"Recliner" wrote in message
...
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 05:46:50
on Sat, 16 Feb 2013, antoine remarked:
I think that it is non possible to estabilish before exactly
the time for the train; the airplane could be a little late, or the suit
case not soon in my hands,

Very wise.

or, or ,or. So the best thing to do is to buy a ticket for that day but
not for one particular time.

There is no discount for buying an "any train" ticket ahead of time.

My own choice (if leaving Gatwick after 9.30am) would be to get a One Day
Travelcard Off-Peak Southern-only £15.20, which will allow travel on any
direct train *except* Gatwick Express to Victoria, but *including* the
London Underground train to Chelsea, and any other bus/Underground for
the rest of the day.

Cheaper, but taking longer (change at Blackfriars) is a One Day
Travelcard Off-Peak FCC-Only £13.00, which is valid on all
bus/Underground as before, but only on FCC (First Capital Connect) trains
from Gatwick to London (via London Bridge).

If you want to be able to choose to travel on either Southern or FCC,
then the equivalent ticket to those mentioned above is £15.90, but it
still doesn't allow travel on Gatwick Express.

I think that's good advice. For the benefit of the OP, you can take a
single train from either Blackfriars or Victoria to Sloan Square in
Chelsea, which may be close to where you want to go, and you can also get
buses from there or Victoria to get you closer to your destination. There
is a useful web site, the TfL Journey Planner, to help you pick your
route:

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/use...T2?language=en

Note that this is a multi-lingual site, so you might be able to use this
in
your native language if you prefer (just change the "en" at the end).

and just what do you change it to to get it to talk to you in squiggle
squiggle language

tim

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 12:05:34 -0000, "tim....."
wrote:


"Recliner" wrote in message
...
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 05:46:50
on Sat, 16 Feb 2013, antoine remarked:
I think that it is non possible to estabilish before exactly
the time for the train; the airplane could be a little late, or the suit
case not soon in my hands,

Very wise.

or, or ,or. So the best thing to do is to buy a ticket for that day but
not for one particular time.

There is no discount for buying an "any train" ticket ahead of time.

My own choice (if leaving Gatwick after 9.30am) would be to get a One Day
Travelcard Off-Peak Southern-only £15.20, which will allow travel on any
direct train *except* Gatwick Express to Victoria, but *including* the
London Underground train to Chelsea, and any other bus/Underground for
the rest of the day.

Cheaper, but taking longer (change at Blackfriars) is a One Day
Travelcard Off-Peak FCC-Only £13.00, which is valid on all
bus/Underground as before, but only on FCC (First Capital Connect) trains
from Gatwick to London (via London Bridge).

If you want to be able to choose to travel on either Southern or FCC,
then the equivalent ticket to those mentioned above is £15.90, but it
still doesn't allow travel on Gatwick Express.

I think that's good advice. For the benefit of the OP, you can take a
single train from either Blackfriars or Victoria to Sloan Square in
Chelsea, which may be close to where you want to go, and you can also get
buses from there or Victoria to get you closer to your destination. There
is a useful web site, the TfL Journey Planner, to help you pick your
route:

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/use...T2?language=en

Note that this is a multi-lingual site, so you might be able to use this
in
your native language if you prefer (just change the "en" at the end).

and just what do you change it to to get it to talk to you in squiggle
squiggle language

Well, you can always do it the boring way and just use the menu on the
page to choose between the 19 supported languages.

On 16/02/2013 08:16, Roland Perry wrote:
My own choice (if leaving Gatwick after 9.30am) would be to get a One
Day Travelcard Off-Peak Southern-only £15.20, which will allow travel on
any direct train *except* Gatwick Express to Victoria, but *including*
the London Underground train to Chelsea, and any other bus/Underground
for the rest of the day.

Cheaper, but taking longer (change at Blackfriars) is a One Day
Travelcard Off-Peak FCC-Only £13.00, which is valid on all
bus/Underground as before, but only on FCC (First Capital Connect)
trains from Gatwick to London (via London Bridge).

If you want to be able to choose to travel on either Southern or FCC,
then the equivalent ticket to those mentioned above is £15.90, but it
still doesn't allow travel on Gatwick Express.

I should think that the Gatwick to London route has just about the most
complicated ticketing situation in the UK: just the thing to cause
maximum confusion to arriving strangers, possibly jet-lagged.

Except perhaps it isn't the most complicated, as it has just occurred to
me that the Heathrow to London route is just as bad, where there are
fares on the tube, Heathrow Express, and Heathrow Connect all to take
into consideration. And what with options for One-day Travelcards and
Oyster purchase options, maybe it's even worse.

That really provides a pretty awful welcome to visitors to this country,
doesn't it?

--
Clive Page

In message , at 04:13:49
on Sat, 16 Feb 2013, remarked:

Get the £12.80 Southern-only ticket to Victoria.

And walk from there? If there's any onward travel involved a Travelcard
will be cheaper (off-peak).

However, you will have a fixed departure time for the return trip so a
ticket tied to a specific train would be much more practical and wouldn't
cost more than £10, maybe only £5.

Maybe. I'm finding that it's more and more difficult to buy Advance
tickets [in general, not for Southern] for some times of day, for the
cheapest prices, and if not months in advance.

Not that I'm surprised at this particular bit of frog-boiling from ATOC.

(Apologies to the OP if that last sentence is incomprehensible).
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 12:24:30 on Sat, 16
Feb 2013, Clive Page remarked:
I should think that the Gatwick to London route has just about the most
complicated ticketing situation in the UK: just the thing to cause
maximum confusion to arriving strangers, possibly jet-lagged.

Except perhaps it isn't the most complicated, as it has just occurred
to me that the Heathrow to London route is just as bad, where there are
fares on the tube, Heathrow Express, and Heathrow Connect all to take
into consideration. And what with options for One-day Travelcards and
Oyster purchase options, maybe it's even worse.

That really provides a pretty awful welcome to visitors to this
country, doesn't it?

In one sense it's a symptom of the wide variety of passengers arriving,
with different expectations about the cost/performance of a trip to the
centre. It's much the same at other big airports, with numerous carriers
vying for the business.

If you aren't trying to knock the last 50p off the price[1] then get the
Off-peak travelcard "all routes except Gatwick Express".

For those feeling like being pampered, get the GatEx, and then rebook at
Victoria.

[1] which a commuter might, multiplied by 200 working days, but is lost
in the noise for an international traveller.
--
Roland Perry

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 12:43:52 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 12:24:30 on Sat, 16
Feb 2013, Clive Page remarked:
I should think that the Gatwick to London route has just about the most
complicated ticketing situation in the UK: just the thing to cause
maximum confusion to arriving strangers, possibly jet-lagged.

Except perhaps it isn't the most complicated, as it has just occurred
to me that the Heathrow to London route is just as bad, where there are
fares on the tube, Heathrow Express, and Heathrow Connect all to take
into consideration. And what with options for One-day Travelcards and
Oyster purchase options, maybe it's even worse.

That really provides a pretty awful welcome to visitors to this
country, doesn't it?

In one sense it's a symptom of the wide variety of passengers arriving,
with different expectations about the cost/performance of a trip to the
centre. It's much the same at other big airports, with numerous carriers
vying for the business.

If you aren't trying to knock the last 50p off the price[1] then get the
Off-peak travelcard "all routes except Gatwick Express".

For those feeling like being pampered, get the GatEx, and then rebook at
Victoria.

[1] which a commuter might, multiplied by 200 working days, but is lost
in the noise for an international traveller.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is luggage. The OP says he will
have checked luggage, so he may want a stairs-free route from train to
District Line Underground train, which might favour the FCC
Blackfriars option, rather than Victoria, or bus rather than LU.

In message , at 13:02:15 on
Sat, 16 Feb 2013, Recliner remarked:
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is luggage. The OP says he will
have checked luggage, so he may want a stairs-free route from train to
District Line Underground train, which might favour the FCC
Blackfriars option, rather than Victoria, or bus rather than LU.

That's very true, especially as Victoria tube station is also under
construction at the moment.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
04:13:49 on Sat, 16 Feb 2013, remarked:

Get the £12.80 Southern-only ticket to Victoria.

And walk from there? If there's any onward travel involved a
Travelcard will be cheaper (off-peak).

Some parts of Chelsea are within walking distance of Victoria or more
accessible by bus.

However, you will have a fixed departure time for the return trip so a
ticket tied to a specific train would be much more practical and wouldn't
cost more than £10, maybe only £5.

Maybe. I'm finding that it's more and more difficult to buy Advance
tickets [in general, not for Southern] for some times of day, for the
cheapest prices, and if not months in advance.

You didn't look it up on the Southern Web site, did you? If you had done so
you wouldn't have written that irrelevant rubbish. There are an awful lot of
Southern trains from Gatwick to Victoria to choose between.

Not that I'm surprised at this particular bit of frog-boiling from ATOC.

(Apologies to the OP if that last sentence is incomprehensible).

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 10:06:12
on Sat, 16 Feb 2013, remarked:
However, you will have a fixed departure time for the return trip so a
ticket tied to a specific train would be much more practical and wouldn't
cost more than £10, maybe only £5.

Maybe. I'm finding that it's more and more difficult to buy Advance
tickets [in general, not for Southern] for some times of day, for the
cheapest prices, and if not months in advance.

You didn't look it up on the Southern Web site, did you? If you had done so
you wouldn't have written that irrelevant rubbish. There are an awful lot of
Southern trains from Gatwick to Victoria to choose between.

Which Southern Web site are you looking at?

I just tried Monday 25th Feb 9am, and there are no trains with
promotional tickets before the 08:56 stopper (£12.80) and then none of
the £5-£10 Advance all day.

Same 25th March (no availability).

22nd April: £7.50 on the 09:53 is the first of the day, a few at £10
later, and not until 11:38 is there one at £5.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 16:43:00 on Sat, 16 Feb
2013, Roland Perry remarked:
I'm finding that it's more and more difficult to buy Advance
tickets [in general, not for Southern] for some times of day, for the
cheapest prices, and if not months in advance.

You didn't look it up on the Southern Web site, did you? If you had done so
you wouldn't have written that irrelevant rubbish. There are an awful lot of
Southern trains from Gatwick to Victoria to choose between.

Which Southern Web site are you looking at?

I just tried Monday 25th Feb 9am, and there are no trains with
promotional tickets before the 08:56 stopper (£12.80) and then none of
the £5-£10 Advance all day.

Same 25th March (no availability).

22nd April: £7.50 on the 09:53 is the first of the day, a few at £10
later, and not until 11:38 is there one at £5.

And I've just booked a real trip (not a hypothetical one) in late April
to the East Midlands, and the fare back was £16 (from a theoretical
range of £5-£29). Although I don't know why anyone would buy two £29
tickets as the return walk-up fare is only £55.
--
Roland Perry