In message , at 17:36:53 on
Thu, 20 Sep 2012, Paul Corfield remarked:

student Oyster

On weekly or period Travelcards or the Bus & Tram Pass.
...

The railcard discounts off peak PAYG fares, gives a discounted daily
cap or allows the holder to buy a discounted One Day Travelcard. There
is *no* discount on weekly or period Travelcards.

There's a certain symmetry/lack of overlap there. Two fees for the
issuing authorities rubs hands with glee.

Eh? two fees?

A tenner for the Student Oyster and £30-something for the railcard.

Never had the nectar card snarl. I refuse to have any retail card to
collect "points"as I think it is a waste of time and I don't bother
with discount cards as I rarely shop sufficiently often to make it
worthwhile.

I get a useful dribble of vouchers and cash-back from my Tesco Clubcard,
and when my nearest supermarket was a CoOp, the same for them.

If you value the discounts, as you would seem to do, then trading-off a
little wallet bulk is perhaps worth it. Alternatively you could just
cut some of them in half!

Things like Frequent Flyer (and Frequent Hotel-Stayer) can give very
useful bonuses if you travel a lot (and I used to). As well as upgrades
and things like faster check-in (in both cases hotels and planes). One
of my hotel cards claims they'll never turn you away if you arrive on
spec, because the hotel's "full", but I'm not sure how they implement
that.

I've got about ten ITSO and other transport cards now, but have to admit
the only ones I've managed to use in anger are Oyster and NCT (bus),
plus a Brussels 10-trip carnet if that counts.
--
Roland Perry