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Virgin Off peak day single

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I have just purchased on-line a Virgin off peak ( well 2 actually,one for the return journey) ticket to Stafford. When filling in application form it requests you enter a time, I selected 14:04 off Runcorn and to return the 17:23 off Stafford. My query is as the ticket is an Off Peak ticket do I have to stick to the train times or can I get an earlier / later train as long as its also off peak?
 
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district

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If it is actually a Virgin Off Peak single, then you are not tied to a particular train.
An Off Peak single is £13.60 (VT only), and an off peak return is £14.60, so I don't know why you would buy two singles - unless you mean it's a 'two part return' (i.e. it's one paid for ticket which prints onto two coupons). I think that by your own description and looking at the NFM you may actually have purchased advance tickets, which mean you would be tied to those particular trains.

Could you tell me exactly what is written on the tickets please? I am also making the assumption by 'Virgin Off Peak' you mean an ticket routed Virgin Trns only.
 

Paul Kelly

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The Virgin website can be quite confusing and make it look like you're buying two off-peak singles when you're actually buying an off-peak return, so I am presuming that's the usual confusion here.

I'm also guessing the ticket is the £14.60 Off-Peak Return from Runcorn to Stafford routed VIRGIN TRNSONLY. This takes restriction code CS:
Restriction CS said:
OUTWARD and RETURN travel:

By any train except those
timed to depart Mondays-
Fridays before 0900.
So yes, you can use any train from 09:00 onwards provided it is operated by Virgin. You can return any time within a month; it doesn't have to be on the same day.
 

island

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If you can confirm the ticket type (written after STD on the top line of the ticket) and price we can give you a definite answer.

Also, if your reservation coupon says VALID ONLY WITH TRAVEL TICKET it means the ticket is flexible.
 
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The tickets ( which I haven't picked up yet ) are 2 singles priced at £4.80 each so return is £9.60 with senior rail card.The booking confirmation sheet

states
off-peak day single( web only) outward £4.80
1Adult senior rail-card fare @ £4.80
off-peak day single( web only) return £4.80
1Adult senior rail-card fare @ £4.80
This ticket is only valid on Virgin Train services
Flexible ticket only valid at specific times of day

I might add that when I booked the tickets I had the option to book various other off-peak times I just happened to choose the times stated.
 

district

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That's fine. You can travel by any Virgin Train service which is due to depart your station Monday to Friday after 09:00. If you're travelling at the weekend, then you can leave anytime you want.
 

Paul Kelly

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The £4.80 ticket is the old Saver Half, i.e. a special web-only Off-Peak Single priced at half the price of an off-peak return. I seem to recall someone said in another thread recently that these have been renamed from Off-Peak Single to Off-Peak Day Single, so this seems to bear that out.

At a random guess, the reason for this was that Virgin didn't want people to have the month-long return validity, so they really are starting to sell two of these instead of an off-peak return, even though the price is the same (or 5p different with a railcard, due to rounding). Apologies for assuming the Virgin site had confused you! Bear in mind for the future though, that for the same price (or 5p more) you can buy a normal off-peak return that is valid for a return journey up to one month into the future. There isn't much point in buying two of these single tickets really.

I have to presume these tickets still have restriction code CS and are still valid on any train after 09:00 though, but I don't think it's possible to check from publicly available sources, since the saver half fares don't show up on National Rail Enquiries. Maybe someone with access to the Manual or Avantix Mobile can check for you.
 

district

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I've spoken with indigo and my manual 'friend' and come up with the following for you:
SVH - Saver Half is an Off Peak Day single.
SVH - OFF-PEAK S VWC
00043 - VIRGIN TRNSONLY

1 Adult @£ 4.80 = £ 4.80
__________
£ 4.80

Standard Class Single
The SVH is only available for purchase online and must be bought as part of a Return - which was what was confusing us all!

The restriction which accompanies this ticket is CS:

Restriction : CS

OUTWARD and RETURN travel:

By any train except those
timed to depart Mondays-
Fridays before 0900.
 

Paul Kelly

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I was just thinking, less cynically, the reason Virgin's website is offering two of these tickets rather than an off-peak return could simply be because it is 5p cheaper due to rounding after applying the railcard discount. It mightn't be anything more sinister than that :)
 
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Once again thanks for all the replies, incidentally when I booked the tickets the option was the 2 singles so I didn't look any further not that I needed the monthly return option
 

SS4

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That's fine. You can travel by any Virgin Train service which is due to depart your station Monday to Friday after 09:00. If you're travelling at the weekend, then you can leave anytime you want.

If the OP has a senior railcard can't they use Virgin's easement? Or is that only for journeys to/from Euston?
 

district

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If the OP has a senior railcard can't they use Virgin's easement? Or is that only for journeys to/from Euston?

Not sure.

My manual friend said:
Holders of Off-Peak ticket types SVS/SVR which are discounted using a Senior Railcard can travel on Virgin Train services at any time, provided that all travel is on Virgin Trains services only. (This easement is not permitted for travel between Milton Keynes Central and London Euston).

The OP holds a SVH type ticket.
 

hairyhandedfool

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The easement applies to Off-Peak fares (SVS/SVR), the tickets the op has are Off-Peak Day (SVH), so no the Op can't use any train.
 

transmanche

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The easement applies to Off-Peak fares (SVS/SVR), the tickets the op has are Off-Peak Day (SVH), so no the Op can't use any train.
And I'm sure that I read in a different thread that the easement does not apply to tickets marked "VIRGIN TRNSONLY".
 

hairyhandedfool

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That used to be the case (on Virgin Trains services, using fares set by Virgin Trains except those routed "Virgin Trains only"), but the easement no longer stipulates that.
 
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