk]

It's more a case of

(I really should have added quotation marks to that image)

 

[tony_mac]

I hadn't realised that they had changed the name; yes, it's more madnes - as you said, how can it be a single if it isn't available singly? Surely that is the definition of 'single'?

I'm sure that having two types of tickets, called 'anytime single' and 'anytime day single' makes absolutely no sense to anybody! (outside the raiway industry; those inside seem able to develop their own sense of meaning)

 

[PhilipW]

THere is a £10.50 Advance Single on the 16:07