Virgin - Saturday - North West to London all-zones tkts

[supervalkoinen]

I regularly used to book these on the LM site until it was 'updated'.

It is still offered as an option on LM, but always fails to load any fares.
I've tried other sites - Virgin, TPE, but can't even get the option.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

[AlterEgo]

Are you looking for the Saturday Day Travelcard?

 

[supervalkoinen]

Are you looking for the Saturday Day Travelcard?

Yes - that's right.

 

[AlterEgo]

It appears online as a Super Off Peak Day Travelcard when you're in the booking process. You need to select "open return" and it should appear on trains for which there is availability.

I've just tried this on GWR's app with success, LAN-London1-6.

 

[supervalkoinen]

It appears online as a Super Off Peak Day Travelcard when you're in the booking process. You need to select "open return" and it should appear on trains for which there is availability.

I've just tried this on GWR's app with success, LAN-London1-6.

Thanks - works for me too on GWR.

Any idea why Virgin/TPE don't offer London Zones 1-6 as a destination or have I missed it?

I think it does offer Underground 1-6.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

You can get it up on LM for London Underground Zones 1-6.
It says "no fares available", but then asks you if you want a Day Return instead.
If you click that you get the Saturday Day Travelcard option.
Haven't got it to work on VT or ATW though, they just offer the off-peak fares.
It used to work if you typed in the destination 0035, but not any more.
Another problem might be quota (you have to nominate the outbound service).
From Chester it only offers quite late starts on the next few Saturdays.
Presumably if there is no quota from your starting station it won't offer the fare.
I can also see the ticket on raileasy without fiddling.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

You can get it up on LM for London Underground Zones 1-6.
It says "no fares available", but then asks you if you want a Day Return instead.
If you click that you get the Saturday Day Travelcard option.
Haven't got it to work on VT or ATW though, they just offer the off-peak fares.
It used to work if you typed in the destination 0035, but not any more.
Another problem might be quota (you have to nominate the outbound service).
From Chester it only offers quite late starts on the next few Saturdays.
Presumably if there is no quota from your starting station it won't offer the fare.
I can also see the ticket on raileasy without fiddling.

Precisely. This ticket doesn't fit readily into any ticketing pigeonhole; the quota control and need to specify (and travel on) a particular outward service suggest it's an Advance, yet it includes the Travelcard facility and the return is completely unrestricted provided it's the same day. And the quota is controlled depending on special events so may not be available on certain days.

 

[M28361M]

Any idea why Virgin/TPE don't offer London Zones 1-6 as a destination or have I missed it?

I got it to appear on Virgin's site by entering "London Underground Zone 1-6" as the destination (NB Zone singular, no s on the end!) and ticking "Open Return" rather than giving a specific return time.

Saturday Day Travelcard (with a Tube roundel icon) then shows up in the fares matrix.

 

[AlterEgo]

It's always been available when clicking "open return", which is really poor. The outward leg is fixed to a specific train and the return is only on that day. Sad to see this still hasn't been corrected from when I first raised it....in 2011...

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Another oddity is that, despite being described as a "Virgin Trains Only" ticket, planners offer departures from Chester on ATW (xx55), changing at Crewe, as well as on the VT through service (xx35).