Uber retailing National Rail tickets

[Jurg]

I've just had an email from Uber, saying that rail tickets (alongside coach and Eurostar tickets) can now be bought on their app, offering 10% back in Uber credits.

 

[Adam Williams]

Some previous press here: https://www.retailtimes.co.uk/uber-...bus-to-take-the-hassle-out-of-booking-travel/

Think it's Omio (Assertis) powered?

 

[Jurg]

On first view the system seems a bit clunky. No initial input of what time you wish to travel, so could need a lot of scrolling to find the departure you want. For anyone under 26 you must input the exact age. Would be interested to hear the experiences of anyone who uses the Uber app to actually buy a ticket.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@Adam Williams. After your recent "experience" when booking a ticket with Rail.Ninja, are you prepared to put another £20 at stake to see if this latest ticket provider can do any better? (Be fairly difficult for them not to!)

 

[realemil]

@Adam Williams. After your recent "experience" when booking a ticket with Rail.Ninja, are you prepared to put another £20 at stake to see if this latest ticket provider can do any better? (Be fairly difficult for them not to!)

I’d be willing to purchase a ticket, might not be £20, but it’ll be something!

I’ll report back my findings

 

[Adam Williams]

Perhaps not £20, but I'm willing to spend 50p on it for a Lichfield ticket.

Unfortunately it appears to have failed at the first hurdle and calculates railcard discounts incorrectly on the search results page.. I'm unsure how this got through accreditation, but it's a poor show from such a big brand.




Later, it contradicts itself further down the line:

 

[realemil]

So my experience was quite poor. I didn’t manage to book a ticket.

First of all - you can search up destinations everywhere, when I tried looking up a station, places in India showed up! However no journeys will show if you select that to somewhere like London (unsure if legit journeys elsewhere work).

There’s no option to go back once you select a railcard, it just is “stuck” on that page. If you close the page using the X everything resets.

The ticket prices are displaying incorrectly. It shows up as £3 on the first page, but when I go to pay it shows up as £2.50, even with 10% “in Uber credit”, it should be £2.70 and not £2.50!?

Only fulfilment type is “pick up” for this ticket.

When I tried to book a journey 15mins prior to departure, it shows up as sold out.

Looks like a buggy app.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I’d be willing to purchase a ticket, might not be £20, but it’ll be something!

Nice one. Have to say that you and @Adam Williams are slightly braver in user testing these sites than I would be!

 

[Adam Williams]

First of all - you can search up destinations everywhere, when I tried looking up a station, places in India showed up! However no journeys will show if you select that to somewhere like London (unsure if legit journeys elsewhere work).

The other thing that annoyed me is that you can't buy train tickets from the usual search screen for planning uber journeys, it will only show you Uber taxi options. Train ticket travel is accessed via a different part of the app. Not very multi-modal / integrated.

 

[realemil]

The other thing that annoyed me is that you can't buy train tickets from the usual search screen for planning uber journeys, it will only show you Uber taxi options. Train ticket travel is accessed via a different part of the app. Not very multi-modal / integrated.

Yep - this is one of my biggest issues I faced too. It’s a whole separate “tab”.

I managed to book a ticket! After multiple times of the app failing…

It took about a minute for the booking to process.

 

[pdeaves]

Yep - this is one of my biggest issues I faced too. It’s a whole separate “tab”.

I managed to book a ticket! After multiple times of the app failing…

It took about a minute for the booking to process.

Whatever else may be right or wrong with the booking process, I applaud that it gives a 'suggested' itinerary (first image) rather than imply 'you must travel on this train'.

 

[The Quincunx]

As they say "anywhere in the UK", do they also mean Northern Ireland? (My guess is that they don't.)

 

[pdeaves]

As they say "anywhere in the UK", do they also mean Northern Ireland? (My guess is that they don't.)

I suspect you are correct. As an aside, there are adverts on Southern units advertising a ticket booking system that claims 'anywhere in the UK', with an asterisk stating 'excluding Northern Ireland'. Why not just say 'Great Britain', then?

 

[Starmill]

I suspect you are correct. As an aside, there are adverts on Southern units advertising a ticket booking system that claims 'anywhere in the UK', with an asterisk stating 'excluding Northern Ireland'. Why not just say 'Great Britain', then?

Because Southern's website will sell you tickets to Holyhead and Shanklin

 

[XAM2175]

Because Southern's website will sell you tickets to Holyhead and Shanklin

Both are in Great Britain as a political entity, though, which I suspect is the more commonly acknowledged definition compared to the geographic one

 

[Starmill]

Both are in Great Britain as a political entity, though, which I suspect is the more commonly acknowledged definition compared to the geographic one

But the ISO country code 'GB', which sounds like what you are referring to by political entity, includes Northern Ireland. So they'd still need to use the exception.

 

[WelshBluebird]

Yep - this is one of my biggest issues I faced too. It’s a whole separate “tab”.

I managed to book a ticket! After multiple times of the app failing…

It took about a minute for the booking to process.

It does look like they are thinking of integrating it somewhat though - look at the "reserve trip" that is available in the 2nd screenshot. Of course that way Uber's reserve a trip works is pretty rubbish (it basically just schedules a ping for the time you choose to get a trip, so no different to you manually trying to get an Uber at the time you pick, and certainly no guarantee that a driver will be available for you).

 

[XAM2175]

But the ISO country code 'GB', which sounds like what you are referring to by political entity, includes Northern Ireland. So they'd still need to use the exception.

No, that's an exceedingly niche interpretation - so niche I hadn't even thought of it, haha. Regardless though, the ISO 3166-1 country codes GB and GBR represent the UK in full, yes, but that's because they're defined that way. They could equally have been set as UK and UKI, or whatever. There's even an argument that GB was chosen in the early '70s when the standard was put together with the idea of being ready for a time when Northern Ireland was divested (but that's another topic!).

Anyway, what I was actually thinking is that the "Great Britain" part of the United Kingdom etc etc is all of England, all of Wales, and all of Scotland, which has been a settled definition since the Acts of Union 1707. It shouldn't be a surprise either, since we're very familiar here with using GB to describe all the bits of railway in the UK that aren't in NI.

Incidentally, IIRC the Advertising Standards Authority are also weary of accepting the "Great Britain is only the mainland itself" definition (albeit more when describing postage or shipping costs) - their guidance has generally been to use the description "GB mainland" if one wants to exclude all the various islands.

 

[Starmill]

No, that's an exceedingly niche interpretation - so niche I hadn't even thought of it, haha. Regardless though, the ISO 3166-1 country codes GB and GBR represent the UK in full, yes, but that's because they're defined that way. They could equally have been set as UK and UKI, or whatever. There's even an argument that GB was chosen in the early '70s when the standard was put together with the idea of being ready for a time when Northern Ireland was divested (but that's another topic!).

Anyway, what I was actually thinking is that the "Great Britain" part of the United Kingdom etc etc is all of England, all of Wales, and all of Scotland, which has been a settled definition since the Acts of Union 1707. It shouldn't be a surprise either, since we're very familiar here with using GB to describe all the bits of railway in the UK that aren't in NI.

Incidentally, IIRC the Advertising Standards Authority are also weary of accepting the "Great Britain is only the mainland itself" definition (albeit more when describing postage or shipping costs) - their guidance has generally been to use the description "GB mainland" if one wants to exclude all the various islands.

This post is an excellent demonstration of why it's now heavily preferred that if one means 'England, Scotland and Wales' they really should say so. Or alternatively 'United Kingdom excluding Northern Ireland'. No doubt this is precisely why Southern... did just so. I thought you were referring to the ISO country code in contrast with a geographical indication, when in fact you were referring to a loose, figurative sense of what might be termed "British heritage", in the context of something which is mostly a geographical category (a railway) rather than a political one.

For the same reason, it's strongly preferred not to use the term "British Isles" any more either, although "Britain and Ireland", leaving which areas belong to which part of the term artfully vague, still seems to be acceptable.

I even had to try to prove to someone once that the Isle of Wight was in fact a part of England. They certainly didn't see it that way!

 

[matt_world2004]

This looks like a tactic of embrace , extend extinguish

Offer national rail tickets. Have an advert.for an extra 10% price you can take a taxi door to door. Or even in some cases where your buying multiple tickets. Even cheaper.

 

[XAM2175]

I thought you were referring to the ISO country code in contrast with a geographical indication, when in fact you were referring to a loose, figurative sense of what might be termed "British heritage", in the context of something which is mostly a geographical category (a railway) rather than a political one.

Well, it wasn't in that loose, figurative sense as much as it was the fact that today's United Kingdom is the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a union of the Kingdom of England, which included Wales, and the Kingdom of Scotland) and the remainder of the Kingdom of Ireland, which is absolutely defined in law as it currently stands - but I accept that I could have made that more clear, and the rest of your point very obviously stands! I'd certainly be interested to see which interpretation is more prevalent amongst the general public.

 

[Starmill]

Well, it wasn't in that loose, figurative sense as much as it was the fact that today's United Kingdom is the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a union of the Kingdom of England, which included Wales, and the Kingdom of Scotland) and the remainder of the Kingdom of Ireland, which is absolutely defined in law as it currently stands - but I accept that I could have made that more clear, and the rest of your point very obviously stands! I'd certainly be interested to see which interpretation is more prevalent amongst the general public.

The reality is that nobody uses or thinks about that definition in relation to buying train tickets any more than they do about the ISO definition. And indeed nobody really uses it for anything practical at all any longer because it's considered unacceptable to refer to its politically sensitive old world status overtly, as you helpfully point out one part of which is that Wales was part of the Kingdom of England following an invasion of former Welsh states.

 

[island]

To drag this back on topic, I wonder whether one can use Uber vouchers or credits to pay for train tickets? One can get Uber vouchers often at 3-5% below face value via various voucher shops and corporate schemes.

 

[Jurg]

To drag this back on topic, I wonder whether one can use Uber vouchers or credits to pay for train tickets? One can get Uber vouchers often at 3-5% below face value via various voucher shops and corporate schemes.

Having taken a journey through to the payment page (but not paid), "Uber Cash" seems to be a valid payment method. Presumably Uber vouchers simply top up your Uber Cash.

 

[island]

Having taken a journey through to the payment page (but not paid), "Uber Cash" seems to be a valid payment method. Presumably Uber vouchers simply top up your Uber Cash.

They do. Thanks, I shall look into this further.

 

[XAM2175]

And indeed nobody really uses it for anything practical at all any longer because it's considered unacceptable to refer to its politically sensitive old world status overtly, as you helpfully point out one part of which is that Wales was part of the Kingdom of England following an invasion of former Welsh states.

I wouldn't necessarily say that "nobody really uses it for anything practical at all any longer", as I genuinely have encountered it with some frequency in the course of employment in fields that weren't even particularly specialised, but thinking on it now it's fair to say that still doesn't mean it's common in everyday life.

Similarly, it hadn't occurred to me that there would be sensitivity around using Great Britain as a neutral term in its current political meaning - and I say that as somebody broadly supportive of Scottish secession! I can accept though that the perspective may be different for people in Wales, and as you noted earlier the term "British Isles" is very definitely contentious.

I had only made my original post on the subject in the spirit of good-natured debate on a subject of no major importance. I apologise if I created the impression that it was something more serious.

I also apologise for diverting the thread

 

[Mag_seven]

Yes if we could get back to the topic at hand please which is Uber retailing National Rail tickets that would be good.

thanks

 

[bussnapperwm]

Well, I've just spent 85p to test it out on a Stourbridge shuttle ticket (not that I'm hoping to use it as I'm currently out and about at the moment!)

This is a screenshot ticket that came as a pdf... (Redacted parts of the ticket number and order number)

 

[Adam Williams]

This is a screenshot ticket that came as a pdf... (Redacted parts of the ticket number and order number)

I'm afraid the redacted ticket number is stored in the clear within the barcode, which you haven't redacted.

 

[alistairlees]

I’m not sure what people are trying to prove by buying tickets here?