For the first time I am going to buy an annual season on Jan 1st to beat the
fare increase. I just need a Zone 1 and 2 travelcard in London which I
should really pick up from LU at my local station, Canada Water. I believe
that qualifies me for a Gold Card with all the usual perks.
However, before I invest this not inconsiderable sum of money, I was
wondering that if I bought an Oyster Travelcard from one of the TOCs, would
I get even more perks. I could consider purchasing it at any station in
Zones 1 and 2.
Has anyone any suggestions or will I already get the best deal from LU.? By
the way, I would need an Oyster Card and not a paper ticket as I often go
over the Zone 2 boundary on PAYG.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Has anyone any suggestions or will I already get the best deal from LU.? By
the way, I would need an Oyster Card and not a paper ticket as I often go
over the Zone 2 boundary on PAYG.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

I was going to suggest South West Trains as you get 6 return journeys
on their network. First Great Western have just started the same
scheme but has not actually started yet. The problem is SWT do not
issue season tickets on oyster so no good to you for PAYG over
boundary.

Now that PAYG is valid on FGW does anybody know if you can buy season
tickets from them on oyster ? It might be possible at Ealing Broadway
but that station is in zone 3 and I dont think they issue oyster cards
yet at Paddington.

On 18 Dec, 21:15, wrote:

Has anyone any suggestions or will I already get the best deal from LU.? By
the way, I would need an Oyster Card and not a paper ticket as I often go
over the Zone 2 boundary on PAYG.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

I was going to suggest South West Trains as you get 6 return journeys
on their network. *First Great Western have just started the same
scheme but has not actually started yet. *The problem is SWT do not
issue season tickets on oyster so no good to you for PAYG over
boundary.

SWT also state that you actually need to make regular use of their
services in order to benefit from their enhanced 'Gold Service'.
Interesting to know about FGW's new scheme.


Now that PAYG is valid on FGW does anybody know if you can buy season
tickets from them on oyster ? *It might be possible at Ealing Broadway
but that station is in zone 3 and I dont think they issue oyster cards
yet at Paddington.


Do you mean rail-only season tickets? If so, then no - no TOCs issue
rail-only season tickets on Oyster, only on a paper ticket.

On 18 Dec, 21:15, wrote:
Has anyone any suggestions or will I already get the best deal from LU.? By
the way, I would need an Oyster Card and not a paper ticket as I often go
over the Zone 2 boundary on PAYG.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

I was going to suggest South West Trains as you get 6 return journeys
on their network. *First Great Western have just started the same
scheme but has not actually started yet. *The problem is SWT do not
issue season tickets on oyster so no good to you for PAYG over
boundary.

Now that PAYG is valid on FGW does anybody know if you can buy season
tickets from them on oyster ? *It might be possible at Ealing Broadway
but that station is in zone 3 and I dont think they issue oyster cards
yet at Paddington.

South West Trains at Wimbledon issue Season Tickets on Oyster paper,
although it may look odd that you're being it from a Zone 3 station...
when I bought my Zones 1-3 from there they studied my address in some
detail as they knew it wasn't Wimbledon!

On 19 Dec, 11:16, Railist wrote:

On 18 Dec, 21:15, wrote:

Has anyone any suggestions or will I already get the best deal from LU.? By
the way, I would need an Oyster Card and not a paper ticket as I often go
over the Zone 2 boundary on PAYG.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

I was going to suggest South West Trains as you get 6 return journeys
on their network. First Great Western have just started the same
scheme but has not actually started yet. The problem is SWT do not
issue season tickets on oyster so no good to you for PAYG over
boundary.

Now that PAYG is valid on FGW does anybody know if you can buy season
tickets from them on oyster ? It might be possible at Ealing Broadway
but that station is in zone 3 and I dont think they issue oyster cards
yet at Paddington.

South West Trains at Wimbledon issue Season Tickets on Oyster paper,
although it may look odd that you're being it from a Zone 3 station...
when I bought my Zones 1-3 from there they studied my address in some
detail as they knew it wasn't Wimbledon!

Eh? ... "on Oyster paper" ... "may look odd that you're being it from
a Zone 3 station" ...

Might you be so kind as to clarify what you were trying to say?

On 19 Dec, 15:16, Mizter T wrote:
On 19 Dec, 11:16, Railist wrote:



On 18 Dec, 21:15, wrote:

Has anyone any suggestions or will I already get the best deal from LU.? By
the way, I would need an Oyster Card and not a paper ticket as I often go
over the Zone 2 boundary on PAYG.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

I was going to suggest South West Trains as you get 6 return journeys
on their network. *First Great Western have just started the same
scheme but has not actually started yet. *The problem is SWT do not
issue season tickets on oyster so no good to you for PAYG over
boundary.

Now that PAYG is valid on FGW does anybody know if you can buy season
tickets from them on oyster ? *It might be possible at Ealing Broadway
but that station is in zone 3 and I dont think they issue oyster cards
yet at Paddington.

South West Trains at Wimbledon issue Season Tickets on Oyster paper,
although it may look odd that you're being it from a Zone 3 station...
when *I bought my Zones 1-3 from there they studied my address in some
detail as they knew it wasn't Wimbledon!

Eh? ... "on Oyster paper" ... "may look odd that you're being it from
a Zone 3 station" ...

Might you be so kind as to clarify what you were trying to say?

I meant Oyster card.

Wimbledon staff were suspicious of my address when I first bought my
Oyster annual card. They knew my address wasn't Wimbledon. So I had to
explain why I was buying it there and not from my local station. So,
someone buying a Zone 1,2 Travelcard from a Zone 3 station may be met
with similar suspicion.

On Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:06:35 -0800 (PST), Railist
wrote:

Wimbledon staff were suspicious of my address when I first bought my
Oyster annual card. They knew my address wasn't Wimbledon. So I had to
explain why I was buying it there and not from my local station.

How strange. I've bought season tickets all over the place, depending
where I happen to be when a ticket office is open. This year it was
Oxford Circus. I pay with a company cheque and they ask me for the
company's address (not mine) - but I have to give the accounts
department, which is near Liverpool Street - a station which I very
rarely visit!

On 20 Dec, 09:06, Railist wrote:

On 19 Dec, 15:16, Mizter T wrote:

On 19 Dec, 11:16, Railist wrote:

On 18 Dec, 21:15, wrote:

(snip)

Now that PAYG is valid on FGW does anybody know if you can buy season
tickets from them on oyster ? *It might be possible at Ealing Broadway
but that station is in zone 3 and I dont think they issue oyster cards
yet at Paddington.

South West Trains at Wimbledon issue Season Tickets on Oyster paper,
although it may look odd that you're being it from a Zone 3 station....
when *I bought my Zones 1-3 from there they studied my address in some
detail as they knew it wasn't Wimbledon!

Eh? ... "on Oyster paper" ... "may look odd that you're being it from
a Zone 3 station" ...

Might you be so kind as to clarify what you were trying to say?

I meant Oyster card.

Wimbledon staff were suspicious of my address when I first bought my
Oyster annual card. They knew my address wasn't Wimbledon. So I had to
explain why I was buying it there and not from my local station. So,
someone buying a Zone 1,2 Travelcard from a Zone 3 station may be met
with similar suspicion.


OK, well in that case you have apparently been successful in doing
exactly what the OP was asking about (and I was very curious about).

I presume you went to Wimbledon so as to buy it from South West Trains
so you could take advantage of their extra "Gold Service" benefits
[1]. So these were still available to you even though you were buying
your Gold Card on Oyster?

A few further things of note

(a) Apart from the six free tickets for weekend journeys anywhere on
the SWT network, are there any other SWT "Gold Service" benefits which
are above and beyond the standard Gold Card benefits [3]?

(b) The Gold Service T&Cs [2] explicitly exclude season Travelcards
(apart from 'all zones' aka zones 1-6) from receiving the six free
weekend tickets. (Maybe this rule is inconsistantly implemented.)

(c) The T&Cs do suggest that you need to/should actually "use our
[i.e.SWT's] services". I've no idea whether this is enforced in any
way - indeed when it comes to Travelcards it is arguably unenforceable
- but this is likely to be the cause of the suspicion on the part of
the staff at Wimbledon, what with you obviously giving an address that
wasn't local.

Incidentally how did you deal with the aforementioned suspicion - tell
them that you regularly travelled to Wimbledon or used SWT trains in
your daily commute or something? Perhaps I shouldn't ask the follow on
question of whether you actually do!


-----
[1] "Gold Service" being what SWT call the benefits they offer their
Gold Card holders above and beyond the standard Gold Card benefits
that all TOCs offer - more he
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWT...oldService.htm
[2] "Gold Service" T&Cs
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWT...m#gold_service
[3] The standard Gold Card benefits are listed he
https://www.trainsfares.co.uk/season...d_benefits.asp

[x-posted to uk.railway]
[original thread at uk.transport.london]

On 18 Dec, 20:20, "philip" wrote:
For the first time I am going to buy an annual season on Jan 1st to beat the
fare increase. I just need a Zone 1 and 2 travelcard in London which I
should really pick up from LU at my local station, Canada Water. I believe
that qualifies me for a Gold Card with all the usual perks.
However, before I invest this not inconsiderable sum of money, I was
wondering that if I bought an Oyster Travelcard from one of the TOCs, would
I get even more perks. I could consider purchasing it at any station in
Zones 1 and 2.
Has anyone any suggestions or will I already get the best deal from LU.? By
the way, I would need an Oyster Card and not a paper ticket as I often go
over the Zone 2 boundary on PAYG.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.


Good question, one that I've wondered about in the past. First off,
obviously the only National Rail ticket offices that deal with Oyster
whatsoever are at stations where Oyster PAYG is accepted. My suspicion
is that buying a Travelcard on Oyster from a National Rail ticket
office means that you forfeit any additional benefits that the TOC
might offer which are above and beyond the standard Gold Card offer -
in other words the TOC is merely acting as an agent for TfL in a
similar manner to a newsagent (though not necessarily on the same
terms).

That said, I'm not sure that you can actually buy annual Travelcards
or Bus Passes at Oyster Ticket Stops (i.e. the aforementioned
newsagents and convenience stores), because they are such a large
value purchase. If National Rail ticket offices work in a similar
manner, then they might be able to sell annuals on Oyster.

The other 'benefit' that buying a conventional Gold Card from a TOC is
that there's the possibility of a passenger's charter discount of 5%
or 10% if the service has been a bit or very rubbish lately - though
for monthlies this is only available for renewals and I think the same
rule applies to annuals aka Gold Cards, i.e. it's not available to new
purchasers.

Again I have my doubts as to whether TOCs would apply this discount
(if available) when buying a Travelcard loaded on Oyster.

One can but ask at a TOC ticket office I suppose.

On Dec 18, 9:18*pm, Mizter T wrote:
[x-posted to uk.railway]
[original thread at uk.transport.london]

On 18 Dec, 20:20, "philip" wrote:

For the first time I am going to buy an annual season on Jan 1st to beat the
fare increase. I just need a Zone 1 and 2 travelcard in London which I
should really pick up from LU at my local station, Canada Water. I believe
that qualifies me for a Gold Card with all the usual perks.
However, before I invest this not inconsiderable sum of money, I was
wondering that if I bought an Oyster Travelcard from one of the TOCs, would
I get even more perks. I could consider purchasing it at any station in
Zones 1 and 2.
Has anyone any suggestions or will I already get the best deal from LU.? By
the way, I would need an Oyster Card and not a paper ticket as I often go
over the Zone 2 boundary on PAYG.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Good question, one that I've wondered about in the past. First off,
obviously the only National Rail ticket offices that deal with Oyster
whatsoever are at stations where Oyster PAYG is accepted.

And Lewisham, for some reason, although I think the ticket office can
only do it by going off somewhere away from the counter, so not ideal
to ask for if there's a queue behind you.