asdf wrote:

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:41:33 +0100, Arthur Figgis wrote:

Someone once posted the text of an internal document which was poorly
written, and seemed at a first reading to suggest that you can't buy a
ODTC with a Gold Card discount unless you have an all-zones Gold Card
(in which case you wouldn't need to buy the ODTC!).

What it was apparently intended to say was that you can only buy a
travelling companion a discounted z1-6 ODTC if either (a) you have an
z1-6 annual or (b) you buy a z1-6 ODTC for yourself as well. Someone
with a z2-6 annual can't buy a friend a z1-6 ODTC.

I've had a few experiences of LU offices applying the opposite rule -
that the Gold Card holder (regardless of zones covered by the season)
can only buy Z1-6 ODTCs for accompanying adults, not for himself.

I suppose that one way to get around this, if the ticket office are
being that obstinate, is to pretend another travelling companion is
not yet with you - e.g. he's in the shop or still walking to the
station!


(Or to be pedantic, Z1-D ODTCs, as that's what you actually get.)

And herein lies a slight anomaly - if you had a Z1-6 Gold Card
Travelcard (i.e. annual) and wanted to buy a discounted ticket for a
travelling companion, you yourself would not need to get one. However
you're travelling companion would actually end up with an ODTC valid
in Z1-D rather than Z1-6, i.e. it would cover more zones than your
Z1-6 Gold Card Travelcard. Of course they would not be able to use it
outside of Z1-6 as you would not be accompanying them, unless of
course you bought one yourself. But I can imagine even the most "with
it" LU ticket office might get confused by the idea that someone with
a Z1-6 Gold Card Travelcard would want a further discounted Z1-D ODTC
for themselves!

And if you had that Z1-6 Gold Card Travelcard loaded on Oyster, I can
well imagine the ticket office would simply suggest using Oyster PAYG
to allow you to travel to/from zones A-D - though in this case any
travelling companion's discounted ODTC would technically cease to be
valid when the travelling party entered zones A-D.


Indeed the existence of Oyster PAYG actually rules out any changes of
the rules regarding the necessity for Gold Card holders to buy a
discounted ODTC for themselves. Let me explain...

Let's say the rule that a Gold Card holder had to buy an all zones
ODTC for themselves (except if their season covered all Z1-6) was
ditched - and the rule rewritten so that the Gold Card holder could
buy discounted all zones ODTCs for their travelling companions but as
a group you could *only* use them within the zones covered by the Gold
Card holder's Travelcard (say zones 1-3).

Before the introduction of Oyster PAYG, notionally speaking this
could've been enforceable. However, since Oyster PAYG started, anyone
who held a Gold Card Travelcard loaded on Oyster can of course extend
their journey into any zone and the extension is automatically paid
for from their PAYG balance. Therefore the idea of restricting that
Gold Card holder plus travelling companions only to the zones covered
by the Gold Card holder's Travelcard becomes totally unworkable.

OK, my head hurts now!