Southern Advance Fares

[AndyP]

I am trying to book a ticket from London Victoria to Bognor Regis but notice that there are no advance tickets travelling from London.
There seems to be plenty of advance tickets available though travelling from Bognor Regis to London Victoria.

Southern advertise advance tickets on their website as being available From AND To selected stations. There can't have all been booked up as there as lots of advance fares travelling from Bognor Regis in the next five days.

I am not going to bother emailing them as its likely they will just send me some template email saying "Book early to get the best prices!"
which doesn't really answer the question.

Hope someone can help
Andrew

 

[First class]

Ever heard of Southern DaySave?

 

[AndyP]

Ever heard of Southern DaySave?

........... Yes, I have heard of it.
Forgot to mention that I will be not be returning on the same day.
Seems like a Southern DaySave outward and an advance ticket for the return is probably the best thing to do.

I was hoping someone would reply with some kind of insight as to when Southern release advance tickets.

 

[yorkie]

Well if they are already on sale in one direction you'd expect them to be on sale the other. How far in advance is this?

SN's advance fares wreak havoc with 'and connections' advance fares by 'InterCity' style operators

 

[paul1609]

Andy P,
you dont say how you are trying to book these tickets. I find that Southerns own webtis and raileasy have the best availability, for some reason there is a problem booking "from London" Tickets on trainline based sites.
Yorkie,
Southerns Advance tickets were introduced because Inter City TOCs selling large numbers of "plus connection tickets" often at lower cost than a anytime single to London were causing revenue extraction problems.

 

[AndyP]

I have used the National Rail website, Southern's website and the trainline and all show the same availability, i.e. only advance tickets being allocated in one direction.

Fares do seem to be available though for all the other advance routes - London to and from Brighton, Portsmouth, Littlehampton and suprisingly Arundel which is on the same line and only three stations away from Bognor Regis. These are on dates - 17th April and returning on the 20th.

An advance single to Arundel and then another to Bognor Regis comes to £8.80 which makes me think I should just pay the extra to get a flexible Daysave ticket.

Strange why that happened though. I checked the route a month ago for another date and tickets were available in both directions.

 

[Railjet]

If you go via Brighton, you could get an advance single to Littlehampton for £3 on a service which requires a change at Ford, and a single from Ford to Bognor for £3.40. Total cost £6.40.

 

[paul1609]

For Reasons that I dont understand Advance tickets to littlehampton often require you to travel on the fast portion of an arun valley service to Barnham and change there look for one of these and then buy a single to Bognor.
Is there some event on at Butlins that weekend? Is not unusual to find large parties travelling down to those with whole coaches reserved.
Wherasbouts in Bognor are you travelling to?

 

[AndyP]

For Reasons that I dont understand Advance tickets to littlehampton often require you to travel on the fast portion of an arun valley service to Barnham and change there look for one of these and then buy a single to Bognor.
Is there some event on at Butlins that weekend? Is not unusual to find large parties travelling down to those with whole coaches reserved.
Wherasbouts in Bognor are you travelling to?

Yes, I am travelling to Butlins for an adult weekend there on 15th May and returning on the 18th.
Just used the April dates to demonstrate that I can't find advance tickets going both ways.

Would group travel bookings be allowed to use up seats that Southern would normally use for advance tickets?
Could you end up with a situation where no advance tickets will be sold on these dates due to every coach being booked?

 

[paul1609]

I think that the way it works is that there are only so many reservable tickets on each train. You dont actually get a seat reservation on Southern. I think these are probably shared between Southerns own advance tickets and other operators Plus connections advance tickets. I'm not sure if they still do it but Butlins used to block book tickets from London on Bognor Trains going back to 4 cig days. Its still not unusual to find mid day arun valley trains comprised of 12 coaches with 8 to Bognor because of events at Butlins.

If its any help the 700 Coastway bus leaves from opposite Littlehampton Station exit to Outside Butlins every 30 mins approx 53 and 23 mins past the hour. Journey time about 12 mins. Buses down here are quite expensive so id expect about £3 to 4 single.

 

[AndyP]

I think that the way it works is that there are only so many reservable tickets on each train. You dont actually get a seat reservation on Southern. I think these are probably shared between Southerns own advance tickets and other operators Plus connections advance tickets. I'm not sure if they still do it but Butlins used to block book tickets from London on Bognor Trains going back to 4 cig days. Its still not unusual to find mid day arun valley trains comprised of 12 coaches with 8 to Bognor because of events at Butlins.

If its any help the 700 Coastway bus leaves from opposite Littlehampton Station exit to Outside Butlins every 30 mins approx 53 and 23 mins past the hour. Journey time about 12 mins. Buses down here are quite expensive so id expect about £3 to 4 single.

Don't understand what you mean by 4 cig days.
The 700 Coastway bus is one idea but I think I will just pay the Daysave ticket price to get some flexibility.

I'm travelling down from Manchester Piccadilly on a Value Advance ticket, so getting a Daysave will mean that I don't have to allocate a massive amount of compensation time in London should the train arrive late at Euston.

 

[paul1609]

Don't understand what you mean by 4 cig days.
The 700 Coastway bus is one idea but I think I will just pay the Daysave ticket price to get some flexibility.

I'm travelling down from Manchester Piccadilly on a Value Advance ticket, so getting a Daysave will mean that I don't have to allocate a massive amount of compensation time in London should the train arrive late at Euston.

Sorry,
4 Cig was the slam door stock previously used on the line.

 

[maximus]

Hi everybody,

Is it possible to have an advance fare on southern on a train that does not allow any seat reservation, meaning that no inventory is available for this train on NRS?

Thus you would have the ticket of the advance fare but no ticket for the seat reservation.

Is it possible? Have you ever encountered this particular situation? (for example the 07:06 brighton to victoria)

Maxime

 

[Edvid]

I've bought such tickets for the Brighton Express on a few occasions. On each occasion I've received tickets and seat reservation coupons, the seat and coach are marked '***' but the specific services I chose were still shown in full.

 

[yorkie]

Those trains have a quota but the seats are not reservable.

 

[AndyP]

Sorry,
4 Cig was the slam door stock previously used on the line.

Ahh I see.
Well that's the London to Bognor Regis bit sorted. The problem now is that I am waiting for May Virgin Trains Mobile tickets to be available.
Not sure with it being April now that it may seem as though the trial has ended!

Do I gamble on the quota becoming available and paying £2 (hopefully if quick enough) or just going with a Value Advance at the times I want to go at for £30 (and rising).