Understanding The New Fares
By administrator on Thursday, January 22 2009, 10:14
There are 3 types of UK train tickets available for your train journey. Like buying an airline ticket you normally find more restrictions the cheaper the ticket so check the details and decide which one best suits your travel requirements to guarantee the best savings:
Advance UK train fares are Single (one-way) tickets offering great value for money on many longer distance journeys. You must book in advance and fares are subject to availability. The earlier you book the better the deal. You can mix and match Advance UK train fares for a return journey. Advance UK train fares are only valid for the date and train shown and are non-refundable.You can change time or date of travel before departure of the first reserved train but you will need to pay any difference in fare and an administration fee.
Off-Peak UK train fares are cheaper tickets for travelling on trains that are less busy. Offering good value for money, these tickets may require you to travel at specific times of day, days of the week or on a specific route. Where there is more than one Off-Peak UK train fare for a journey, the cheaper fare with more restrictions will be called Super Off-Peak. You can buy Off-Peak UK train tickets any time before you travel. The travel restrictions for your Off-Peak UK train ticket will depend on the journey you are making and will be advised when you buy your ticket.
Anytime UK train fares are fully flexible tickets, with no time restrictions on when you can travel. Perfect for people who need complete flexibility. You can buy Anytime UK train tickets any time before you travel and you can use your ticket to travel on any train. With an Anytime UK train ticket you can also break your journey at stations along the route of travel.
Comments
The important thing to remember is that Advance (discount) fares are available until the day before travel so it's worth checking online (with raileasy of course!) right up to the night before travel You should always try to avoid buying tickets at the station if you can, more oftern than not tickets will be cheaper online.
do you really mean that one can purchase off-peak tickets at any time ie outside of the normal 12 weeks?
Raileasy say: yes but you can't make seat reservations
If you are sure about the times you want to travel and have checked the price of the advanced fair, don't wait untill tomorrow, book it! If you don't and decide to leave it a day or two before commiting it's going to cost you extra money for all that procrastination.
Hi Nick,
Thanks for this and you're exactly right. The fares are "yield managed" i.e a proportion of seats are sold at the lowest price and, as they sell, they get progressively more and more expensive.
rgds,
Mike (Raileasy)