Site to select a fare and then show itineraries

[miami]

A recent twitter thread had me thinking about fares

There's a flexible Off Peak return from Manchester to London for £45 return, restriction code JM.

Booking this fare seems rather tricky, especially if you want to generate an itinerary

Are there any ticket sites that allow you put the start+end points, select the fare, and then show you valid itineraries for that fare? Rather than showing you itineraries and hoping one of them matches the fare you want?

Either that, or to just to buy the fare without an itinerary?

 

[kingston_toon]

I use tickets.tpexpress.co.uk for most of my bookings, as it uses the old "mixing deck" interface which I really like and allows a pretty decent degree of customisation.

I was able to pull up the fare in question really quickly - pop in MAN and EUS as origin / destination and a sample date / time. Click search. Then on the menu on the left, click "show slower routes" and choose "Valid only on TfW Rail and West Midlands Railway services." Voila!

 

[JB_B]

A recent twitter thread had me thinking about fares

There's a flexible Off Peak return from Manchester to London for £45 return, restriction code JM.

Booking this fare seems rather tricky, especially if you want to generate an itinerary

trainsplit.com will find itineraries for this fare (valid on TfW/WMR ) if you go to advanced options and exclude Avanti ( just possibly you'll need to exclude other operators depending on your times).

 

[Sleepy]

GWR mixing desk is good for doing just that. Someone on recently mentioned GWR app makes Sleeper booking difficult, very easy on mixing desk I find.

 

[kieron]

On Northern (and, I'm sure, various other trainline-powered sites), you search for your ticket origin & destination. From the results page, you click "check if slower routes with cheaper tickets are available". This gives a list of ticket types and routes. If you click on the "Check for trains" link by the ticket you want, it will try to find itineraries which are valid with it.

nre.co.uk has an "Other services you can travel on" button, for if you can find an itinerary for your ticket, but not at a time you'd like.

 

[APT618S]

The following info is probably only of use if you are buying the same ticket(s) regularly and I have not used it since last year.

If you use the Southern Railway website to buy tickets, once you have saved the ticket into your favourites (IIRC you can save upto 10 different tickets) then to re-purchase you only select the ticket from your favourites, the date of travel and then purchase.

You still need to generate an itinerary the first time to be able to get the ticket so you can save it in your favourites.

 

[BluePenguin]

I am just wondering is it possible to do the opposite and to buy a ticket without having to generate an itinerary? Sorry for jumping on this thread but genuinely curious to know whether the opposite is possible

 

[Haywain]

I am just wondering is it possible to do the opposite and to buy a ticket without having to generate an itinerary? Sorry for jumping on this thread but genuinely curious to know whether the opposite is possible

You can buy flexible walk-up tickets and ignore the itinerary.

 

[BluePenguin]

You can buy flexible walk-up tickets and ignore the itinerary.

Of course this is easily done at a machine or ticket office, but what about online? Every single website forces you to click on an itinerary with a price on it. If only BR Fares had a “buy” button for instance

 

[Haywain]

Of course this is easily done at a machine or ticket office, but what about online? Every single website forces you to click on an itinerary with a price on it. If only BR Fares had a “buy” button for instance

BR Fares is an information site and I doubt they would be wanting to go through the process of accreditation to sell a limited range of rail tickets which, as pointed out elsewhere, is not a profitable business without adding booking fees in one form or another. But what is so complicated about clicking on an itinerary? If it's a flexible ticket there is no reason to follow that itinerary. I really can't see the problem.

 

[BluePenguin]

Because some websites don’t want to produce an itinerary. The countless hours I have wasted over the years trying to get websites to do this when I know exactly what ticket I want and just need to find it and pay for it. Messing around with different options to get itineraries to come up is a pain. Especially during engineering works. Telling me no trains found when I know there ARE trains is not helpful

Once the required ticket is found, clicking on a random itinerary is easy enough, but not before that point! Usually I will give up and go to the ticket office and give them a piece of paper with what I want. Or in some cases simply by on board

 

[kieron]

Someone else had the same sort of problem in this thread.

Personally, I wouldn't waste too long on a web site. If I'm looking to buy a ticket in advance, and buying online isn't straightforward, then telesales don't need an itinerary.