How do you get cheap train tickets?
Deals
Hey everyone, I'm wondering whether you know any novel tricks to get cheap train tickets?
Apart from the usual:
- Split Ticketing
- Booking Early
- Rail cards (does an NUS card let you get a 16-25 railcard? I know they’re available for all ages of student but don’t know if just an NUS card would work)
- Check for special offers from the operator directly (e.g. try booking on virgintrains.co.uk rather than nationalrail.co.uk/thetrainline.com)
- Generally avoid third party operators like thetrainline as they usually have a surcharge compared to going direct. Unless they have a special offer on
- Cashback
- Don’t pay for your ticket and hide in the toilet...
My best tip is to invest in a rail card. I have the 'Two Together card' and I have 1/3 off every journey when my partner and I travel together. We generally recoup the cost of the card (£30). within a couple of trips. From my analysis I can see that I have saved over £100+ each year.
Hi,
You can get 10% off 1 year railcards, using code AUGUST10MS online at www.railcard.co.uk
including 16-25, Family & Friends, Two Together & Senior Railcards
Railcards get you a discount on most rail fares, at least a third off. They normally cost £30, but until Thursday 31 August , enter the code AUGUST10MS and you'll get £3 off and pay just £27 for any of the big four national railcards.
Well you could take advantage of promotional offers out there like off or sale on a particular website or using cashback websites but the issue is they are there only available for a limited time and you usually have to search hard to find them.
For example this one i found today (https://www.latestdeals.co.uk/deals/expedia-quidco-15-cashback-train-ticket).
I have always found Travel Supermarket to find the best deals for me especially if you are booking in advance(the earlier the better) I am going to London today (comp win :-) ) coming back Thursday and it has cost me £82 return first class for 2 of us. 2nd class would have only been £12 cheaper. Checked on east midlands train at the same time as it is their train we are travelling on and they were offering the cheapest 2nd class for the 2 of us at £112 so it really does pay to shop around.If i was buying today at the station it would be £140 2nd class for the 2 of us.
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