The Trainline and travelcards

[ChrisM]

Anyone know if the rules for add-on travelcards has changed?
I used to get a Bournemouth to London and add on a off peak travelcard for an extra £2 or so but the trainline won't let me add one on unless i pay full price of £6.30.
Are the travelcards add-ons still available?

 

[yorkie]

Anyone know if the rules for add-on travelcards has changed?
I used to get a Bournemouth to London and add on a off peak travelcard for an extra £2 or so but the trainline won't let me add one on unless i pay full price of £6.30.
Are the travelcards add-ons still available?

Yes, but you can't use thetrainline.

As they are walk-on fares you may as well get them from the station (and they'll get the commission, clearly thetrainline.com don't want any commission from the sale of inclusive travelcards).

It is far cheaper to get a travelcard from your origin station, where available, especially if you hold a railcard.

If I ask for a travelcard from York then my station would try to sell me a return to London (~£47) and a travelcard at ~£5, yet if I ask for a return to Grantham (~£17) and a travelcard from there (~£19) I save about £15!

 

[ChrisM]

Thanks Yorkie.
I always buy from the station but normally check The Trainline for prices with a Travelcard add-on,something they won't let you find out from now on it seems.

 

[yorkie]

Thanks Yorkie.
I always buy from the station but normally check The Trainline for prices with a Travelcard add-on,something they won't let you find out from now on it seems.

I've only occasionally got travelcard prices on thetrainline.com, I used to use Qjump for that (Until thetrainline bought them out )

Basically an off peak travelcard is a CDR plus a few quid add-on, so you can get a very good idea by looking at the CDR prices.

Unfortunately these tickets have a certain cut off point where the fare skyrockets. A topic about this can be found here: http://groups.google.com/group/uk.railway/browse_frm/thread/87f9168b1d6475e3 (this person drives a car to a place with sensible prices. I get combinations of tickets instead)

 

[paul1609]

You can get thetrainline to quote you/ sell you a off peak travelcard within the London & South East Area, which includes Bournemouth.
You need to quote a return time on the same day and ask for a return rather than an open return. It will then sell you a ticket with a return reservation however you can return on any train subject to your TOCs leaving London restrictions.

 

[yorkie]

You can get thetrainline to quote you/ sell you a off peak travelcard within the London & South East Area, which includes Bournemouth.
You need to quote a return time on the same day and ask for a return rather than an open return. It will then sell you a ticket with a return reservation however you can return on any train subject to your TOCs leaving London restrictions.

How odd. This may explain why I've occasionally seen them offered but not usually (as I normally don't bother specifying return trains, but I hadn't spotted this connection). This is useful to know how, thanks for the tip.

 

[ChrisM]

Having tried this the other day it would only quote a return price,at the end of the booking you had a choice to add a travelcard on for £6:30.
Yet today a return + travelcard is quoted together with the usual saving.

Edit - I tried to see a price for the end of March and it wouldn't quote a price including a Travelcard,only seperate but for tomorrow it would so it seems the Trainline will only quote included travelcard prices if it's within a certain time span.

 

[paul1609]

Having tried this the other day it would only quote a return price,at the end of the booking you had a choice to add a travelcard on for £6:30.
Yet today a return + travelcard is quoted together with the usual saving.

Edit - I tried to see a price for the end of March and it wouldn't quote a price including a Travelcard,only seperate but for tomorrow it would so it seems the Trainline will only quote included travelcard prices if it's within a certain time span.

I think that you can only purchase an out boundary one day travelcard for the next 30 days. I believe that this restriction also applies to one day travelcards purchased at stations but I've no idea why. At a guess I'd say its some sort of revenue protection measure.

Paul