Southern website issues

[Mojo]

1. According to this page on the Southern website, a 12% discount is offered for ''many'' journeys. When trying to book an Off-peak Day Return (CDR) between Ashford Int'l and Portsmouth (route via Barnham) it charges £9.90 for a 1625 Railcard discounted CDR, the normal fare.

2. Their website also says ''Great news: Southern has made most Kids for £1 tickets available through our website'' but for the same journey as above I cannot get it to offer £1 tickets, instead it charges the normal child rate.

I am not looking at a specific date, but have used a date of 7-Jly (to comply with the first offer).

 

[johnnycache]

Mojo i'll have a look at the site and come back to you in a few minutes
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
For Ashford International (AFK) to Portsmouth Harbour (PMH) the CDR is £15.00 but there doesn't seem to be a web discounted fare

I tried Ashford International (AFK) to Southampton Central (SOU) the CDR is again £15.00 with a web discounted fare of £13.05 (13% discount)
The railcard discounted versions are £9.90 (normal fare) and £9.15 (web discounted fare)

The discounts don't seem to be enough as i'd expect your fare to be £8.60

Thanks for pointing this out - what would be the best way for us to re-imburse you? if you were able to PM you details to me i could get an email voucher aded to you webTIS account next week

 

[paul1609]

Mojo i'll have a look at the site and come back to you in a few minutes
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
For Ashford International (AFK) to Portsmouth Harbour (PMH) the CDR is £15.00 but there doesn't seem to be a web discounted fare

I tried Ashford International (AFK) to Southampton Central (SOU) the CDR is again £15.00 with a web discounted fare of £13.05 (13% discount)
The railcard discounted versions are £9.90 (normal fare) and £9.15 (web discounted fare)

The discounts don't seem to be enough as i'd expect your fare to be £8.60

Thanks for pointing this out - what would be the best way for us to re-imburse you? if you were able to PM you details to me i could get an email voucher aded to you webTIS account next week

I'd guess that the issue is that the 12% discount only seems to apply to the core Southern Routes whereas a Ashford to Portsmouth harbour ticket route Barnham is also valid via Tonbridge and Redhill as this satisfies the shortest route or not more than 3 extra miles than the shortest route (via brighton and eastbourne) rule in the routing guide.
Obviously the Ashford to Tonbridge part is on South Eastern services. In the case of Portsmouth to Ashford journeys the quickest route is often via Redhill as the Portsmouth to Brighton services do not connect well with the Ashford service at Brighton.
Id guess that the Webtis site is interpreting the rules correctly even though this maybe wasn't what Southern intended!

 

[rail-britain]

I've pointed out a few errors on the Southern website, all have been fixed the next business day
The latest one was a news article, which suggested passengers use a specific station, but I pointed out this would not be possible!
As is typical one department says one thing, without actually checking if something is possible

Marcin Balawender is my contact at Southern, try there

Note that the Southern discounts only apply when travelling solely on a service operated by Southern (ie Southern only)
All the journey options I tried included at least one other operator (either Southeastem, FCC, and/or SWT)

 

[johnnycache]

I work for southern

There is a misunderstanding about these web discounts. The discounted ticket has exactly the same validity as the same ticket would have if bought from another website or from a tvm or ticket office. They can be used on any train company's trains on the permitted routes for the journey in question. If there are any errors that is because of mistakes in implementation which Southern will be very happy to correct.