Travelled from Haywards Heath to Newark last Sunday. Asked for the cheapest
way, and was told it would be £54. But when I got home, I checked prices
online and found that a single From HH to Kings Cross Thameslink is £15.70
and a single from Kings Cross to Newark is £30.40. Total price £46.10. Why
such the difference in price?

Marcus

"Marcus Fox" wrote in
message ...
Travelled from Haywards Heath to Newark last Sunday. Asked for the
cheapest
way, and was told it would be £54. But when I got home, I checked prices
online and found that a single From HH to Kings Cross Thameslink is £15.70
and a single from Kings Cross to Newark is £30.40. Total price £46.10. Why
such the difference in price?

Shows that you can't trust the answer given by the staff in a station (I
presume it was at HH ticket office that you asked for the cheapest fare).
Given a question like "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark", the
ticket office should have searched for the cheapest combination of tickets
(not beyond the wit of a computer) and sold you the two tickets that you
mention.

I bet you're well ****ed-off that they sold you a more expensive ticket...

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...
"Marcus Fox" wrote in
message ...
Travelled from Haywards Heath to Newark last Sunday. Asked for the
cheapest
way, and was told it would be £54. But when I got home, I checked prices
online and found that a single From HH to Kings Cross Thameslink is
£15.70
and a single from Kings Cross to Newark is £30.40. Total price £46.10.
Why
such the difference in price?

Shows that you can't trust the answer given by the staff in a station (I
presume it was at HH ticket office that you asked for the cheapest fare).
Given a question like "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark", the
ticket office should have searched for the cheapest combination of tickets
(not beyond the wit of a computer) and sold you the two tickets that you
mention.

I bet you're well ****ed-off that they sold you a more expensive ticket...


Doesn't that rather depend on the instructions given to the booking office
staff and also exactly how the intending purchaser phrases the question?.

"Piccadilly Pilot" wrote in message
...

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...
"Marcus Fox" wrote in
message ...
Travelled from Haywards Heath to Newark last Sunday. Asked for the
cheapest
way, and was told it would be £54. But when I got home, I checked
prices
online and found that a single From HH to Kings Cross Thameslink is
£15.70
and a single from Kings Cross to Newark is £30.40. Total price £46.10.
Why
such the difference in price?

Shows that you can't trust the answer given by the staff in a station (I
presume it was at HH ticket office that you asked for the cheapest
fare).
Given a question like "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark", the
ticket office should have searched for the cheapest combination of
tickets
(not beyond the wit of a computer) and sold you the two tickets that you
mention.

I bet you're well ****ed-off that they sold you a more expensive
ticket...


Doesn't that rather depend on the instructions given to the booking office
staff and also exactly how the intending purchaser phrases the question?.

It does: but I think "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark?" should
elicit the cheapest possible fare even if that involves multiple tickets.
But then of course it is not in the *railway's* best interests to tell you
this, only in the *passenger's" best interests. Where there is a conflict of
interest, who *can* you trust to give you information about the cheapest
ticket?

In message , at
20:05:08 on Thu, 26 Aug 2004, Martin Underwood
remarked:
I think "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark?" should
elicit the cheapest possible fare even if that involves multiple tickets.

I think this is explicitly excluded from the equation.

Although some "cheaper" combinations of ticket are easy to predict, it
would be difficult to train people to investigate all possibilities,
given that (a) the railways don't have this computerised and (b) most
employees have trouble selling simple one-leg tickets.
--
Roland Perry

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...
"Piccadilly Pilot" wrote in message
...

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...
"Marcus Fox" wrote in
message ...
Travelled from Haywards Heath to Newark last Sunday. Asked for the
cheapest
way, and was told it would be £54. But when I got home, I checked
prices
online and found that a single From HH to Kings Cross Thameslink is
£15.70
and a single from Kings Cross to Newark is £30.40. Total price
£46.10.
Why
such the difference in price?

Shows that you can't trust the answer given by the staff in a station
(I
presume it was at HH ticket office that you asked for the cheapest
fare).
Given a question like "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark",
the
ticket office should have searched for the cheapest combination of
tickets
(not beyond the wit of a computer) and sold you the two tickets that
you
mention.

I bet you're well ****ed-off that they sold you a more expensive
ticket...


Doesn't that rather depend on the instructions given to the booking
office
staff and also exactly how the intending purchaser phrases the
question?.

It does: but I think "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark?" should
elicit the cheapest possible fare even if that involves multiple tickets.

I suspect that most people faced with that question would not go the the
trouble of wading through the NFM to get the answer the intending purchaser
was wanting (but didn't actually ask for). The question would have to much
more tightly phrased than that.

But then of course it is not in the *railway's* best interests to tell you
this, only in the *passenger's" best interests. Where there is a conflict
of
interest, who *can* you trust to give you information about the cheapest
ticket?

No one.

"Piccadilly Pilot" wrote in message
...

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...
"Piccadilly Pilot" wrote in message
...

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...
"Marcus Fox" wrote
in
message ...
Travelled from Haywards Heath to Newark last Sunday. Asked for the
cheapest
way, and was told it would be £54. But when I got home, I checked
prices
online and found that a single From HH to Kings Cross Thameslink
is
£15.70
and a single from Kings Cross to Newark is £30.40. Total price
£46.10.
Why
such the difference in price?

Shows that you can't trust the answer given by the staff in a
station
(I
presume it was at HH ticket office that you asked for the cheapest
fare).
Given a question like "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark",
the
ticket office should have searched for the cheapest combination of
tickets
(not beyond the wit of a computer) and sold you the two tickets that
you
mention.

I bet you're well ****ed-off that they sold you a more expensive
ticket...


Doesn't that rather depend on the instructions given to the booking
office
staff and also exactly how the intending purchaser phrases the
question?.

It does: but I think "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark?"
should
elicit the cheapest possible fare even if that involves multiple
tickets.

The rule is that staff can sell multiple tickets - as the OP described - if
asked for them, but cannot offer them, because there could be an even
cheaper price by changing the place where you go from one ticket to the
next. Staff are only allowed to sell ordinary tickets unless asked
specifically for other combinations.

Actually, the OP was sold the cheapest ticket from HH to Newark, but what
was cheaper was a ticket from HH to London and London to Newark, but that's
a different question.

Michael

In message , at 20:42:56 on Thu, 26
Aug 2004, Piccadilly Pilot remarked:
It does: but I think "what is the cheapest fare from HH to Newark?" should
elicit the cheapest possible fare even if that involves multiple tickets.

I suspect that most people faced with that question would not go the the
trouble of wading through the NFM to get the answer the intending purchaser
was wanting (but didn't actually ask for). The question would have to much
more tightly phrased than that.

Something like "What's the cheapest ticket combination you can sell me
to go from here to Newark and back, travelling today only, no break of
journey"?
--
Roland Perry

[uk.railway added for expertise]

"Marcus Fox" wrote in message ...
Travelled from Haywards Heath to Newark last Sunday. Asked for the cheapest
way, and was told it would be £54. But when I got home, I checked prices
online and found that a single From HH to Kings Cross Thameslink is £15.70
and a single from Kings Cross to Newark is £30.40. Total price £46.10. Why
such the difference in price?

Because it's not a rational system. For another example, there are
plenty of places where A B and C are in that order along a line, but a
ticket A-B costs more than a ticket A-C.

A conspiracist might suggest that guarding against the exposure of
examples such as yours is one of the reasons the useful part of the
National Fares Manual (viz, the bit *with the fares*) is not available
in 'electronic form'...

--
Larry Lard
Replies to group please

"Marcus Fox" wrote in
message ...
Travelled from Haywards Heath to Newark last Sunday. Asked for the
cheapest
way, and was told it would be £54. But when I got home, I checked prices
online and found that a single From HH to Kings Cross Thameslink is £15.70
and a single from Kings Cross to Newark is £30.40. Total price £46.10. Why
such the difference in price?

The reason for the difference is that the £54 is for a Standard Open Single
while the £30.40 KX-Newark fare is for a Cheap Day Single so you are not
comparing like with like.

Peter Smyth