With respect, most of your post is wide of the mark.
Not many online sites offer to collect to any card. Most stipulate the original card to collect the TOD. Those that do charge a booking fee.
I'm afraid that's not correct. Plenty do. I've received 'any card' bookings from VTWC, London Midland, VTEC, CrossCountry and Northern in the last four weeks alone.
None of these required any form of booking fee to be paid. And customer services for most TOCs will set your account to 'any card' upon request.
Furthermore, an increasing number of websites, such as Virgin and LM, are now offering PayPal as a payment method. This returns an 'any card' booking and is free.
Any booking made with TPE, VTEC etc with gift vouchers is also 'any card'; again, no fee.
emil said:
Cashback/loyalty are not very economical especially if the website charges a booking fee/collection fee.. Would need to make considerable number of journeys. In the hundreds.
I'm afraid that's not correct either.
I've amassed over £100 worth of Nectar points on Virgin just from the journeys I've made this year. Bonus points offers (1000 is the most common) have in fact made it very economical. Oh, and no booking/collection fee.
emil said:
Local media and social media always report delays before setting out.
Unfortunately that's not correct
either.
As an example, see the recent Virgin cancellations threads (UK Railway Discussion), where disruption was hidden away on the website, or announced less than an hour before departure, or in some cases not announced at all. Local media certainly don't report rail delays unless it's something massive - they'd have no airtime/space for anything else if they covered each delay of 10 minutes or more.
emil said:
Certainly planned delay repay for First MTR new franchise won't be until late September and only be automatically done for advances online and new mobile e-ticket when introduced sometime in the future. No advance tickets available for short journeys at present.
Eh? Every VTWC advance booked with VTWC currently offers automatic delay repay. Have done for ages.