Free Travel at Weekends in November for 1st class season ticket holders

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Survey.aspx?id=5184

No mention in the T&Cs about the length or value of the First Class Season held. So by my reckoning you can buy a 7 day 1st Season from Culham to Appleford (cheapest I could find) for ^8.70. Maybe a few more quid if you need to get a new passport photo for the Season photocard.

Get the Season for ^8.70 and then print off the voucher for unlimited First Class travel across the network on Sat and Sun.

Now, I've read the offer and T&Cs over and over and can see nothing that would prevent me buying the cheapest possible 1st Season, issued with a photocard and then use the photocard number to enable print-off of the week-end pass.

I've checked with NRE^‡(resolve) and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and both say you need a photocard for a 7 day 1st Class Season.

Have FGW made a boo-boo with this offer? It can't have been their intention to allow such generous free travel with a 1st Class Season when you can get one so cheaply. Even if they'd specified a minimum of a one month 1st Season it would still be very generous. Appleford - Culham one month 1st Season is ^33.50.

The Standard Class Season special offer, which is running concurrently, specifies in its T&Cs that it is only valid with one month or longer Seasons.

Slight risk posting this in that someone could alert the powers that be. However I would hope that our esteemed FGW contributors will let this one pass without alerting management! Let's pretend it's an early Christmas present for the punters. 

[IndustryInsider]

I expect someone's forgotten that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) now operate more than just HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) services!

[devon_metro]

Back when FGW^▸ (First Great Western) did the standard class offer that allowed ^10 travel with a 7 day season there was certainly some who-ha with it.

I attempted to buy a Devonport - Dockyard 7ds and was told by Paignton that Newton Abbot had specified to disallow this, however was tipped off that Torquay would be unaware of this and suitably purchased my tickets from there instead. So they had certainly cottoned onto the fact that thi was being 'abused'.

[furryfeet]

What does one have to do in order to qualify ?

a) duration of season ticket
b) any "minimum" value ?
c) do the vouchers downloaded from the web site have to be endorsed by a station before use, or does one just fill them in ?

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Survey.aspx?id=5184

The Terms and Conditions for the offer are not made clear on the web site, so one is left in the dark.
(I suspect that in order to qualify, the minimum duration for the season ticket has be one month, but again, the web site does not confirm this.)

[Ollie]

The brief to staff says minimum 1 month.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for posting, furryfeet - and a warm welcome to the Coffee Shop forum!

As your question linked in very well with an existing discussion, which was happening in our 'frequent posters' area, I've decided to move that topic out onto the open forum and combine it with this one.

Chris. 

[JayMac]

The brief to staff says minimum 1 month.

Yet, the offer and it's T&Cs make no reference to the length of season ticket required.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Survey.aspx?id=5184

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=5183

A mistake by FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) Marketing department, maybe. Particularly if the brief to staff says minimum 1 month. However it would appear that some Train Managers are not even aware of the offer. I've read a post from a FGW TM^‡(resolve) on another forum where he says he's totally in the dark about this offer and would give the benefit of the doubt to the passenger if they only held a 1 week season. Fairly sure this is a genuine post from a TM, he used to post here.....

If the brief to staff is different from the T&Cs available to passengers, then, in law, the more favourable interpretation to the customer shall prevail.

[super tm]

Yes I have not been briefed on this.  It will be pretty academic soon anyway as the offer only has about 10 days left.  I must say the information briefing has been poor recently.  Club 55 brief received until about 3 weeks after it started and looks like we will not have any briefing on this offer.

[Ollie]

Not gonna lie it's very concerning about the lack of briefing my on train colleagues seem to be getting.