Removal of Chiltern Small Group discount

[CyrusWuff]

Having been looking at tickets for a group of four adults and two children travelling from London to Oxford Parkway next week, it appears that Chiltern have withdrawn their Small Group discount without notice.

Where I was expecting a total price of £58.20 (£14.05 for the adults and £1.00 for the children, as the discount worked like "old" GroupSave), the lowest price I'm getting for walk up fares is £102.30...or an increase of nearly 76%.

Whilst that can reduced to £84.90 by purchasing a Family & Friends or Network Railcard, it wouldn't pay for itself on just the one trip.

 

[transmanche]

Where I was expecting a total price of £58.20 (£14.05 for the adults and £1.00 for the children, as the discount worked like "old" GroupSave), the lowest price I'm getting for walk up fares is £102.30...or an increase of nearly 76%..

There are promotional Advance tickets available at £25 each way for 4 adults and 2 children.

(Have they removed the small group discount whilst they are offering these promotional advances?)

 

[CyrusWuff]

There are promotional Advance tickets available at £25 each way for 4 adults and 2 children.

Sadly the group in question don't want to be tied to specific trains, or I would have suggested that to them.

(Have they removed the small group discount whilst they are offering these promotional advances?)

All mention of said discount has been removed from the "Group Travel" page of the Chiltern site, suggesting it's permanent.

This has, however, left a rather incongruous sentence relating to GroupSave on said page!

 

[Wirewiper]

Am I right in thinking that London Terminals to Oxford fares are determined by GWR and not Chiltern?

Am I also right in thinking that if they bought Anytime of Off-peak tickets London (Any) to Oxford rather than Oxford Parkway, GWR's groupsave discount would be applied?

 

[CyrusWuff]

Am I right in thinking that London Terminals to Oxford fares are determined by GWR and not Chiltern?

That is indeed the case.

Am I also right in thinking that if they bought Anytime of Off-peak tickets London (Any) to Oxford rather than Oxford Parkway, GWR's groupsave discount would be applied?

The conventional GroupSave discount is still being applied to the Oxford Parkway fare - which is near enough the same as the Oxford far anyway - but it's only a 34% discount and offers no further discount for Children.

I think the best thing for them to do is going to be to get a Network Railcard as that'll bring the tickets down to £84.90. Just one more Adult journey somewhere should be enough for said Railcard to have paid for itself after that.

 

[AY1975]

I see that Chiltern does offer a Chiltern Railways Family Ticket for journeys between Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street or Snow Hill for £51.50 if there are up to two adults or £103 if there are three adults. However, this ticket does not appear to be available for journeys between Marylebone and Oxford or Oxford Parkway - I'm guessing that it's only available for journeys between London and Chiltern stations in the West Midlands.