Special Offers Discussion

[CaptainHaddock]

Northern Rail are doing their £10 day rover offer again but only 27-30 December inclusive.

http://www.northernrail.org/friends

 

[andrewg70]

Northern Rail have just sent me the offer offering the £10.00 flat fare deal for December 27/28/29/30 with no time restrictions & you don't have to get newspaper vouchers

http://www.northernrail.org/friends...source=Email marketing&utm_term=Find out more

 

[Searle]

the only time when I'm not up north, would have loved to use that

 

[Chapeltom]

Northern Rail are doing their £10 day rover offer again but only 27-30 December inclusive.

http://www.northernrail.org/friends

Shame about engineering works at Salford Crescent on Friday! Will be doing the S+C, Cumbrian Coast, Lancaster to Leeds lines with this. Bargain and I won't have a great deal of Northern's network to do after

 

[John @ home]

At this time last year East Coast offered discounted tickets online which were valid if a number of tokens were collected from the Yorkshire Evening Post or other regional newspapers. Boards outside newsagents today indicated that tokens will again be printed in the Yorkshire Evening Post from 31 December 2012 to 18 January 2013.

Details of the 2012/13 offer are here for the Yorkshire Evening Post and here for the Yorkshire Post.

 

[Mojo]

Does anyone know if the Yorkshire Evening Post is still available to purchase from the WHSmith on the Kings + station concourse? I have not been looking since the old concourse closed.

 

[mrmartin]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but EC do half price super off peak singles online.

 

[Searle]

Does anyone know if the Yorkshire Evening Post is still available to purchase from the WHSmith on the Kings + station concourse? I have not been looking since the old concourse closed.

Will have a look for you on the 28th

 

[Dreadnought]

LM sale, 25% off, starting on Christmas Day.

http://www.londonmidland.com/sale

I have checked this sale out as I travel regularly from Rugby to Watford on a Saturday! Problem is that the sale prices are only a penny cheaper up until the fare price change and then they are 49p more expensive than buying a Super Off Peak return!

Not that I am complaining as my ticket is actually getting cheaper rather than going up in January

 

[IanD]

I have checked this sale out as I travel regularly from Rugby to Watford on a Saturday! Problem is that the sale prices are only a penny cheaper up until the fare price change and then they are 49p more expensive than buying a Super Off Peak return!

Not that I am complaining as my ticket is actually getting cheaper rather than going up in January

You're lucky they are showing the super off peak prices if following the 'sale' link. During the last sale, they didn't bother for the first few days so plenty of people were not getting the bargain fares they had been promised.

 

[John @ home]

I notice that the tokens in the Yorkshire Evening Post and the Yorkshire Post have the words "4 Tokens Required" printed on them. These words did not appear on tokens in previous years. Perhaps it's an attempt to prevent re-use of tokens for previous offers.

 

[johnnycache]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/t...star-to-sell-150000-seats-from-59-return.html

Eurostar to sell 150,000 seats from £59 return
Eurostar is launching a 12-day ‘express sale’ on Thursday (January 3), with 150,000 seats to Paris, Brussels or Lille being sold for £59 return.

 

[All Line Rover]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/t...star-to-sell-150000-seats-from-59-return.html

It's a pity that Eurostar never have any good discounts for families/groups. London to Lille, 2 adults and 2 children (12+), costs £236 return in this promotion. There are no child or railcard discounts. For the same group, Manchester to London (a slightly longer distance) costs just £42.60 return with a Family Railcard. That's a staggering difference.

 

[Robsignals]

It's a pity that Eurostar never have any good discounts for families/groups. London to Lille, 2 adults and 2 children (12+), costs £236 return in this promotion. There are no child or railcard discounts. For the same group, Manchester to London (a slightly longer distance) costs just £42.60 return with a Family Railcard. That's a staggering difference.

Ah, but as the Beeb is reporting today rail travel in Europe is dirt cheap, isn't it?

 

[Goatboy]

Ah, but as the Beeb is reporting today rail travel in Europe is dirt cheap, isn't it?

Eurostar itself always seems very reasonable. Recently booked Birmingham to Paris for 80 quid return. Seems hard to argue with that on a value basis. Clearly it might not be with a family in tow but then public transport anywhere rarely works well value for money wise when there are 4 of you.

 

[Robsignals]

Eurostar itself always seems very reasonable. Recently booked Birmingham to Paris for 80 quid return. Seems hard to argue with that on a value basis. Clearly it might not be with a family in tow but then public transport anywhere rarely works well value for money wise when there are 4 of you.

Except in Britain, obviously Beeb reporters don't take their families on rail trips.

 

[Crossover]

At this time last year East Coast offered discounted tickets online which were valid if a number of tokens were collected from the Yorkshire Evening Post or other regional newspapers. Boards outside newsagents today indicated that tokens will again be printed in the Yorkshire Evening Post from 31 December 2012 to 18 January 2013.

Details of the 2012/13 offer are here for the Yorkshire Evening Post and here for the Yorkshire Post.

The offer is also in the Reporter series of papers up here in Yorkshire as well.

Does anyone know if the vouchers can be used to make a return journey without the need to collect 2 sets (i.e. 8) tokens?

I'm considering a day out in March now with this (I have holiday to take from work, so why not )

 

[GNER 91128]

I find euorstar extrememley reasonable esp if I pay for it using nectar points on expedia.

 

[John @ home]

My impression is that the level of East Coast online booking discount has been reduced significantly over recent months. I have needed 3 tickets so far this year. Two have 3% discount printed on the ticket. The third was too expensive for me, so I booked to travel by the slower EMT route instead, with a 2.5% discount there.

Any other experiences?

 

[ainsworth74]

I agree I've noticed that the discount has been reduced I don't think I've seen a 10% discount in a couple of months it's all been about 6% maximum. I was looking yesterday at some and I'm fairly sure there were a few tickets at 1%.

 

[Searle]

I assume you're talking about the Disc: bit on an EC ticket, I have an advance from two days ago with a discount of 02%, although this was booked only two days in advance (if that makes a difference). I would check this against my old tickets, but I won't be home for another 5 weeks

 

[cloughapike]

Northern Rail 'Duo' tickets might be another to add to your list.

 

[Oscar]

It's a pity that Eurostar never have any good discounts for families/groups. London to Lille, 2 adults and 2 children (12+), costs £236 return in this promotion. There are no child or railcard discounts. For the same group, Manchester to London (a slightly longer distance) costs just £42.60 return with a Family Railcard. That's a staggering difference.

I imagine that the high (but fixed) costs of providing the Eurostar service make it difficult for the company to offer such a discount. Track access costs on High Speed 1 and particularly in the Channel Tunnel are extremely high and I understand make up a significant portion of the costs. Many of Eurostar's trains (particularly on the Paris route) also seem to run at almost 100% seat occupancy but there are trains at quieter times of day or year (particularly to Brussels) with many empty seats where such a discount could be effective in earning extra revenue. I strongly agree that Eurostar is extremely expensive for families but in my experience many people seem to compare Eurostar prices to air fares which also do not seem to offer substantial discounts for families or groups.
The fact that Eurostar also only offers one set of fares for all its core journeys also means that Eurostar is not competitive for shorter journeys such as Ashford to Calais (understandable as these seats normally are / have to be unoccupied for the rest of the journey): this must surely suppress demand for such journeys.

 

[paulypaul]

I've just noticed that The Scotsman has been running an offer in their papers over the last 3 days. Details on the link below.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/reclaim-our-east-coast-rail-offer-1-2721527

 

[Bungle73]

Win a pair of East Coast First Class tickets: http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/firstclasscompetition

 

[All Line Rover]

25% off all 'TPE' and 'TPE & Connections' Advance fares until 27th March 2013 via this link. Railcard discounts apply. Child discounts also apply when accompanied by at least 1 adult. Tickets must be booked by 31st January 2013.

Some bargain fares available, such as Manchester to York 1st AP just £6.45 with a Railcard!

 

[John @ home]

This is a reminder that bookings are advertised to end at midnight tonight (16 January).

Tokens are still available in the Yorkshire Evening Post and other regional newspapers until Friday 18 January 2013. Details of the offer are here for the Yorkshire Evening Post and here for the Yorkshire Post.

I have found the First Class prices to be less than those advertised in the newspapers. I have bought First Class tickets between Leeds and London at £29.50 each. They are advertised in the newspapers at £35.00.

 

[transportphoto]

http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/january-sale/

Book before 19th January for travel between 21st January and 17th March*

London to Birmingham from £5.50 one way.
London to Manchester from £10.00 one way.
Liverpool to London from £10.00 one way.
Glasgow to London from £17.00 one way.

Terms and Conditions:

Prices shown are Standard promotional fares, available on selected Virgin Trains services only. All prices are per person, one-way, non-refundable and are subject to availability. Tickets are available for booking between 16 – 19 January 2013 for travel between 21 January – 17 March excluding 14 – 24 February 2013. The promotion is limited to a maximum of 50,000 seats. Customers must travel on the trains they reserve. Change of travel is available up to the departure on payment of a £10 admin fee plus the difference of the new applicable fare. Prices are correct at time of production. For full seat sale terms and conditions, click here.
* Excludes travel between 14 – 24 February 2013

 

[All Line Rover]

Not a very impressive sale. No Railcard discounts (so no cheaper than normal AP fares for RC holders) and only available on trains with the cheapest tier of Standard Class Advance fares (meaning almost no availability on Fridays, Saturday mornings towards London and Saturday evenings from London).

 

[embers25]

Just noticed that Southern 6.06% discount on TopCashback is over Hopefully not forever.