Great Western Coffee Shop

I stumbled into this whilst checking trains to London for New Year's Eve/Day
Using the GWR App I selected an off-peak service for the outward journey.

For the return I searched for 31st December 23:30 and was offered an off-peak day return.
Scrolling forward up to 03:43 (for Maidenhead) I could still have an off-peak return. So far so good. I guess the cut-off point is 04:00 (special for New Year's Day?).

Retracing my steps, I entered 1st January 01:00 and was offered two off-peak singles - nearly twice as much for the same trains. Even if I scrolled backwards to 31st December I would still be charged for two singles.

You can understand the logic but you can't excuse the developers or their management who allowed this glitch to go live. It should never have got past the design stage.

I also tried the National Rail Enquiries app. It has an appalling user interface but as I'd selected an off-peak day return it simply wouldn't let me choose return services that needed two singles i.e. after 04:00.

From National Rail:


What time does that 03:43 get to Maidenhead?

Edit - I just checked that - it's into Maidenhead at 04:24, so provided it's no more than 5 minutes late, you should be OK.

Surely the ticket should still be valid even if the train was more than 5 minutes late ?
My understanding is that the validity or not of a ticket is determined by the BOOKED times and not by the actual times after any delays.

And yes I know that it says "all travel must be completed by 04-29" But wonder if this has been over simplified ? and that they actually mean is "travel must be on trains that are booked to arrive at your destination by 04-29".

If the train was cancelled, I would expect that use of a later service, after 04-29 would be permitted without extra payment.

Probably academic I know as the chance of a ticket check is effectively zero.

Probably academic, indeed.   But its the oracle of the National Rail site I was quoting, not a dumbed down version. Agreed, usually the schedule time - meaning that a train that's running very late and is normally "peak" but leaves after the time of change remains peak.

You don't tell us the destination - I'm going to assume Paddington

".4 Off-Peak Singles and the outward portion of Off-Peak Returns are valid for travel on the date shown on the ticket and until 04:29 the following morning. If the journey cannot be completed in this time, the ticket may be used to continue the journey on the following day. Unless otherwise indicated in the relevant restriction code, time restrictions apply as from the initial origin station on both days. The appropriate restrictions for the actual day on which travel is being undertaken apply (for example, it may be that if day 1 is on Sunday, no restrictions apply, but on day 2, the Monday-Friday restrictions apply). All travel must be completed by 04:29 in the morning after this second day. Please note that break of journey is not permitted on some journeys, as detailed in the ticket restrictions."

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46590.aspx

Therefore as long as you depart before 04.29 on day 1, your ticket is valid until 04.29 on day 2.