Club 55

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

16^ years to go for me. 

[Worcester_Passenger]

You need to enter journey details before you see the Club55 fares. They are special fares not a discount type.

Even after I entered the journey details, I'm still not being offered the Club 55 fares.

[Worcester_Passenger]

I tried entering a Worcester - Plymouth journey, but the booking engine won't sell me a Club 55 ticket because all of the journeys involve travelling on Cross Country.

If I try forcing a route via Westbury (ought to limit things to FGW^▸ (First Great Western), then I get an error message.

Something is not quite right
We have been unable to offer a promotion on this request, because of the following reason(s):

    The Journey details, dates or times entered aren't valid for this promotion

You can either change your journey requirements to meet the promotional conditions or view bookings that are available with your chosen details.

There's no way within the booking engine that I can restrict my journey to FGW services only - or no way that I can see.

[JayMac]

Hmm, I've managed to force the booking engine to show a club55 ticket for Worcester - Plymouth and return for randomly selected dates. What are your journey dates and times out and return?

[eightf48544]

I tried Taplow Bath and the Club 55 fares were more than two singles for a day return!

[ChrisB]

The Club55 fares don't seem good value on short /medium legth journeys - but are on longer ones this time

[Worcester_Passenger]

Hmm, I've managed to force the booking engine to show a club55 ticket for Worcester - Plymouth and return for randomly selected dates. What are your journey dates and times out and return?

Out Wed Oct 5 arriving at Plymouth by about 16:00. Return next day, any time.

[JayMac]

Hmm, I'm now having problems getting the Club 55 fare for that journey out of the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) booking engine. No matter, East Coast are quite happy to sell the fare, so I suggest you buy from them.



Note the selection in the red box. The journey options with 1 change are via Westbury, those with two changes are mostly change at Temple Meads and Taunton.

FGW can lose the sales commission if they're not prepared to adapt their booking engine to allow the fares to be sold.

[eightf48544]

Train manager on 07:57 Reading Penzance said our Club 55 toickets weren't valid on that train as it's Peak. Also said there were otherClub 55  with seat reservations. Didn't try to charge us, I think he realised that he may be wrong the seat reservations must have been booked with tickets, plus we would create a fuss.

Showed him printout of availability obtained from Taplow station. Definitely valid, comes up on Club 55 website!

[JayMac]

I think the Train Manager got it wrong. That train is bookable for Club 55 for any weekday up until the promotion ends. Whilst the T&Cs state that some services out of Paddington to the west of England may be excluded, that applies mainly to Fridays. The fact that others with Club 55 had seat reservations would rather point to the offer being valid on that service.

I hope the TM^‡(resolve) wasn't chinging anybody for a new ticket. 

[old original]

AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know) The time restrictions from Paddington only apply in the afternoon and travelling from anywhere else, including Reading, on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is totally unrestricted

[JayMac]

From the Club 55 FAQs:

First Great Western: not valid for travel to / from London Paddington on services timed to arrive at London Paddington before 1010, or timed to depart between 1600 and 1916.

In addition, some specific trains may also be restricted, particularly between London Paddington / Reading / Newbury and the West of England on Fridays; please enquire for details.

Still doesn't explain why eightf was told his ticket wasn't valid on a westbound morning service from Reading on a Thursday.

[eightf48544]

to be fair to the TM^‡(resolve) i think he thought as I believe Off Peaks aren't valid on this train Club 55 aren't either, but he didn't try to charge us again.

[Worle Wonder]

Tried to but my 'Club 55' ticket on the train yesterday and found the whole experience pants!!!

Arrived at Worle Station in good time to purchase ticket from the automated machine to find that the menu didn't include this option.

The 2 carriage service to BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) duly arrived, however the conductor was overwhelmed with the number of travellers heading into Bristol (standing from Yatton!). On arrival at BTM no one was positioned at the usual point by the exit barriers selling tickets and there were the customary long line of customers waiting to purchase or picking up tickets in the ticket hall area.

Boarded the service to London and decided to sit in carriage A asuming that this would be where the TM^‡(resolve) would start checking tickets etc, uneventful journey until we left Chippenham when the TM did came along, I explained that I wished to purchase a Club 55 return between Worle and London Paddington after a few minutes trying  to find the ticket on their machine I was told that they couldn't sell me one as the fare wasn't programmed in and that I could purchase a full cost ticket at ^59 and on arrival at Paddington I could seek a refund. I politely said no as it wasn't my fault that the ticket machine couldn't provide the ticket I required, I also said that I would be happy to pay on arrival in London as I was travelling back later in the day and that this ticket was the cheapest option for both the outward and return journey.

The TM agreed to go and find out more info (!), they returned a couple of minutes later and announced that I had 2 options, buy the ^59 ticket and seek a refund or get off the train at Swindon and purchase the required ticket.... Not wishing to hold-up the train by engaging in a  conversation with an individual who was clearly not going to budge on their 2 options I left the train at Swindon, went downstarirs and then had to engage with  the station barrier staff as to why I didn't have a ticket (they mentioned I might have to pay a penalty fare!!), before I was allowed to go to the ticket office to purchase a ticket to allow me to continue my journey. By the time all this had been sorted I was now running about 25 minutes late which meant that I missed meeting up with friends in London to continue our journey out to the delights of Billericay.

Bottom line - if FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are going to run this sort of promotion, provide the means to deliver the tickets from portable ticket machines.....

Rant over 

[JayMac]

That is unacceptable, Worle Wonder. You need to complain in the strongest possible terms to FGW^▸ (First Great Western).

Whilst you may have had more than 10 minutes at Bristol Temple Meads (by the way BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) not BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI))  ) to buy the correct fare I can attest to the fact that it is often very busy in the booking hall on a Saturday morning. You wouldn't have been able to purchase Club 55 from a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) anyway so would have to join the main queue for a ticket clerk. I've queued there for over 10 minutes in the past and add in the walk from and to the platforms, even 15 minutes may well not have been sufficient.

You should always buy your tickets at the earliest opportunity, including at interchange stations, but you need not delay your journey to do so. It's quite possible you may've missed the next service to Paddington, so I believe you were correct in boarding.

Next is the behaviour of the TM^‡(resolve) on the service to Paddington. If what you say is an accurate account then you should not have been required to alight at Swindon and delay your journey. Club 55 fares are in Avantix^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains) machines and it is not your fault if a staff member cannot find the legitimate fare you require. I'm also not sure You would have got an immediate refund of the ^59 fare on arrival at Paddington. That would have to be dealt with by filling out a refund form. A ticket office cannot, I believe, refund a ticket it hasn't sold. (paging Ollie!)

So, as I said, you need to complain to FGW. http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/ContactUs.aspx