redspottedhanky.com

[Mojo]

Just seen an advert for this website in the forum and clicked on it and it seems to be a website run by Atos Origin using their WebTIS system (as used by East Coast, LM, etc.)

As far as I can see there are no booking fees or other charges in using this website, but they seem to offer loyalty discounts of 1 point per £1 spent which can be used towards the purchase of future tickets[1]. As there are often little benefits in using one website over another (except for certain cases like TPE and XC who offer student discounts and East Coast and NXEA who offer 10% discounts when booking Advance tickets through their respective websites) this might be for someone to consider.

[1] Although with a rate to 1 point = 1p and the points expiring at 31 December each year you might not get very far!

 

[tony_mac]

you currently get 1.5% cashback when booking with transpennine through quidco or topcashback. (more for tp advance fares).

 

[bnm]

Read the small print: £1 booking fee on all transactions which rather cancels out the loyalty points. Stick with East Coast!

 

[Mojo]

Read the small print: £1 booking fee on all transactions which rather cancels out the loyalty points. Stick with East Coast!

Given the website was only launched last night, they've changed things rather quickly as I wasn't charged a booking fee when I booked a ticket just before I posted this thread!

You are right, stick to other TOCs (I personally use London Midland as I find the East Coast website painfully slow).

 

[wintonian]

"redspottedhanky is an online travel retailer, part of the Atos Origin group of companies."

Looks like they have started branching out in to direct customer facing opportunities.

 

[CompactDstrxion]

Surely if you're buying tickets costing more than £100 then this site actually becomes worth it as the loyalty points earned outweigh the booking fee?

Also, I think with their price promise terms they would have to refund in points the difference between their price and for example the 50% TPE student offer and 10% discounts on advance fares at East Coast, etc?

 

[John @ home]

I think with their price promise terms they would have to refund in points the difference between their price and for example the 50% TPE student offer and 10% discounts on advance fares at East Coast, etc?

I suspect they will attempt to wriggle out of it.

redspottedhanky.com Terms and Conditions - Price promise

Comparison fares must be offered on line to all members of the public The Price Promise applies only to comparison fares that are offered to all members of the general public and are bookable on line. It will not apply for instance, to fares sold through call centres, physically located travel agents, or through a web site where you have to call a number to confirm or book the fare and it will not be available where the fare is offered on an intranet site

I expect they will claim that not all members of the public are eligible for a Y-P Railcard, and perhaps that not all members of the public are registered on the East Coast web site.

 

[tony_mac]

perhaps the railcard - but not the eastcoast discount, that is open to everybody.

Surely if you're buying tickets costing more than £100 then this site actually becomes worth it as the loyalty points earned outweigh the booking fee?

It's still not better than 1.5% cashback with no booking fee.

 

[The Cornishman]

Just noticed that on Quidco the first £5 you earn goes to them, that means you have to spend £333 on TPE tickets before you get any cash back in your bank by which time the redspottedhanky offer http://www.redspottedhanky.com/loyalty/ will have given you £3.33. You then need to spend another £668 to get back on par with the redspottedhanky offer.

To my simple mind that means a total spend of £1001.40, giving £10.01 in redspottedhanky points and £10.01 in cash back from Quidco but........ there's also only a 24 hour wait for the redspottedhanky points to be credited and available to use again, Quidco gives 1 month as 'typical' to get your cashback.

Interesting that Atos have gone this way, they're also cheaper than any other third party (Trainline, Raileasy, Mytrainticket) on tickets over £10, as you get the 10 points back which nets off the difference in Booking Fees with MyTrainTicket when you pay with a debit card and use TOD as delivery.

Looks like competition at last, intersting to see what the TOCs do when the DfT finally get their act together on the franchise re-lets, with both East and West Coast due in the next 2 years interesting times ahead!!!

 

[Mojo]

Interesting that Atos have gone this way, they're also cheaper than any other third party (Trainline, Raileasy, Mytrainticket) on tickets over £10, as you get the 10 points back which nets off the difference in Booking Fees with MyTrainTicket when you pay with a debit card and use TOD as delivery.

I might be wrong, but I believe that one point is only worth 1p, so you'd have to order a minimum of £100 per transaction to break even.

I'm not meaning to question the business model of presumably competent businessmen, but in the past we've been led to believe that ticket retailers get 10% commission on their sales, surely that's enough for them not to charge a booking fee, especially given their loyalty offer is less than 1% of their total commission. Obviously they rely on either high ticket costs to cover the total fee or a slick advertising campaign designed to trick unsuspecting travellers into using their website when they could get it cheaper elsewhere.

 

[tony_mac]

if you don't use Quidco already, then as far as I know topcashback don't have any fees.
(I use Quidco for lots of things, so the £5 annual fee is pretty irrelevant)
Yes, it does take a while, though, and it's not 100% guaranteed.

 

[Ivo]

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