Help - Tickets to Gatwick Airport

[whole diary]

[bobg]

Hi! I've just back from living and travelling in Germany and Austria, and I am already planning my next trip in October, and I was wondering if anybody would be able to give me some advice on finding the best tickets.

I am flying from Gatwick to Salzburg on Friday 22nd October at 08:50. I am then travelling back from Berlin to London St Pancras on Wednesday 27th October, arriving at St. Pancras at 19:03. I am leaving and need to get back to Worcester.

I have a 16-25 Railcard, an Oystercard for London, and could stay overnight either in Reading or Clappham Common (Walking distance to Balham) in both directions!

One thought that I had was to buy a return from Worcester to Gatwick, break journey overnight in London (is this possible?) and then starting the return journey short from Paddington.

Any help would be welcome! Thanks!

[Ollie]

The return portion of an Off Peak Return is valid for one calender month, so if I read it right, there is no issue with you breaking the journey at Paddington.
Worth noting to remember that the last train on a weekday from Paddington - Worcester SH is at 21:48 and if you are arriving St Pancras at 19:03 you could easily get to Paddington for the 20:20.

[inspector_blakey]

You'll definitely need an overnight stop on the way to Gatwick if your flight is at 0850! I haven't had a look at prices yet, but given the nature of your journey I would suggest using flexible tickets rather than advance. FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s anytime, off-peak and super off-peak singles are slightly more than half the cost of a return, and permit break of journey in most cases.

So one option would be to set out in the evening from Worcester, stop overnight in Reading and complete the journey the next morning - this is legitimate as long as you can't reasonably complete your journey that night. Although the ticket is technically valid only on the date printed on it, you are permitted to break the journey overnight then complete if the next morning if it's not possible within the day.

Returning from St Pancras you might consider booking from London International (LNE) back to Worcester. The reason for this is that London International tickets are issued subject to the international conditions of carriage (CIV^▸ (International Convention for the transportation of Passengers) - it will be endirsed as such on the face of the ticket) rather than the domestic ones, Big advantage is that if you Eurostar arrives late but you have left a reasonable connection time, FGW will honour your ticket on the next service back to Worcester regardless of any time restrictions that may have kicked in.

There's a bit of a "but" in that I believe (although stand to be corrected) you can only purchase London International tickets at stations on production of a Eurostar ticket or booking confirmation,

[Ollie]

You do need confirmation of Eurostar booking.

For the record Worcester doesn't have Advance fares. So don't go looking for them

[inspector_blakey]

An excellent point that I had forgotten!

[thetrout]

one thing worth noting... I Avoid the Gatwick Express service...

You can use any Southern or First Capital Connect via Gatwick Airport for significantly less cost... The only difference being that your train will call at Clapham Junction and East Croydon, whereas GE is a direct fast service...!

I stand to be corrected, but I would have thought the best way would be to buy a return to Reading, then buy a ticket to London Waterloo avoiding London, stop the journey short at Clapham Junction and buy a southern only ticket to Gatwick Airport.

Here is the way I would do it:

Worcester Shrub Hill - Reading - ^23.55 Off Peak Period Return
Overnight Stop
Reading - Clapham Junction - ^12.00 Anytime Single (Railcard Discount Excluded due to travelling in peak hours)
Clapham Junction - Gatwick Airport ^8.60 (There are some ADV fares at ^3.30 if you know which train into Gatwick you require, but if travelling in the peak, you may find the First Class Anytime Single at ^12.70 to your liking which does give you a free drink )
London Watwrloo - Reading - ^9.00 Anytime Day Single
Use return portion of ticket to Worcester

[Ollie]

My suggestion is:

Buy an Off Peak Return from Worcester to Gatwick routed +Any Permitted at a cost of ^40.65. And travel down night before and find a cheap B & B in the Gatwick/Crawley area.

This would then allow you back on a direct service from Paddington to Worcester, also includes your tube transfer without having to use the Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) card.

[thetrout]

Interesting you should say that Oliie...

I booked the Ibis hotel at Gatwick Airport a couple of months back, which set me back ^40 (Non refundable if cancelled and cannot be altered) for one night and Ibis are fairly good hotels! I only booked 2 weeks before so I would check that out bobg

Unfortunately I cannot say how good the hotel is, as for me my holiday went disasterously wrong and I ended up coming back 4 days later than planned... Fortunately I managed to claim the costs back of off my travel insurance... I dread to think what my premium is going to be when I renew... every year I've had a policy i've ended up claiming off of the insurance for something... I tend to have really unfortunate things happen when I go on holiday...!

[Ollie]

Interesting you should say that Oliie...

I booked the Ibis hotel at Gatwick Airport a couple of months back, which set me back ^40 (Non refundable if cancelled and cannot be altered) for one night and Ibis are fairly good hotels! I only booked 2 weeks before so I would check that out bobg

Unfortunately I cannot say how good the hotel is, as for me my holiday went disasterously wrong and I ended up coming back 4 days later than planned... Fortunately I managed to claim the costs back of off my travel insurance... I dread to think what my premium is going to be when I renew... every year I've had a policy i've ended up claiming off of the insurance for something... I tend to have really unfortunate things happen when I go on holiday...!

Sucks about your travel mess ups

^40 sounds good..would have actually expected more for a hotel near to the airport

[bobg]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.
I think I'm going to get a YP Off-Peak Return from Worcester to Paddington (^28.20),
Then Oystercard single to Clapham Common South (^1.80) for free overnight accommodation with friends,
Next morning, Anytime Single from Balham to Gatwick (^8.60).
On the return trip, Oystercard single from St Pancras to Paddington (^1.80), then use the return back to Worcester.
Total cost: ^40.40 
Any problems on return trip, I'll either stay in London or break my journey in Reading!