Special Offers Discussion

[alistairlees]

Different TOCs seem to be releasing at different times.

I can currently see Rail Sale fares on:
- Avanti
- Grand Central

I can't see them on:
- LNER
- GWR
- TPE
- GA

(I haven't checked others)

Hopefully they will appear overnight

Thank you - I’d seen midnight on gov.uk so hadn’t realised it would vary.

I can’t seem to find an in date rail sale page for TPE, LNER or Cross country (unlike Avanti).

Does anyone have links for these please? Trying to work out who is offering first vs standard, and who allows railcards too.

Thank you

They all allow railcards
Avanti only do Standard. LNER do both 1st and Standard.
It's disappointing that the TOCs are so inconsistent in their timings of release of these, especially as their masters said publicly they would be availale from 00.01.

 

[MrJeeves]

- GA

Guess they got overprotective after they were selling their rail sale advances last week!

They all allow railcards

The sale this year should be no railcards unlike the last one...

GTR's advances are also live (seen some on Southern for £3).

The sale this year should be no railcards unlike the last one...

...that being said I've just seen at least one fare that inadvertently has a Railcard discount (but I can't find any availability for it which is something, I suppose)

 

[Buzby]

Trainsplit worked fine - the green tinted panels made it easy to spider the better deals. Manchester and Shanklin, here I come! Railcard discount applied for those journeys that were not part of the sale - LNER was the most expensive, but only £5 from Crewe to London!

 

[Commuting]

According to the National rail website, LNER offers no discounted fares between Durham and Newcastle so that’s a shame! TPE offers them, northern and XC too. Struggling to figure out if any of those 3 offer first class discount as some discounts not loaded into system yet.

 

[MrJeeves]

Struggling to figure out if any of those 3 offer first class discount

Nothing in the fares data for GBRS Durham to Newcastle in 1st.

 

[Commuting]

Nothing in the fares data for GBRS Durham to Newcastle in 1st.

Thank you for checking. How do I find the ‘fares data’ please? Is it just using online journey planners, or something I can download to excel etc.? Hoping it might have some information re LNER discounts between the two stations

 

[dodecahedron67]

Have to admit I'm slightly disappointed - I'm doing York to Glasgow in a couple of weeks and had held off once this sale was announced, just to find absolutely F A available at the time I want to travel. Still £41.50 for an Off-Peak with a railcard can't be snobbed at

 

[gray1404]

Is Transport for Wales taking part in the sale?

 

[Jurg]

Pretty underwhelmed really. I didn't stay up especially, but woke in the early hours so decided to take a look.

Nothing there that would save me money on the journeys I have planned compared to the splits I'd already identified.

From a brief look at available tickets from my corner of the Midlands to common medium to long-distance destinations, the best sale price advance tickets I can see are similar to typical mid-tier advance prices that were very commonly available 5 or so years ago.

 

[Leisurefirst]

This is good to find fares on (that still don't seem to be available yet in some cases...)
You can just put in an origin without a destination and page down looking at all the fares.

https://greatbritishrailsale.nationalrail.co.uk/#/great-british-rail-sale

 

[Mike395]

LNER (who I think are the last Intercity operator we were waiting on) look to have put their fare live as of about 15 minutes ago, which has also helped reduce split fares for longer through journeys involving the East Coast.

 

[embers25]

Comically poor availability on SWR and my first fare option offered on the link above (I only have 1 page) is Pinhoe to Battersea Park route SWR and connecting SWR services only for £12....did I miss all the SWR services to Battersea Park!!!!

 

[Commuting]

I found an XC advance on the LNER website stating valid on TPE only services…

Does anyone know the methodology used by LNER to determine whether they include a route please? Particularly curious as to why NCL to DHM and DHM to NCL weren’t included.

 

[Mark J]

I can find the good sale prices for one leg of a return journey but not the other half. Therefore you don't end up saving much!

I think the recent GWR sale offered better deals and ticket availability.

 

[Commuting]

Also seems TPE’s discounted prices haven’t gone live yet

 

[Mark J]

I'm also not finding many 'offers' on SWR services, or destinations.

 

[dk1]

Also seems TPE’s discounted prices haven’t gone live yet

Seems to be some technical difficulties. Hopefully soon.

 

[aavm]

Just in case this helps anyone, checking fares (not actual availability) from London.
First its Advance tickets only, booked 7 days in advance, so a specific train only, which is a drag for the return journey. No refund if it rains or your plans change. No railcard discount.
And I'm not really a book in advance person, which means the way things are going, I'm becoming more and more of a car person!
Prices are singles.
V Good: Trains from Liverpool Street (Cromer on the Norfolk coast for £6) and non Avanti from Euston (Birmingham for £4)
OK: Southeastern : NE Kent ~ £7, Southern : south coast £3.
Everyone else : don't bother

 

[MrJeeves]

First its Advance tickets only

Various flexible tickets are available too

Prices are singles.

...including return flexible tickets

 

[Mike395]

Various flexible tickets are available too


...including return flexible tickets

(Just to expand slightly on this - the sale includes some flexible fares, mostly short-distance/commuter routes in the South East where Advance tickets don't exist on a particular flow)

 

[MrJeeves]

(Just to expand slightly on this - the sale includes some flexible fares, mostly short-distance/commuter routes in the South East where Advance tickets don't exist on a particular flow)

(And to expand even more, only Thameslink and c2c have set flexible Rail Sale tickets.)

 

[northwichcat]

Northern only seem to be discounting selected Advance tickets. Even at the discounted prices two Advance singles are still more than 50% of an Off Peak Day Return on the journeys I've tried.

Also, can't see any Avanti discounted fares for travel from Cheshire/Stockport to London Euston.

 

[CyrusWuff]

I think it states that the tickets will be available through all ticket selling websites and apps

Correct. Should also be available from Ticket Offices, though not from TVMs.

 

[Russel]

Bit of a let down this is, really.

Looked at a few journeys I'm planning over the next month or so and all I can see is advance fares at prices they normally sell for, I'm not seeing anything near 50% discounted....

Surprised? No.

 

[800Travel]

Bit of a let down this is, really.

Looked at a few journeys I'm planning over the next month or so and all I can see is advance fares at prices they normally sell for, I'm not seeing anything near 50% discounted....

Surprised? No.

I've only been able to find discounts on around 25% of the journeys I want to take on my commute. Bit weird, it's only available in the final week for me at the times I need.

 

[mangyiscute]

I have a trip up to Carlisle and a trip to Scotland planned, bought tickets for them, got some cheap advances although most of them weren't official rail sale fares, but £12 for Carlisle to Milton Keynes is great value in anyones book. I think when you have a railcard, the discounts are a lot less so it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me

 

[alistairlees]

Bit of a let down this is, really.

Looked at a few journeys I'm planning over the next month or so and all I can see is advance fares at prices they normally sell for, I'm not seeing anything near 50% discounted....

Surprised? No.

If the journeys are multi-TOC then you won't find anything.

 

[Russel]

If the journeys are multi-TOC then you won't find anything.

Single TOC, they are just non-existent!

 

[alistairlees]

Single TOC, they are just non-existent!

Which journeys and dates and times?

 

[Russel]

Which journeys and dates and times?

Why?