Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi All,

I belive Advance fares are quota for each train. And the adverts seem to suggest you buy as early as possiable.

Am I right in assuming that as soon as they are released that they would be the cheapest ?

Basset

Information on how far in advance you can book can be found on NRE's 'Booking Horizons' webpage:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/booking_horizons.html

The cheapest fares should be available as soon as they are released, but an occasional anomaly creeps in with a cheaper fare being offered than was available at release date.

Like everything on the railway, different companies have different ideas.
FGW - when the reservations fully open (about 10 weeks ahead) what's there is all there's ever going to be, so booking the earlier the better.

XC - When run by Virgin (and I don't believe Arriva are any different)they used a monitoring system where quotas are altered depending on how many of other ticket types are sold
i.e. if a fair few of full price tickets sell quickly after reservations open, the chance of cheap advance tickets are slim, but as time passes if plenty of seats are left, all of a sudden,  cheap tickets appear ...in other words..you don't stand a chance

As has already been said above, as early as possible within the "booking horizon" given is best - try before that and there will be no Advance tickets available. So, always best to look as early as you possibly can. If you see a good deal then buy it, don't dither! It maybe with the XC/Virgin model of yield management that someone might get it a few pounds cheaper later on in the process but that's life. You're certainly more likely to end up paying more if you wait!

If you aren't able to book at the start of the booking horizon, a few things are always worth checking:

1. Check first class advance tickets as well - often, because people automatically assume that first class will cost more, the standard class advance will sell faster. That can mean that the standard class advance fares a bit later on in the process actually end up being more expensive than the cheapest first class advance available (remember that Advance isn't just one price, it's a sliding scale of fares that all have the same terms and conditions but generally speaking get dearer closer to the day of travel).

2. Check the price for buying an advance ticket for each leg of your journey and compare it to a flexible ticket that would be valid for the trains you want to use. If you're travelling off-peak but booking relatively close to the day of travel, an off-peak return may actually be cheaper than two advance fares and give you much more flexibility.

3. Remember on FGW that you may not need to find an Advance ticket for both legs of the journey to get a good deal, as in general off-peak/super-off-peak single tickets cost only slightly more than half the OP/SOP return fare. So an advance ticket one way and an off-peak/super-off-peak single the other way could represent good value.

...and not forgetting the split-ticket option which may give flexible tickets of comparable price to Advance Purchase.

From my experience I've found that checking each day has often been the best option.  Laborious but worth it for the savings.

Each year I travel up to the Lake District form London.  Splitting the journey at Manchester Piccadilly is the cheapest option and knowing when I've booked my holiday for I start checking for Advanced First class tickets 3 months in advance of when I'm due to travel.

In my experience I've found that the train companies differ in when these tickets become available.  First TransPennine Express tickets for the northern leg of my journey became available 3 months in advance.  The tricky part is that the advance tickets change price depending on how many you need due to quotas I believe.  e.g. I could get 2 tickets for I think it was ^12.50 each but as soon as I changed that to 3 people the amount changed to ^16.00 each.  (I think on the TPX trains there are only 2 seats in first class with the lowest advanced fares?)

Then with the southern leg I didn't have the quota problem but I did experience randomness as to when the advanced tickets become available with Virgins website not even reporting the information correctly.  To be fair Virgin's website is nicely laid out and has a nice calender section saying when the advanced fares become available - typically 2-3 months in advance.  However, I ignored the advice calender and discovered advance tickets were actually available before the calender said they were!

Boppy.

Hi All,

Thanks for all your guidence on this it would appear that tickets have just been released for travel on the 27th June and the advance rate is cheaper about 3 to 4 weeks prior no matter what journey I select and its with FGW.

I going to take a chance and wait to see if it comes down. Although the price is fair at the moment because it is from Gatwick Airport and I know that you cannot rely on planes I have resorted to buying two really cheap advance tickets one for about 3 hours after the plane is due to land and again for the last journey of the night back belive it not this still works out the cheapest way.

Basset

Weird as it sounds but by specifying going via a certain station can be cheaper than booking normally. I travel between Swansea and Bristol and the system automatically puts me down to change at Newport for Temple Meads. However by specifying I wish to travel via Bristol Parkway I end up changing there instead and I play less than I would if changing at Newport. I hope this helps as depending on where your travelling by changing at a different station, it could be cheaper despite using in the large part of the journey the same train.

3 hours? That's an awfully long wait if it's on time to save a bob or two.

Did you not consider the Gatwick Flyaway ticket, which offers exceptionally good value for money. (eg ^100 return for 4 people from Bristol.)

By the way, don't buy singles from Gatwick to west destinations, but buy a single to Reading and then another from Reading to wherever. It's a lot cheaper, because the ticket from Reading is on the new cheaper single fare policy, whereas from Gatwick it's the old "return less a pound". (I'm not sure whether this explanation is true, but the advice is sound anyway.)

 

....and remember that a further split at Didcot will nearly always give a saving on most walk up fares to points west (excepting travelling on the Berks and Hants obviuosly)