Ironic email from FGW

[whole diary]

[inspector_blakey]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) advance fares do indeed seem to be as rare as rocking horse sh*t at many times of the day and week; in my (admittedly fairly limited) experience you seem to need to book a long way ahead of time and be prepared to be flexible with trains, especially if you're travelling in the "core" part of the network (bounded by BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains)/RDG^▸ (Rail Delivery Group, or Reading station, depending on context)/YRK/MAN). And even then they're not always that cheap. My one recent experience of trying to book advance fares (Oxford to Blackpool) using Virgin WC^▸ (Wiltshire Council (Unitary Authority), was Wiltshire County Council until March 2009) was even worse; despite extensive searching I couldn't find a single advance purchase fare at any time of day on a Friday, and this was after the advance fares for the relevant dates had been released. I guess when your trains are already rammed with people paying for expensive tickets it makes no business sense to make them even more crowded with plebs like me paying peanuts.

By contrast FGW^▸ (First Great Western) advance fares seem to be available much more widely; my biggest ever coup was probably getting an OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-SWA^» (Swansea - next trains) first class ticket for GBP20.45, admittedly with Y-P discount, only a few days ahead of time.

[soupowl]

I received this email too, offering me a 10% discount on fares.  The fare I normally pay is ^20.00, from London to Swindon, on an advance internet booking.
I clicked on the link, and was taken to the 10% discount page.  When I put in the journey details, it came up with my normal ^20 fare, then added ^2.20 on, then deducted ^2.20, leaving me with my original fare of ^20.00!

When  I contacted FGW^▸ (First Great Western) about this, they first  sent me back an email denying all knowledge of a discount being offered.  When I persisted, they sent me another email saying not to worry, that although the discount does not appear on the payment page, I would see that it would be discounted when I got my bank statement.
I have just received my bank statement, and I have been chareged ^60 (for 3 journeys) which is what I would normally pay.
Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?? It would seem not!

[grahame]

Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?? It would seem not!

Welcome to the forum, Soupowl.

With most of their sales / marketing, First Great Western have struck me as knowing exactly what they are doing - a few blips, but impressively few.  But I'm afraid that doesn't mean that what they are doing is always what their travellers want them to do.

There are some VERY sensible sortouts in the latest range of fare revisions from the passenger's viewpoint - the moving off offpeak singles for the most part (but not across the board) to half of the offpeak return, rather than a pound less, for example.   But the +10% and then -11% discount could be read far more cynically - it's an immediate increase for anyone who books other than through their web site, and it moves the base fare upwards.   Your 20 pound fare is no longer the standard, but a special deal which may be offered for a limited time only ... and that may be the left and the right hand of FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s marketing working together to increase their revenue, longer term, in steps that both hands together are calculating will cause the least fuss amongst the passengers.