Trainline not always cheaper

[Jrichardson]

A week or two ago I got off a plane from Paris and needed a train from Manchester Airport to Chorley at around 3pm. I was charged £8 as a walk-on fare whereas the Trainline price is £12.60 i.e more than 50% more. The tickets I was given were from Manchester Airport to Horwich Parkway (£4.20) and from Horwich Parkway to Chorley (£3.80) and it was a straight through journey without any changes. These tickets and prices are also on the Trainline Website but the Trainline website does not offer me the option to by these tickets. Clever Ticket-clerk, not so clever Trainline. So I must now assume that before I can guarantee the cheapest price availalble for a journey with Trainline, I must first check prices for every possible combination of intermediate stations along the journey.

 

[Max]

Its a well known fact that thetrainline is never the cheapEST, because of its booking fees. Book on any TOC websites to avoid credit card charges.

 

[yorkie]

Welcome to the forum. I don't think Thetrainline is ever cheaper than any other website. I've never ever known it to be. A more suitable title would be "Thetrainline NEVER cheaper"?

You are lucky if it's merely the same price (and you'd have to avoid postage, avoid using a credit card, and avoid buying any ticket that could be covered by a promotional fare available on a TOCs own website or ticket offices)

 

[snail]

The tickets I was given were from Manchester Airport to Horwich Parkway (£4.20) and from Horwich Parkway to Chorley (£3.80) and it was a straight through journey without any changes. These tickets and prices are also on the Trainline Website but the Trainline website does not offer me the option to by these tickets.

None of the main ticket selling website offer 'split tickets' of the type you were sold. You were fortunate to find a booking office clerk willing to offer them without being asked, as booking office staff are not obliged to do that either, and most won't. I wouldn't be surprised at all if you asked for tickets the other way at Chorley you would be sold the £12.60 version.

What the previous posters are trying to say is that the £12.60 ticket on the Trainline would have cost you at least £13.60 after booking fees. The basic rule is never use the Trainline. If you had planned your journey in advance, the Transpennine website may have matched or bettered the price you paid with one of their Airport Advance tickets, valid for up to 3 hours after the booked service if your plane is late.

 

[LexyBoy]

Thetrainlie is always more expensive than booking at the station. End of.

 

[soil]

In other news, bears found defecating in wooded areas.

 

[222007]

Thetrainline also can give inaccurate information to people regarding there changes etc. Very unhelpfull customer service as well i've found when trying to verify a passengers ticket

 

[island]

Thetrainline.com is almost never cheaper than buying from the train company or redspottedhanky.com.

[The "almost" only arises in the corner case of the last few tickets in a quota being put into someone's basket on TTL and a higher price appearing for the same train elsewhere as a result.]

 

[bb21]

[The "almost" only arises in the corner case of the last few tickets in a quota being put into someone's basket on TTL and a higher price appearing for the same train elsewhere as a result.]

But then if the passenger never researched on thesheepline in the first place this wouldn't have happened at all.

I would go so far as to remove the "almost" from your sentence.

 

[island]

I don't think I could defend a defamation case issued by TTL if I did not include "almost", under the current stringent libel laws in this country.

 

[pnepaul]

My first post on the forum.

I had a similar experience last week going from Workington to Preston. I was given tickets from Workington to Carlisle then Carlisle to Preston. About £10 cheaper than the trainline.

 

[Jonny]

Which is why they need to squander a small fortune on advertising. Oh wait, it's their booking fees that cover the cost of the ads...

 

[island]

My first post on the forum.

I had a similar experience last week going from Workington to Preston. I was given tickets from Workington to Carlisle then Carlisle to Preston. About £10 cheaper than the trainline.

Welcome to the forum.

It is worth being clear that station clerks are not required to offer split tickets like this.

 

[tannedfrog]

Thetrainlie is always more expensive than booking at the station. End of.

- unless you're buying in advance at a time that the booking office refuses to sell advance tickets
- unless thetrainline's cashback (eg on quidco) is greater than thetrainline booking fees

 

[Mojo]

- unless you're buying in advance at a time that the booking office refuses to sell advance tickets

Then there are other websites available.

- unless thetrainline's cashback (eg on quidco) is greater than thetrainline booking fees

theTrainline on Quidco offers 1.5% on tickets above £25. Southern Rail on Quidco offers 6% on all Advance, Anytime and Off-peak tickets.

 

[Bungle73]

I've been looking at the Southern Quidco cashback offer and that seems like a better deal than the RSH loyalty points system I'm using atm.

 

[MKD]

I've been looking at the Southern Quidco cashback offer and that seems like a better deal than the RSH loyalty points system I'm using atm.

I've been doing nearly all my train bookings via TOPCASHBACK and Southern for many months. As well as the £back (very reliably tracked & VERY quickly on TCB) there's the benefit of Southern TOD MoneyBack Guarantee (though in the past their admin of that has been sluggish, but always paid back in the end).
In the past Southern HAVE varied their £back % and it has even vanished some months, but has been 6% consistently for many months now.
MKD

 

[Bungle73]

I've been doing nearly all my train bookings via TOPCASHBACK and Southern for many months. As well as the £back (very reliably tracked & VERY quickly on TCB) there's the benefit of Southern TOD MoneyBack Guarantee (though in the past their admin of that has been sluggish, but always paid back in the end).
In the past Southern HAVE varied their £back % and it has even vanished some months, but has been 6% consistently for many months now.
MKD

What's the difference (if anything) between Quidco and Topcashback?

 

[island]

Quidco keeps the first £5 you earn every year.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Quidco keeps the first £5 you earn every year.

Charges rather than "keeps" ... It's a very reasonable fee for running their service. I've earned/saved about £500 in the last two years using Quidco, £5 per annum is a steal.

Is thetrainline's advertising deceptive enough to warrant a complaint to the ASA?

 

[Bungle73]

Quidco keeps the first £5 you earn every year.

Ah, that's good to know. Thanks.

 

[shinkansen1966]

Thetrainlie is always more expensive than booking at the station. End of.

I have never booked tickets from theTrainline, because they are the most expensive.

My rule for booking tickets.

• Check which TOC sets the fare for your chosen journey
• Check their web site for specific discounts - eg EastCoast train 20% discount for certrain of their tickets
• For EastCoast train trips, always book via EastCoast to claim rewards points
• If the TOC's website does not offer specific discount for their fares and total value all the fares you will buy is more than £22, then book via EastCoast to claim reward points

 

[trentside]

Is thetrainline's advertising deceptive enough to warrant a complaint to the ASA?

Advertising for the Trainline has been reffered to the ASA before - see here.

Interestingly, I spotted a new advert for the Trainline today but didn't really catch the 'message' on the 'savings' they were offering.

 

[shinkansen1966]

Advertising for the Trainline has been reffered to the ASA before - see here.

Interestingly, I spotted a new advert for the Trainline today but didn't really catch the 'message' on the 'savings' they were offering.

Frankly, I have absolutely no idea how thetrainline keeps going. Their adverts are misleading. And if you buy your ticket through the TOC who sets the fare, you'll always get the best price for that particular journey.

 

[trentside]

Frankly, I have absolutely no idea how thetrainline keeps going. Their adverts are misleading. And if you buy your ticket through the TOC who sets the fare, you'll always get the best price for that particular journey.

I think the main reason is that people often believe TOC websites only sell TOC specific tickets. I've had people simply refuse to believe that you could purchase tickets on the East Coast website for journeys that didn't involve travelling on an East Coast train. It seems illogical to those of us who know the railways, but to an ordinary traveller I can see how it would be confusing.

 

[jon0844]

I don't think I could defend a defamation case issued by TTL if I did not include "almost", under the current stringent libel laws in this country.

How could they sue you for stating facts? And if they did, they'd have to prove when they are cheaper - which wouldn't look good for them! It's more likely (and beneficial) for them to just pay YOU off and hope the bribe will get you to come back and say how wonderful they are!!

We know their advertising is misleading, but it's not incorrect which is why the ASA has done nothing to stop them claiming you can save over 40% because it's all in the small print. Small print is not yet outlawed on advertising.

If you bought the same ticket from company A as from them, it would be the same price PLUS a booking fee. As has been said many times, the saving is because they might sell you a different ticket (i.e. an advance ticket instead of a walk-up ticket). But that's not really saving you money on a ticket, as it's not the same ticket, nor anything exclusive to them. Pedantic? Possibly - but it's still misleading in my mind because that booking fee makes every single ticket more expensive.

But, hey, if there's the caveat that you might secure a cheaper advance ticket because you nabbed it before a rival site, then you could spend less - but only because you got a cheaper ticket. However, if you didn't start on their site in the first place, you'd get that cheaper advance elsewhere and not pay the booking fee. Thus, you're an idiot for seeking out a ticket in the first place when you'd want to buy it from somewhere else.

(Rant over!)

 

[sheff1]

Frankly, I have absolutely no idea how thetrainline keeps going.

On another thread, a ticket clerk at (I think) Nottingham, advised someone to use Trainline rather then RSH, where you would really expect them to recommend EMT.

 

[maniacmartin]

I have just read the ASA verdict and do not agree with it.

on-screen text that stated “Advance fares and selected routes only

To me, this means they are only comparing Advance fares, but Advance fares from TTL are always more expensive than advance fares elsewhere when their booking fees are added. The advert doesn't state that it's comparing advance fares with walk-up fares.

They stated that the savings claims had been calculated by comparing the amount paid by customers buying Advance tickets from thetrainline.com with the price of the cheapest non-Advance ticket available for the same journey,

This is based upon the assumption that everyone who buys an Advance ticket from TTL would otherwise have bought a walk-up ticket from the station, rather than an advance ticket from a TOC site or a station, which isn't necessarily the case. I would bet that if it wasn't for people (wrongly) thinking that TTL is always cheapest, then a fair proportion of its visitors would have bought Advance tickets from TOC websites anywa, so less than 43% will be "saving"

The ASA rarely grasps the issues people complain about in my opinion

 

[island]

I think the main reason is that people often believe TOC websites only sell TOC specific tickets.

It's worse than that, I'm afraid. I've met people who refuse to believe that anywhere other than Thetrainline sells advances!

How could they sue you for stating facts? And if they did, they'd have to prove when they are cheaper - which wouldn't look good for them! It's more likely (and beneficial) for them to just pay YOU off and hope the bribe will get you to come back and say how wonderful they are!!

Don't know how familiar you are with defamation law in the UK, but the defence of justification (that the words complained of were true) has a very high burden of proof on the defendant.