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Southern Removed Online Discount?

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djh1986

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11 Aug 2010
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I've tried to book a few journeys tonight for future travel on Southern and the 12% discount for online booking seems to have disappeared from the booking "matrix" as does every reference to it on the site?

Does anyone know if this is now policy and if it was announced?

Pretty big kick for my partner who travels five days a week off-peak from Hove to London.

Will be booking my tickets on more reliable websites from now on if this is the case (unless to get advance ones).
 
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yorkie

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Will be booking my tickets on more reliable websites from now on if this is the case (unless to get advance ones).
There is nothing unreliable about the Southern booking site!

Also, is DaySave an option?
 

johnnycache

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The off-peak promotion had to end on 23 August because the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement limits promotions to 34 weeks out of 52

It is our practice at Southern to offer discounts starting in January (so customers can avoid the fares increase by booking online) and the 34 weeks runs out in August
 

djh1986

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Thanks for clearing that up folks.

The Southern website often does go down between 10pm and midnight I find when wanting to book tickets for the following day. Happened several times this year.
 

lyndhurst25

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You can still get 6% cash-back on tickets bought from southern's website via Quidco or TopCashback.
 

MKD

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22 Feb 2012
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As well as the 6% £back (which has always tracked very reliably for me on TCB) the Southern Railways website's Money Back Guarantee (alias RainyDayGuarantee) for uncollected TODs (except non-Southern Advance) is a major bonus that I haven't noticed on any other site!
http://www.southernrailway.com/offers/money-back-guarantee/
Their admin on those refunds went to pot in the Spring/earlySummer but I/family got our £ back in the end.
MKD
 

tannedfrog

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Southern Railways website's Money Back Guarantee (alias RainyDayGuarantee) for uncollected TODs (except non-Southern Advance) is a major bonus that I haven't noticed on any other site!
That's certainly something interesting - what's the definition of Southern Advance? Travel entirely on Southern trains, or priced by Southern, or something else?
 

island

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That's certainly something interesting - what's the definition of Southern Advance? Travel entirely on Southern trains, or priced by Southern, or something else?

Route 07777 AP SOUTHERN ONLY, as I understand it.
 

LondonJohn

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Slightly off topic, I had to use the Rainy Day guarantee to claim a refund off an off peak ticket due to my mother telling me an incorrect date of a family function. I applied for a refund and was surprised that I had to print off the form and post it to Southern. They would scan it onto their system, send you a letter advising to call with card details.

Whilst grateful for such a scheme, I am surprised that it was such a manual process. Eg the ticket was booked online why not submit an online refund form. Why sent out a letter to call with card details.. why not send an email ?

I can't help but think that Southern would save time and money if they refined the process but I suppose it is providing employment to the people processing the claim.
 

tannedfrog

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I can't help but think that Southern would save time and money if they refined the process but I suppose it is providing employment to the people processing the claim.
In the same way that too-good-to-be-true mobile phone cashback schemes used to be, the more hurdles there are, the more hurdles there are to fall at..
 

RJ

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The redemption process only involves posting off a form. I did it once and wasn't required to ring anyone. I'd rather do that than pay £10 and sometimes have deal with those irritating pink forms?

I remain loyal to the Southern website when buying tickets, mainly due to the Rainy Day Guarantee. Only ever needed to use it once due to plans for a trip to the seaside with my girlfriend being. scuppered by the terrible summer weather. I did post off the letter and waited almost two months, but the refund did arrive, twice in fact.
 
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MKD

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22 Feb 2012
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Have to agree the physical process for getting Guarantee moneyback is inefficient, but when their system isn't backlog'd (as it was earlier this year), they have given you a FREEPOST address to send the MoneyBack/RainyDay form to, and the system generates the fully formatted printout - all you have to do is provide paper/ink and send it off and wait!

Wins for me, though the 6% cashback and usable website (and lack of fees, and often major discounts) won me over long ago.

They ONCE let me down in sending out a set of tickets with ONE missing (eg "printed 7" per control slip but only 6 were actually enclosed. The helpline was really helpful and told me to rebook my trip (at a higher price now) and to return incomplete set and they would refund me for the incomplete set AND the price difference - and they did!

MKD
 

johnnycache

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3 Jan 2012
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I work for Southern

Southern Advance means (as suggested above) AP Southern only

The reason we cannot offer this service for anyone else's Advance tickets is because they are non-refundable - so we wouldn't be re-imbursed

For our own tickets we don't mind taking the hit

The £10 admin fee (for refunds) is retained by the TOC performing the task so again that's our money to waive if we want to

We are trying to build a reputation for straight dealing and no extra charges

Thanks for you support
 

Brucey

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7 Jan 2010
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We are trying to build a reputation for straight dealing and no extra charges

Thanks for you support

I think you have done this well. People need to learn they need not pay stupid booking or admin fees.

My one gripe would be wording such as "Please note, we are unable to guarantee delivery for first class and shall not be obliged to change, cancel, replace or refund a ticket once it has been posted."

I would also question the legal aspect of this. As I I understand it, my contract is for you to deliver the tickets, not send them. Which subcontractor (Royal Mail) you use to perform this part of the contract is none of my business and whether they succeed or not, you are still required to complete our contract.
 

errata

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21 May 2011
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I work for Southern

Southern Advance means (as suggested above) AP Southern only

The reason we cannot offer this service for anyone else's Advance tickets is because they are non-refundable - so we wouldn't be re-imbursed

For our own tickets we don't mind taking the hit

The £10 admin fee (for refunds) is retained by the TOC performing the task so again that's our money to waive if we want to

We are trying to build a reputation for straight dealing and no extra charges

Thanks for you support

Excellent. It's fantastic to see a company operating responsibly, transparently and generously on railway fares.
 

Universediver

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3 Sep 2012
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I think you have done this well. People need to learn they need not pay stupid booking or admin fees.

My one gripe would be wording such as "Please note, we are unable to guarantee delivery for first class and shall not be obliged to change, cancel, replace or refund a ticket once it has been posted."

I would also question the legal aspect of this. As I I understand it, my contract is for you to deliver the tickets, not send them. Which subcontractor (Royal Mail) you use to perform this part of the contract is none of my business and whether they succeed or not, you are still required to complete our contract.

You are quite right. Your contract is with the supplier, in this case the train operating company, and the contract is not complete until you recieve the goods i.e. the train tickets.

I had a problem with non-delivery from Southern and their customer service staff said it was not their liability. I spoke to a Manager and pointed out that by just quoting the statement above they were breaking the law. Eventually I got my tickets and they assured me they would re-train their staff. I hope this has happened.
 

castra

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19 Sep 2012
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The off-peak promotion had to end on 23 August because the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement limits promotions to 34 weeks out of 52

It is our practice at Southern to offer discounts starting in January (so customers can avoid the fares increase by booking online) and the 34 weeks runs out in August

I'm a regular user of the Southern Website & I noticed the online discount for tickets had disappeared which is a great pity.

However: It states above that promotions are limited to 34 weeks? I've been using Southerns online booking system on a regular basis for around three years now. In all that time, there has ALWAYS been some % of discount for online bookings - Sometimes as much as 40%. There has never been a gap between the Promotions. One has always run into another continually for the last three years as far as I remember.

Is there a chance of the online discount returning in the future?
 

johnnycache

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3 Jan 2012
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I should explain these rules a bit better

Every flow has a lead operator (Southern is the lead operator from Brighton to London) and many have a secondary operator (First Capital Connect)

The lead operator determines the inter-available fares for the flow (ie valid on all operators) and other operators have to accept passengers travelling at those fares

The lead operator only set dedicated fares (ie fares that are not valid on every operator) in limited circumstances (for instance Advance fares valid on specific trains only) whereas the secondary operator can set permanent dedicated fares

This is a big advantage to a secondary operator that operates a reasonably competitive service as they can undercut the lead operator's price

The lead operator can set a promotional fare that is inter-available for a maximum of 34 weeks out of 52 - this means that the fare is reduced and every operator that has a share in the revenue gets a reduced amount

The lead operator can also set dedicated promotional fares for a maximum of 12 weeks out of 52

When Southern discounts Advance fares it is basically giving away its own money as all the revenue goes to Southern anyway. It can do this as often as it likes. The view at the moment is that with fares starting at only £5 and quite large quotas the fares offer outstanding value and do not need to be further reduced. This view might change.

For off-peak fares the discounted tickets were valid on all operators so the 34 week rule applied. Therefore you would not expect these to be reduced again until the new year. To be honest (i work for Southern) no decisions have been made about that yet.
 
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