Train fares - online and at station - same price?

[Paulatic]

I’ve just booked Preston to Euston tomorrow afternoon £37.30 complete with bike reservation. Took less than five minutes and if I’d continued with the transaction the tickets would be sitting in my Wallet or I could choose to print them out at the station.
This is consistently my experience with booking trains with bike reservation when needed.

That was using Avanti site reserving a bike space wasn’t , or I couldn’t find, available on Northern site. Probably because there’s no need to book a bike on Northern?

To be clear, as I said - single journey - all on Avanti - none of the journey at all was on a northern train.
None of the booking was attempted online on a Northern Rail website.
I was simply pointing out that the member of staff at the ticket office I used was probably under Northern - member of staff and ticket office.
I hope your tickets including bike reservation printed out OK at the station.
I assure you that it hasn't always happened with me and ticket station staff have confirmed to me more than once that this screw-up is far from uncommon.
Including a nice woman at Preston station.
(from which Avanti runs of course)
hence, see above, my latter day preference to book at a ticket office, see tickets including bike reservation before I hand over dosh/complete the booking.
hence, see above, my question about pricing online/at booking office.

Yes I hear and understand what you are saying.
I just question why you put yourself to all this trouble when it’s so simple to diy online.
I used to pick up a real ticket at the station, Lockerbie , but the office had to be open. Now it’s so easy to have it on your phone.

[Sweep]

What did the ticket office staff member say when you asked why it was £2.50 more from them?

she just said that that was the cheapest fare they themselves could see for that particular train.
she was very helpful, operating within the system she has - I have no beef with her.
She had to get out a detailed written crib note to remind her how to get the bike booked on - I know from experience that the system is a mess/lashed together.

[Sweep]

I’ve just booked Preston to Euston tomorrow afternoon £37.30 complete with bike reservation. Took less than five minutes and if I’d continued with the transaction the tickets would be sitting in my Wallet or I could choose to print them out at the station.
This is consistently my experience with booking trains with bike reservation when needed.

That was using Avanti site reserving a bike space wasn’t , or I couldn’t find, available on Northern site. Probably because there’s no need to book a bike on Northern?

To be clear, as I said - single journey - all on Avanti - none of the journey at all was on a northern train.
None of the booking was attempted online on a Northern Rail website.
I was simply pointing out that the member of staff at the ticket office I used was probably under Northern - member of staff and ticket office.
I hope your tickets including bike reservation printed out OK at the station.
I assure you that it hasn't always happened with me and ticket station staff have confirmed to me more than once that this screw-up is far from uncommon.
Including a nice woman at Preston station.
(from which Avanti runs of course)
hence, see above, my latter day preference to book at a ticket office, see tickets including bike reservation before I hand over dosh/complete the booking.
hence, see above, my question about pricing online/at booking office.

Yes I hear and understand what you are saying.
I just question why you put yourself to all this trouble when it’s so simple to diy online.
I used to pick up a real ticket at the station, Lockerbie , but the office had to be open. Now it’s so easy to have it on your phone.

>>Took less than five minutes and if I’d continued with the transaction the tickets would be sitting in my Wallet or I could choose to print them out at the station.
re booking onlne and then printing at station, see my original post. Not an option due to screw-ups in the past. I speak from experience and know that the problems are not rare - after speaking to station staff. It's the bike reservation print-out that can be a problem. If this could be relied on (as it can for the person bit of the ticket - I would be more than happy to do this. Have done many times when no bike involved.
Re the app, you mean an Avanti app?
Does it require an internet connection to display the ticket/s including bike reservation or do you have a copy/image of the ticket/s which you can copy to other devices?
I ask as I know apps can misbehave - and also of course companies like to use them as they give them lots of marketing info/allow them to differential price.
Best online booking system I know is London Northwestern - book online - you get the tickets as a PDF for your device/s- simples - needs no special app though an ill-informed LNWestern train staff member did once try to insist that I show him my ticket on an app. Eventually he accepted my PDF - on a device.
I assure you that I am no luddite - have been using the internet and remote datacomms since before many many people realised it was a thing.
Anyway, back to simple original question - is it the case that ticket office staff should be able to sell you the same tickets at the same price as you can get online.
(Barring of course special special individual train company promo offers - which was definitely NOT the case with this booking)

[Biospace]

When I was at the ticket office at King's Cross this summer trying to rebook our tickets after multiple cancellations due to power line failure, I was dealing with a very helpful lady who booked our tandem (in two halves) and then our seats. However her booking system automatically booked us seats that were no where near our bike. I asked if we could have seats in the same carriage as the bike. So she obligingly started looking for vacant seats. The only problem was that her screen couldn't tell her which seats were free, so she was systematically trying each one in turn, only to find them booked. So I got onto the LNER app, where I could see which seats were free and told her. I discussed this with her and she admitted that their computer system was no where near as good as simply going on the internet. Something not right there!

I've had exactly the same thing happen, the whole railway ticket pricing and booking system is much more complex and awkward to use than it ought to be and those in ticket offices often don't have access to as much information as the customer has. I suspect pricing has had its anomalies for almost as long as people have been buying tickets, it's the advent of the internet which shows this up.

[Sweep]

so i imagined this rule that same prices had to be available?

[Paulatic]

so i imagined this rule that same prices had to be available?

Probably wishful thinking.
Part of the Williams- Shapps plan

reforming and upgrading the fares system with a focus on simplification and standardisation as well as introducing new and more modern products such as flexible season tickets

maybe?
https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/refo ... elopments/

In answer to an earlier question , no you don’t need wi fi/ data to display a digital ticket from your phone.

[roubaixtuesday]

Avanti is no longer a train service, it's a straightforward scam.

They simply run the business to extract as much cash as possible from their subsidies without even the slightest regard for passengers.

At the moment they're only releasing tickets a matter of days before trains run.

It's probably about 50:50 whether the train will even run, let alone allow a bike on at the price advertised.

Disgraceful they're allowed to continue in business.

[roubaixtuesday]

To be clear, as I said - single journey - all on Avanti - none of the journey at all was on a northern train.
None of the booking was attempted online on a Northern Rail website.
I was simply pointing out that the member of staff at the ticket office I used was probably under Northern - member of staff and ticket office.
I hope your tickets including bike reservation printed out OK at the station.
I assure you that it hasn't always happened with me and ticket station staff have confirmed to me more than once that this screw-up is far from uncommon.
Including a nice woman at Preston station.
(from which Avanti runs of course)
hence, see above, my latter day preference to book at a ticket office, see tickets including bike reservation before I hand over dosh/complete the booking.
hence, see above, my question about pricing online/at booking office.

Yes I hear and understand what you are saying.
I just question why you put yourself to all this trouble when it’s so simple to diy online.
I used to pick up a real ticket at the station, Lockerbie , but the office had to be open. Now it’s so easy to have it on your phone.

>>Took less than five minutes and if I’d continued with the transaction the tickets would be sitting in my Wallet or I could choose to print them out at the station.
re booking onlne and then printing at station, see my original post. Not an option due to screw-ups in the past. I speak from experience and know that the problems are not rare - after speaking to station staff. It's the bike reservation print-out that can be a problem. If this could be relied on (as it can for the person bit of the ticket - I would be more than happy to do this. Have done many times when no bike involved.
Re the app, you mean an Avanti app?
Does it require an internet connection to display the ticket/s including bike reservation or do you have a copy/image of the ticket/s which you can copy to other devices?
I ask as I know apps can misbehave - and also of course companies like to use them as they give them lots of marketing info/allow them to differential price.
Best online booking system I know is London Northwestern - book online - you get the tickets as a PDF for your device/s- simples - needs no special app though an ill-informed LNWestern train staff member did once try to insist that I show him my ticket on an app. Eventually he accepted my PDF - on a device.
I assure you that I am no luddite - have been using the internet and remote datacomms since before many many people realised it was a thing.
Anyway, back to simple original question - is it the case that ticket office staff should be able to sell you the same tickets at the same price as you can get online.
(Barring of course special special individual train company promo offers - which was definitely NOT the case with this booking)

I don't know about bike reservations, but the standard tickets bought from the Avanti website are emailed as PDF (plus the apple/google wallet option) so you can print off hard copies and use offline without wifi.

(I'm travelling Avanti tonight and Sunday. Wish me luck!)

[Sweep]

In answer to an earlier question , no you don’t need wi fi/ data to display a digital ticket from your phone.

many thanks for reply on this paulatic - assume you mean Avanti app.
can you also copy the ticket from the app?
or also have it available offline on a second device running the app and active on the same android account?

(you can maybe tell I am somewhat wary/like to keep things simple - but then I have come across folk screwed on journeys because of tickets on apps they couldn't actually get access to)

[Sweep]

I don't know about bike reservations, but the standard tickets bought from the Avanti website are emailed as PDF (plus the apple/google wallet option) so you can print off hard copies and use offline without wifi.

(I'm travelling Avanti tonight and Sunday. Wish me luck!)

Many thanks for this - will investigate.
PDFs are my preffered option. Standard, don't need special software or app - just a viewer. Lots available.
all the best for your trip - Avanti's issues well publicised of course but West Coast my favourite way to travel with a bike when works. If your journey/s should be delayed even by 15 mins do claim repayment - very simple efficient repay service. My last trip i had money back within days.

[Sweep]

It's probably about 50:50 whether the train will even run, let alone allow a bike on at the price advertised.

Agree about avanti scamming government money - be interesting to see what happens to franchise renewal.
If your train is cancelled and there is a later one go on that one, and on the basis that it will probably be an hour later you will be able to claim a 100 per cent refund/ie get a free trip.

I never book the last train of the day.

I checked at euston that I could do this - when buying a ticket for a christmas train - my train did run (just - at one time seemed there may be no driver) - journey was over half an hour late - got half my fare back. so I got a journey between North West and London with bike for a tenner. Beats driving/burning petrol in a jam.

[rareposter]

In answer to an earlier question , no you don’t need wi fi/ data to display a digital ticket from your phone.

many thanks for reply on this paulatic - assume you mean Avanti app.
can you also copy the ticket from the app?
or also have it available offline on a second device running the app and active on the same android account?

(you can maybe tell I am somewhat wary/like to keep things simple - but then I have come across folk screwed on journeys because of tickets on apps they couldn't actually get access to)

Viewing a ticket in the app is offline - you can access it no matter what, it's simply an offline "wallet" within the app. If you want to book tickets, search train times etc, that requires data connection.

so i imagined this rule that same prices had to be available?

No - TOCs are allowed to charge extra at booking offices to cover the cost of the staffing in much the same way as they can charge significantly more for on-the-day purchase rather than advance. Even then it's wildly inconsistent and as others have mentioned, the two systems (app and what the ticket office is seeing) are not the same. The whole ticketing system is a complete mess of apps, prices, deadlines...
And the trains are so unreliable that few people want to buy the super cheap advance (and non-refundable) ticket because they're not even sure the train will run until it actually turns up at the platform.

[mjr]

many thanks for reply on this paulatic - assume you mean Avanti app.
can you also copy the ticket from the app?
or also have it available offline on a second device running the app and active on the same android account?

(you can maybe tell I am somewhat wary/like to keep things simple - but then I have come across folk screwed on journeys because of tickets on apps they couldn't actually get access to)

The tickets that screwed people were usually "m tickets" where you had to use the train company app, activate or stamp the ticket before boarding (to prevent reuse or sharing) and couldn't easily copy or print the ticket.

Nearly all have been replaced by "e tickets" which can be displayed in several wallet apps, come with a PDF version, can be printed or copied (even printed onto a credit card size ticket if you want), and are virtually "stamped" when scanned by a guard or gate line.

If the ticket seller starts on about needing their app for the entire journey, I'd run away or pick "print at station".

[Sweep]

many thanks for reply on this paulatic - assume you mean Avanti app.
can you also copy the ticket from the app?
or also have it available offline on a second device running the app and active on the same android account?

(you can maybe tell I am somewhat wary/like to keep things simple - but then I have come across folk screwed on journeys because of tickets on apps they couldn't actually get access to)

The tickets that screwed people were usually "m tickets" where you had to use the train company app, activate or stamp the ticket before boarding (to prevent reuse or sharing) and couldn't easily copy or print the ticket.

Nearly all have been replaced by "e tickets" which can be displayed in several wallet apps, come with a PDF version, can be printed or copied (even printed onto a credit card size ticket if you want), and are virtually "stamped" when scanned by a guard or gate line.

If the ticket seller starts on about needing their app for the entire journey, I'd run away or pick "print at station".

many thanks for the info - sounds like it was the m tickets I was resisting the siren call of - quite sensibly.

Don't know if they still do it but northern definitely used the ticket you validate before boarding - sod that - enough stress taking northern anyway without turning up at a station to fiddle with tech/data connections/global web.

will have another root around the avanti web page and app - long live printed tickets and PDFs.

thanks again.

[rareposter]

Don't know if they still do it but northern definitely used the ticket you validate before boarding - sod that - enough stress taking northern anyway without turning up at a station to fiddle with tech/data connections/global web.

Northern are e-tickets now - no need for validation, no need for app connectivity, just stored in the same offline wallet. Northern are actually one of the better operators, especially since there's no need to book a bike space. Buy ticket on the app, get on train, put bike in the space. Simple!