Special Offers Discussion

[Butts]

Just received an email from VTEC about a summer seat sale. Annoyingly (and clearly deliberately) they've chosen the dates to clash with the World Cup - travel between 18 June and 20 July, book by end of this Thursday (May 31).

I can't link to it as the T&Cs say "The promotional tickets offer can be accessed by the recipient of this email only" but if you're registered with VTEC check your inbox!

Yes I got an e-mail - the prices don't seem to be as cheap as they used to be !!! ( At least in 1st Class)

 

[westv]

No email from VTEC here but previous seat sales from them have been no good for me anyway.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Not really surprising that I haven't received that email (I didn't receive one the last time VTEC ran this kind of seat sale either). There's still time for it to arrive, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

Hopefully LNER won't run seat sales in this manner, as it does seem rather unfair that it's completely random whether you get one of these emails or not.

Are you opted in for VTEC marketing emails?

 

[Deerfold]

Not really surprising that I haven't received that email (I didn't receive one the last time VTEC ran this kind of seat sale either). There's still time for it to arrive, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

Hopefully LNER won't run seat sales in this manner, as it does seem rather unfair that it's completely random whether you get one of these emails or not.

I've got one this time, having not had them before. I'm guessing it's now long enough since I gave up using their horrendous website.

Of course, I've already booked several rather more expensive trips in this period.

 

[Joe Paxton]

I've got one this time, having not had them before. I'm guessing it's now long enough since I gave up using their horrendous website.

Of course, I've already booked several rather more expensive trips in this period.

For both VTWC and VTEC (and before them East Coast), the broad timing of such promotions has been the same each year. Perhaps a keen RFUKer might fancy compiling a list of the guesstimated timing of various TOC promotions? (This is when being opted in to all the normally tiresome email marketing shots comes in useful.)

 

[[.n]]

SWR have introduced £15 tickets (similar to the SWT £15 ones), every weekend (some restrictions on a Sunday , £15 one way, £7.50 for children, throughout their newtwork but only applicable to routes they price.

 

[Silver Cobra]

Are you opted in for VTEC marketing emails?

I just checked my account and I am signed up to receive their marketing both via email and SMS, and I believe I have been since I created my account on their new website. I get emails from them advertising journeys to Leeds and London from time to time, but nothing about seat sales.

What would be interesting is if the people who got these emails so far are either regular spenders on the website or people who haven't bought anything in a long time. This would help give some clarity on if there is a qualifier to receiving this email.

 

[Butts]

I just checked my account and I am signed up to receive their marketing both via email and SMS, and I believe I have been since I created my account on their new website. I get emails from them advertising journeys to Leeds and London from time to time, but nothing about seat sales.

What would be interesting is if the people who got these emails so far are either regular spenders on the website or people who haven't bought anything in a long time. This would help give some clarity on if there is a qualifier to receiving this email.

I moved to wales from Scotland about 16 months ago so the latter may well be true !!! (at least in my case)

 

[Kite159]

SWR have introduced £15 tickets (similar to the SWT £15 ones), every weekend (some restrictions on a Sunday , £15 one way, £7.50 for children, throughout their newtwork but only applicable to routes they price.

At first I had my hopes high, but then I saw it is one way (so £30 for a return). Can't see any mention of it on the website though.

 

[ASharpe]

What would be interesting is if the people who got these emails so far are either regular spenders on the website or people who haven't bought anything in a long time. This would help give some clarity on if there is a qualifier to receiving this email.

I haven't spent via the VTEC website in a while (since they changed booking engine I think). My account has been deactivated apparently - it was registered before it was Virgin though. But I did click yes to their GDPR link last week.

 

[Joe Paxton]

I haven't spent via the VTEC website in a while (since they changed booking engine I think). My account has been deactivated apparently - it was registered before it was Virgin though. But I did click yes to their GDPR link last week.

Re the account - when VTEC switched from the old booking engine (Worldline WebTIS, aka the 'mixing deck') to their new one you had to create a new account, it didn't transfer across.

 

[westv]

All I got from VTEC was an email yesterday about seat frog.

 

[ASharpe]

Re the account - when VTEC switched from the old booking engine (Worldline WebTIS, aka the 'mixing deck') to their new one you had to create a new account, it didn't transfer across.

That confirms my thoughts that I haven't booked with them since. It's been deemed of topic on the LNER thread so it must certainly off-topic here.

 

[[.n]]

At first I had my hopes high, but then I saw it is one way (so £30 for a return). Can't see any mention of it on the website though.

Its on there somewhere but now I can't find it either!

 

[Red Dragon]

I've searched the thread for current offers in the South of England, but cant find anything.
I'm staying near Richmond next week so could do anything radiating from London.
Have I missed them all, or is there nothing on offer at the moment?

 

[Joe Paxton]

I've searched the thread for current offers in the South of England, but cant find anything.
I'm staying near Richmond next week so could do anything radiating from London.
Have I missed them all, or is there nothing on offer at the moment?

There's this, mentioned upthread (in post #3366), which for reasons unknown doesn't seem to appear anywhere on the SWR website but does show on their booking engine:

SWR have introduced £15 tickets (similar to the SWT £15 ones), every weekend (some restrictions on a Sunday, £15 one way, £7.50 for children, throughout their network but only applicable to routes they price.

Worth noting it's for a single not a return, and at weekends only.

Appears to run until Sunday 1st July.

 

[Red Dragon]

There's this, mentioned upthread (in post #3366), which for reasons unknown doesn't seem to appear anywhere on the SWR website but does show on their booking engine:


Worth noting it's for a single not a return, and at weekends only.

Appears to run until Sunday 1st July.

Thanks Joe

 

[Deerfold]

For both VTWC and VTEC (and before them East Coast), the broad timing of such promotions has been the same each year. Perhaps a keen RFUKer might fancy compiling a list of the guesstimated timing of various TOC promotions? (This is when being opted in to all the normally tiresome email marketing shots comes in useful.)

But not everyone was included in this offer. If I'd held off booking on the assumption there would be one and had not got the offer e-mail I'd also have been worse off.

 

[Joe Paxton]

But not everyone was included in this offer. If I'd held off booking on the assumption there would be one and had not got the offer e-mail I'd also have been worse off.

True.

 

[Wallsendmag]

The secret was to have opted into the GDPR question

 

[Silver Cobra]

The secret was to have opted into the GDPR question

That's interesting to know. My father received an email about the GDPR a few days before the deadline, but all I received was an email regarding an updated privacy policy. My father doesn't have an account on the VTEC website, having only used the site to make delay repay claims; I buy tickets for him using my account.

I'm guessing that I received the privacy policy email in place of the GDPR one because of having an account. But if that meant I missed out on the seat sale email as a result, that's rather annoying.

 

[tago]

I’m a regular traveller on VTEC, but haven’t had this or the last seat sale email.

 

[BlueFox]

The secret was to have opted into the GDPR question

I opted in. I didn't receive a sale email.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I opted in. I didn't receive a sale email.

When did you opt in?

 

[BluePenguin]

Although Expedia are no longer offering any cashback on train tickets (how I miss that 5% so much!) they do seem to still do nectar points! I checked my Nectar account for the first time in ages and noticed that there were several amounts of 200 points listed from Expedia.

200 points = £1 so in some cases getting £1 back is the equivalent of 30-60% cashback on cheap tickets for local journeys. I hadn't managed to work out whether you get more nectar points if you buy more expensive tickets. For long distance tickets for which £1 back is nothing I still use raileasy for 2.21%.

Does anyone else recommend any other sites that offer more nectar points?

 

[BlueFox]

Does anyone else recommend any other sites that offer more nectar points?

There are regular offers on the nectar website for bonus points when you buy advance tickets.
For example at the moment it's offering me 1,000 bonus points from virgin, 500 from Transpennine, 5x points from GWR and 5x from SWR.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Southeastern are running a 2018 summer offer with £15, £20 and £25 day return tickets from London to 13 destinations in Kent:
www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/destinations-and-offers/offers

• Offer runs from 4 June to 24 August
• Travel after 10am on weekdays, any time at weekends
• No further Railcard discount
• Break of Journey is not permitted
• Offer includes Highspeed services, also available from any London zones 1-6 station served by Southeastern
• Offer valid with Kids for a Quid
• Offer tickets can be bought at stations or online

Despite the banner on the website saying there are "over 13" destinations available with this offer (I was wondering if the author couldn't count beyond a bakers dozen!), I think there are in fact just the 13.

 

[greatkingrat]

Over 13 if you count Canterbury West and East separately!

 

[Merseysider]

‘More than a dozen’ would surely have sounded better

13 is such a random number.

 

[Cletus]

Shame it's the usual offer, from London only and no railcard discounts.

Baring in mind Southeastern's ticket prices, I can't imagine there's many people in Southeastern-land without a railcard, so it's another offer that is no use to most.