Travelcard renewal

[tsman]

Hello

My annual zone 1-5 Travelcard comes up for renewal next month (mainly travelling SCY->CTK, but enough bus use etc to justify a Travelcard)

Before I just renew via TFL, does anyone have any ideas if there could be better options (e.g. for cashback or "perks" like free Chiltern weekend travel)?

 

[Haywain]

does anyone have any ideas if there could be better options (e.g. for cashback or "perks" like free Chiltern weekend travel)?

If there are such options, they do have the downside of not being able to have PAYG alongside in you venture beyond zone 5.

 

[Hadders]

You could buy a Zones 1-5 Travelcard from a retailer that offers incentives. LNER often offer cash back to AMEX cardholders, there were some that offered Nectar points, I don’t know if any still do.

The season ticket would be issued on a smartcard and would work in the same way as your existing Travelcard on Oyster. The only issue is you couldn’t add PAYG to a smartcard so if you travel beyond the validity of your smartcard you would need to purchase a ticket to cover this rather than simply letting Oyster work it all out for you.

 

[island]

Avanti and LNER have various targeted purchase rebate schemes with certain credit cards, such as American Express and Lloyds Banking Group. If you hold such a card check its app to see if anything is open to you.
You have already identified free weekend travel with Chiltern.

 

[kacper]

If you have a Travelcard on a national rail smartcard, it won’t scan green on buses. It will say “ITSO Card show to driver” which may be inconvenient

 

[CyrusWuff]

If you have a Travelcard on a national rail smartcard, it won’t scan green on buses. It will say “ITSO Card show to driver” which may be inconvenient

Have TfL still not resolved that issue, nearly five years after the public launch of the "Smart Ticketing on National Rail" project, with most Train Operators making a big push for season ticket holders to switch from magstripe to Smartcard?

 

[Haywain]

If you have a Travelcard on a national rail smartcard, it won’t scan green on buses. It will say “ITSO Card show to driver” which may be inconvenient

Never happened to me when testing the LNER smartcard less than 5 years ago.

 

[redreni]

If you have a Travelcard on a national rail smartcard, it won’t scan green on buses. It will say “ITSO Card show to driver” which may be inconvenient

I get 7 day travelcards on an LNER smartcard. That has worked unfailingly on buses so far. I get at least two buses every working day; often more than two.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[Joshua_Harman]

If you have a Travelcard on a national rail smartcard, it won’t scan green on buses. It will say “ITSO Card show to driver” which may be inconvenient

As far as I’m aware that’s only ENCTS Passes that do that, my Thameslink Smartcard loaded with a travel card works fine on buses, it goes green beeps and comes up on the monitor as ‘TRVLCRD DSCNT’ along with the expiry date.

 

[kacper]

As far as I’m aware that’s only ENCTS Passes that do that, my Thameslink Smartcard loaded with a travel card works fine on buses, it goes green beeps and comes up on the monitor as ‘TRVLCRD DSCNT’ along with the expiry date.

When i tried with a GA card ages ago that was my experience, glad to hear this is a fixed problem now

 

[Joshua_Harman]

When i tried with a GA card ages ago that was my experience, glad to hear this is a fixed problem now

Of course the card you use may vary Ofc, Scotrail for example won’t work at all even on national rail bc Scotrail uses a diffrent system, I’ve used thameslink, C2C, SWR,GWR, West Midlands, and they all seemed to work fine, maybe I’ll have to try a GA One and see if that works