Advice needed -Worcester to Gatwick

[whole diary]

[bobg]

Hi guys,
I'm going to be flying to and from Gatwick, and I'm just trying to work out the cheapest way of doing it, and would appreciate any advice you can give me.

I'll be travelling down to Gatwick on Tues 12/04, in the evening (Flight departs early in the morning on 13/04) and would be travelling back to Worcester on Sun 24/04 in the afternoon (Flight scheduled to land 11:25).
I'd prefer not to get advance tickets, due to possible flight delays....
I have a YP railcard; slow/fast journeys, waiting around, etc. not an issue at all! Just trying to minimise the cost!

Would buying offpeak returns from Worcester to Oxford and then Oxford to Gatwick probably be the best way forward?

Cheers!

[ChrisB]

I have a YP railcard; slow/fast journeys, waiting around, etc. not an issue at all! Just trying to minimise the cost!

Coach it then....to Birmingham & get the train?....

[Tim]

NX coaches are about ^27 single Worcester to Gatwick but it takes 7 or 8 hours. 

Birmingham to Gatwick by coach is about ^37 single but 3 or 4 hours. (yopu might be able to get cheaper coach fares as a Young Person- sorry I am not an expert

By train with a YP RC the off peak return fare is ^33.  It might be possible to cheapen it slightly by rebooking, but with ^33 as a starting price, I'd go by train rather than coach.

[bobg]

Thanks - I'm sure it was more than ^33 the last time I checked, but I must have been mistaken. Splitting tickets at Oxford actually makes it more expensive, so I'll probably just by the off-peak return.

Would it be OK to break the outward journey in Reading on this ticket? I'm guessing so, as I have to change at Reading anyway for Gatwick, so it wouldn't matter if I left the station for a few hours whilst changing trains.

Coach it then....to Birmingham & get the train?....

I did think about the coach, but I don't really travel too well on them! The small saving to be made isn't enough for me, on this occasion!

[inspector_blakey]

Oxford Bus Company runs modern, comfortable coaches from Gloucester Green (Oxford bus station) to Gatwick on roughly an hourly frequency from very early in the morning to late at night, but the period return fare for that is GBP36.00 so it doesn't make your life any cheaper. It would also involve dragging your luggage from the railway station to Gloucester Green, not particularly far but a pain if you've got much to carry.

[IanL]

Oxford Bus Company runs modern, comfortable coaches from Gloucester Green (Oxford bus station) to Gatwick on roughly an hourly frequency from very early in the morning to late at night, but the period return fare for that is GBP36.00 so it doesn't make your life any cheaper. It would also involve dragging your luggage from the railway station to Gloucester Green, not particularly far but a pain if you've got much to carry.

Day return is ^24, period return is ^26 from the tickets I got at the end of last month!

[inspector_blakey]

For Heathrow, yes. Gatwick, no.