Great Western Coffee Shop

Just come across "Club 60" tickets.   Think I must have been asleep when the fanfare announced them, or there's been an absence of fanfare.   Tomorrow, Lisa and I have an evening appointment in London ... fare (as we're golden oldies with railcards) just £24 return from Melksham to London each, to which we'll need to add a taxi back from Chippenham.

Problem booking - system says "online price" but I git stuck at the "delivery" window.  It transpires (after incorrect advise from live chat) that they can "only be got from ticket office not from machine" ... which also turn out to be inaccurate, as if there's no ticket office open they can be purchased on train.

Interestingly, the £24 fare seems to be a day return, GW services only, valid "any permitted". Looks like superoffpeak trains only and nothing to say that the whole journey has to be made, so we should be OK out Melksham to Westbury and back only as far as Chippenham, long long after our 153 is tucked up in bed at Westbury!

Anyone have good links / more general details of this offer?   Link to a data page?   Google really wasn't my friend on this one!

Graham, you probably already know this, but this is the information I've been able to get hold of..........

(http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww255/PhilWakely/14642986_10153865820471806_1674675916_n_zps92xvp67o.jpg)

I guess the fact that you must provide proof of age might lead to the 'ticket office only' comment. but the presence of a Senior Railcard should provide that evidence both online and at a TVM.

It also appears that the valid services are not necessarily restricted to the SSR validity as - using NTA-PAD return as an example - outward (Mon-Fri) validity includes one Peak (07:32) and both Off-Peak services (08:06 and 08:29) as well as all Super off-Peak, whilst one Super Off-Peak service (19:03) along with all Peak and Off-Peak services is excluded from the return validity.

Many thanks ... that had passed me by; such a shame to be a late starter as it's an excellent "promo" ...

The web site choked at "delivery method" ... wouldn't let me carry on until I had told it how I wanted to get the ticket, but offered me no options.  I guess the machines haven't been programmed with it, and there was less that 5 days so postage wasn't offered.

Live chat told me they were having web site problems and gave me a number to call which turned out to be TransPennine Express; after being on hold there for an age, and also being on hold for an age at the GWR customer ticket sales line (which I suspect contacted the same call centre as it was the same hold music) I gave up on this avenue and tweeted - for it to be confined that the tickets can be bought on the day at a ticket office or (only if there's no open ticket office) from the train manager /conductor.   

It appears that a comment on the web site about "online price" was mislead me into thinking these tickets had to be ordered online - my error.  Offering of the tickets and having customers stick at the delivery option appears to me to be a flaw in web site design; if the tickets can only be researched on line and not purchase there with less than five days to travel, it should tell you that when you try, and not imprison you in an unexplained "but I need to know how do deliver them" loop offering you zero options.

Am I misunderstanding something?
I assume this is the same offer:
https://www.gwr.com/destinations-and-events/offers/over-60s-offer
If I go the National Rail Journey Planner it quotes for Reading to Bristol Parkway Off Peak return with Senior Railcard on Tomorrow (Saturday) at £30.05, the GWR Tickets section quotes £48.00. The over-60s offer page quotes £37.35 with Senior Railcard, before the offer.
What have I done wrong?

£30.05 is the super off-peak return fare,
£37.35 is the off-peak return,
(neither is a day return)
I've no idea what £48 would be.

Doesn't say its available on any planner except GWR.com...

Tickets duly bought yesterday ... we didn't have a chance to see if they were sold on-train from Melksham as the conductor didn't get to us, but purchased AOK from the ticket office at the interchange.

Being zonal, these tickets work out expensive for short journeys and bl**dy expensive for short journeys between zones. For a Melksham to Paddington return with railcard, £24 (and via Westbury too) was excellent value, even if we got back to Chippenham too late for the last train and ended up paying £30 for a taxi back to the car we had left there!

I've also just discovered the existence of these tickets, when one of Bath Spa's friendly staff told me about them. I've not seen any fanfare either, or indeed found any announcement whatsoever. I googled them and that brought me to this forum! I can't find anything on GWR's website apart from a flash across the head of the site that doesn't seem to have a link.

So reading the terms as shown here (as I can't find them anywhere else) they do sound good value for certain journeys, eg down to Penzance from here, but not for those that just cross the notional zones. What I don't know is what restrictions there are on which trains can be used. A quick look at prices on gwr.com seems to show most of the available trains for these fares run in commuter times, eg leaving Bath Spa between 7 and 9am, but not for trains leaving after then, which seems very odd. Does anyone know about these?

Welcome to the forum, Froome.

You're not the only one to be surprised to find them ... other members found that too and we had a discussion (still open for you to add to) ... follow this link and you'll find answers as best as we could find them  ;D:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=17530

Overnight, I'll merge your topic with that thread so that we have a common information source into the future - in the meantime, please post in either topic

Errr....that link returns you to this thread :-o

This link to the GWR page on it was quoted upthread:
https://www.gwr.com/destinations-and-events/offers/over-60s-offer (https://www.gwr.com/destinations-and-events/offers/over-60s-offer)

But trying to navigate there is a case of Destinations-and-events> Offers> wot no link?

Oh - silly me ... I had somehow read that as a new thread with a similar title!

Further links:
http://www.avocetline.org.uk/reduced-fares-for-over-60s/
https://www.gwr.com/destinations-and-events/offers/over-60s-offer

That latter tells you:

From Bath heading west, there's a GWR train from London to Paignton that calls at Bath Spa in the peak time and the ticket's valid on that, but later trains from Bath headed west involve a change a a Cross Country service for which the ticket will NOT be valid.   You can travel later from Bath, via Westbury, or via Bristol, s-l-o-w train to Taunton, changing there onto the express from London, but the journey plane may not show these slower alternatives.

Also at

https://www.facebook.com/TransWilts/photos/a.402860103147371.1073741825.294993730600676/884669441633099/

So good for TransWilts passengers I was going to boost the post on Facebook, but it was turned down on the "no posts that refer to a person's age" rule  :-\

Thanks. I see that this link says tickets can be bought until midnight on December 2nd, whereas the one upthread says November 30th (with similar change to the date tickets are valid to). Have they changed the dates since the offer started?

Yes that Paignton train is the one I would usually aim to use to get down to Devon and Cornwall. I'm pretty certain it used to be a Penzance service until a year ago.

What? I din't use Facebook (ghastly)... But does that mean you can't your followers to a [significant number] birthday shindig, for example?

You can invite them, but you can't do a sponsored (paid) advert to tell the general public - you have to rely on its organic spread.   Thus my comment on the post about "please share this"

I suspect the decision not to allow was taken by a "Jobsworth" at Facebook and this may have been a borderline case, but I have other things to do which are more effective than advertise this promotion which really GWR should be doing a bit more, by the feel of things and how well hidden it seems to be.

I notice that a week on from the start of this thread, that you still cannot purchase Club60 tickets online as the process sticks at the Delivery Details window. I guess, therefore, it is still 'Ticket Office Only' at the moment.
(http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww255/PhilWakely/club60_zpsh3otdji7.jpg)

As you commented in the first post, proof of age probably means a trip to booking office. Anyone can click on senior railcard, its not proof of age, or even ownership.

Its also a special offer, so they can use whichever outlets suit them

Owners of a Senior Railcard will have had to provide proof of age at the time of purchase and I guess it is only a negligible minority that would fraudulently use somebody else's Senior Railcard, so you can safely assume that clicking on 'Senior Railcard' is evidence of age.

Yes, it is a special offer, but as you can see in my post above, the image also taken from gwr.com below and via this link (https://www.gwr.com/destinations-and-events/offers/over-60s-offer), the special offer is shown as available online, so it is not good to actively promote it online only to find you can't actually purchase it online.

(http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww255/PhilWakely/club60-2_zpsynhiwury.jpg)

Bit of a screw up to offer the whole process through to "how do you want to receive your ticket" go though as is you could book online.    Screw up compounded by then leaving you stuck in a menu from which there is no way to proceed, and which doesn't admit "you can't buy this online".   8 out of 10 for the offer; a generous 2 out of 10 for the online experience when you try to buy it!

Available at staffed ticket office, or if there is no staffed ticket office open at the station where and when you are joining the train, available from the train manager.

It looks as though a partial solution has been provided at last, but you are still unable to pick your tickets up from a TVM at the moment (I hope this is just an interim implementation pending a full one in a short while?)
(http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww255/PhilWakely/club60-3_zpstphnhp6g.jpg)

Is the offer discriminatory?

In detail: https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads/


Apparently "Are you Christian?" is not allowed but "Meet Christian Women" is.  I suspect that "If you're aged 60 or over" wasn't allowed but "For passengers aged 60 years or over" would have been.

To answer your question - yes, the offer is discriminatory.  Why should travel be provided at a lower price for the young, for the old, for visitor to the UK via Britrail ...

... or for grahame, but not for me ...  ::)

I don't think age is one of the types made illegal in law?

I don't think the law's in question - it's commercially up to Facebook as to what they will and won't allow in adverts, which is a subset of what the law will allow.   And I think I fell fouls of that intermediate level - in other words the post was legal (and indeed remains in place) but not commercially acceptable to Facebook for me to press harder into people's feeds.

Seen these this morning at Taunton station:

(http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt68/bignosemac/Mobile%20Uploads/rps20161022_113250_zpsxlde5z7t.jpg)

(http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt68/bignosemac/Mobile%20Uploads/rps20161022_113325_zpsod19fk8r.jpg)

Also heard a ticket clerk proactively selling Club 60 to the couple ahead of me in the queue.

Hot off the press - Club 60 has been extended.  Bookings can now be made up to 2 December.  All travel must be completed by 15 December.

If you see my post upthread on October 20th, it says that the link advertising these had December 2nd as the last day.

Made use of this offer today.  No problem buying at Trowbridge station but the ATMs don't do them, hence the difficulty in booking on line.  Trowbridge to Great Malvern for £12. Excellent value.

Tried to buy tickets today at Bath Spa station for travel tomorrow (3 Dec)  to London and was informed that the offer finished today (for buying tickets and travelling).......

A good idea but appears to have been poorly managed by GwR staff.......

No, ..GWR mangement. The staff can only do as instructed

Today was the last day for outward travel, with returns up to two week afterwards.

I've just made use of it from Bath Spa today, so managed to have a couple of Club 60 journeys in the end. It was a shame it was so poorly advertised in October, when I would have had a bit more time to use them.

Does anyone know if it will be brought back in the new year?

Sounds like they need a vet.