VTEC Website 24% Cheaper For SWT Advance Than SWT Website?

[FQTV]

I noted this when booking tickets last week, but the situation appears to persist. To use a Woganism: is it me?

WAT>BCU 17MAY2017 14:25

Lowest fares offered:

South West Trains Fare £29.10

Virgin Trains East Coast Fare £22.10

VTEC claims to have four of the latter available, and based on purchasing experience last week, they really do, as I successfully bought them.

Is there something obvious that I am missing, or any obvious reason why the operating company's own website should be (significantly) more expensive than another TOC's?

It affects First Class Advances, too, by the way.

 

[Hadders]

South West Train's booking site is awful (makes the GTR one look good) so I'm not surprised you have problems trying to get fares displayed.

Let's hope that First/MTR use Webtis.

 

[kieron]

I noted this when booking tickets last week, but the situation appears to persist. To use a Woganism: is it me?

WAT>BCU 17MAY2017 14:25

I'm sorry to say that it may well be you. There doesn't appear to be a train from Waterloo between the 14:24 to Dorking and the 14:27 Kingston Loop train.

There is a 14:35 train which calls at Brockenhurst, but both sites gave the same £22.10 ticket for that when I looked.

On the general point, different booking engines do sometimes give different results for one reason or another, meaning that it can pay to shop around.

 

[FQTV]

I'm sorry to say that it may well be you.

Apologies; that was indeed a typo in the time. The correct departure time is indeed 14:35.

That being said, the situation having persisted for well over a week, it may finally have been fixed.

My point was more general that it should surely never be the case , even amongst all the other weaknesses of the overall ticketing environment, that a TOCs own website fails to offer the cheapest ticket on its own services.

 

[Clip]

Apologies; that was indeed a typo in the time. The correct departure time is indeed 14:35.

That being said, the situation having persisted for well over a week, it may finally have been fixed.

My point was more general that it should surely never be the case , even amongst all the other weaknesses of the overall ticketing environment, that a TOCs own website fails to offer the cheapest ticket on its own services.

True however as the system stands it all depends on what has been put in the basket by someone else somewhere else or indeed yourself or even highlighted in some cases

 

[kieron]

My point was more general that it should surely never be the case , even amongst all the other weaknesses of the overall ticketing environment, that a TOCs own website fails to offer the cheapest ticket on its own services.

There's nothing special about the web site of the TOC who prices an advance fare. Every web site should show the cheapest available tier of advance tickets if (as here) there's only one advance route available. These could have a different face value if there's some sort of special offer involved, but any retailer can offer those.

 

[Bungle965]

I have noticed the reverse of this, South West Trains Off Peak Single offer is available on GWR, SWT (Obviously) however is not available on TPE or VTEC websites.
Sam

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

On the general point, different booking engines do sometimes give different results for one reason or another, meaning that it can pay to shop around.

Yes, this situation does happen from time to time. There's no requirement for the TOC's own site to always offer the 'best fare' or anything like that so it can pay to shop around. In this case, VTEC seems to have access to a cheaper quota most likely because the SWT pricing manager has closed the quota down but the various systems haven't yet been updated meaning that VTEC have still got some to sell.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Yes, this situation does happen from time to time. There's no requirement for the TOC's own site to always offer the 'best fare' or anything like that so it can pay to shop around. In this case, VTEC seems to have access to a cheaper quota most likely because the SWT pricing manager has closed the quota down but the various systems haven't yet been updated meaning that VTEC have still got some to sell.

Are you sure that's the way it works ?