Great Western Coffee Shop

First Great Western have now really taken the biscuit.

I tried yesterday to purchase an advance leisure ticket for the 16:15 service from Slough going to Cardiff on Sun 25th Nov (having successfully purchased a ticket the other way for Sat 24th Nov at 12:30pm)

Alas no avail. So I waited until today and then decided to call them.

In the meantime my colleague in work WHO SITS OPPOSITE ME who is going from Cardiff to London this weekend (which he decided on today) purchased his tickets for ^52 on a Saver Return, retunring on the 16:37 from Paddington on Sun 25th Nov (ie the service I would have to catch at Reading) on the internet. No problem at all.

The website still indicated that advance single tickets were available at a relatively decent price. But when you click all the way oh sorry no more reservations are being taken for this service. So I called to be told the only tickets available were  ^52 single from Reading.
NB My mate has just f-ing purchased tickets for the same ruddy service via the internet, embarking at Paddington!

As the website (and in my vast experience of purchasing these tickets) indicates 2 singles are cheaper (by the suggestive remark 2 singles COULD be cheaper) then I would normally expect to be able to purchase 2 advance tickets either way at a similar price. (ie prepared to pay for my journey approx ^55 return!) I AM NOT PREPARE TO PAY ^75.... Giving myself 4 days in advance notice.


I understand its a busy time of year etc but to be so misleading. Ultimately I could have purchased a saver return. BUT DUE TO FGW'S SUGGESTION AND MY OWN EXPERIENCE I AM STUCK WITH AN ADVANCE TICKET FROM CARDIFF TO SLOUGH WHICH I CAN'T USE AS I CAN'T F-ING GET BACK UNLESS I PAY ^50+. Even though I have given myself 4 days grace.


SO thanks again FGW. Thanks again.

The thing that is really stupid out the online ticket site is the suggestion that two singles COULD be cheaper than a return.   Surely working out if two singles are cheaper than a return or not is just the sort of thing a computer ought to be able to work out for itself!

Tim

Surely it would have made sense to purchase both tickets at the same time? rather than buying one and then waiting on the off chance for a ticket in the other direction to come up?

ah the joys of the 2 single ticket system, love it tbh.

Going home this weekend to see the parents, on a 2 singles costing me ^2.50 each

instead of a whopping ^15.60 it now seems to cost for a return to parkway

I was able to buy a ^3.50 advance single to Cardiff for tomorrow, but the only time they had availible was 8am (!) PLUS I have to change at Newport! Crazy...

Glovidge what I would suggest is to try and buy the ticket in stages-- i.e. Cardiff to Bristol Parkway and Bristol PW to Slough, for example. It may work out as a much better deal if you can't get advance tickets. Also try getting an advance to Reading, then get a Cheap day single from there to Slough.

I don't see the issue here.

If you had booked them together you would have been able to see if 2 singles are cheaper.

If you book separately cheaper tickets cannot be guaranteed.

Having said that, I just did a check based on details you gave, and cheapest I could get was ^45.

Thanks for your responses.

Problem was I tried to book the "return" (ie advance ticket Slough to Cardiff Sun 25th Nov) ticket at the same time as purchasing the single the other way. But the screen came up giving 4 reasons as why I couldn't. I tried purchasing tickets for any other service from Slough to Cardiff on Sunday afternoon to be given the same message. I also tried booking the saver return on the internet (that my colleague successfully purchased from London Paddington) but again, after clicking on my preferred return journey option, the screen came up with the 4 reasons why I couldn't.
Hence my phone call yesterday.

I usually break my journey into Cardiff/ Swindon and then Swindon/ Slough (and vice versa) as its cheaper but again I couldn't do this on any service on the Sunday afternoon (I have to be in Cardiff by 7pm)

I have told FGW Customer services about my problem and in fairness the representative is going to send me rail vouchers. Which is some form of recompense.

I just tried doing that and it seemed to be working. My basket had Slough to Reading, Reading to Swindon and then Bristol Pway to Cardiff in it. The mainline purchases being advance tickets. At times that would have been suitable for me. NB The Swindon to Bristol Parkway leg was not available on advance ticket (only cheap day/ standard day single)

However my internet explorer window disappeared/ crashed with all these journeys in my basket and when I tried to book the journeys again, literally 5 minutes later, the screen came up giving 4 reasons as why I couldn't!?!?! I DESPAIR. Its obviosuly not meant to be

The whole fare system has got unwealdy / riddled with inconsistencies and a bit of a nightmare to follow.  A lot of it comes down to history, then you add "marketing" on top of that which looks to sell tickets at prices to balance train loadings, and a further slice of what the market will stand and local special agreements.   There's even  a whole book devoted to what "any route" means and it's hundreds of pages long.

A common suggestion is to split a journey down into local legs as local fares are often better value than long distance ones ... which you're allowed to do, provided that the train your on really does call at the intermediate station.  I see you're on to this one  ;D

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