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2-4-1 discounts and travel w/in London--advice, please

Posted by on

Hi all:

I've been reading a lot on the Forum about the 2-4-1 offers, but I'm still kind of confused. I was hoping you might be able to help me please!!

I am traveling to London later this month with 2 other people for 10 days. I was planning on getting us all Oyster Cards with a 7-day pass (which was the recommendation I got from the Rick Steves London 2018 book) for travel within the city. But then I started reading here about the 2-4-1 offers with the 7 day Travelcard bought at a National Rail Station (NRS).

Here are my questions:

1) for travel w/in London, does the 7 day NRS Travelcard cost the same for tube/buses as getting an Oyster Card with a 7-day-pass? Is it the same maximum cost per day?

2) since we are going to be there 10 days, is it best to buy a 7-day Travelcard and then 3 single day cards? (We are going to take a few day trips out of London (i.e., Bath). But I don't think it makes much difference since I want to have the Travelcard for travel w/in the city every day as well.)

3) Since there are 3 of us, 2 of us will have to pay full price for the 2-4-1 sites, but 1 person will get in free. For that reason, only 2 of us actually need to get the NRS Travelcard. Is there any reason why it would be advantageous for the 3rd person to just get the Oyster card and 7-day-pass as I had originally planned?

4) We will all be arriving at LHR (I arrive 1 day earlier than the other 2). We are staying close to St. Paul's. The person we are staying with had suggested we take the Piccadilly Line to Holborn and then the Central Line east to St Paul's. Even though I now need to go to a NRS to buy the Travelcard, I think I should still follow this plan and then walk over to Blackfriars or Thameslink (I think those are the closest NRS to St. Pauls) to buy the Travelcard after I drop off my luggage. Does that make sense?

5) I have read people talk about printing the vouchers at home ahead of time, but I was looking here: https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london and don't see how to print the vouchers. Do I need to buy the attraction on-line to print the vouchers? I thought I could just print blank ones.

Sorry for so many questions!! Thanks so much for any help you can give this confused traveler!!

Posted by
4509 posts

Before you do a lot of inconvenient dashing around, make sure the savings are worth it. Calculate what you will be saving by doing this, that the attractions that you want to see participate in the program (note that the Tower suspends it mid-July to early Sept) and that you aren't substituting free things like Evensong for a paid visit to a major cathedral. Then see if it is worth the bother. Note that there are 2 Blackfriars stations, one for the tube and the other for the rail, and I don't remember seeing a person there in the rail station to sell the paper passes.

Edit: researching a bit City Thameslink and Blackfriars Rail do have a person there business hours M-F.
https://www.toptiplondon.com/places-to-visit/2-for-1-offers/where-to-buy-paper-travelcard/

Posted by
16171 posts

A 7-day Travelcard costs the same £34.10) whether you have it on paper or on an Oystercard. It will fully cover all travel on Tube, Bus, lightrail, etc. within the zones you have purchased it for ( Zones 1-2 for the price shown).

The “ daily cap” of £6.80 applies to using Pay As You Go (PAYG) on an Oyster Card. It does not apply to Travelcard use.

See the charges here:

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/fares/caps-and-travelcard-prices?ticketType=Adult

The advantage of having a Travelcard on an Oyster is that you can have extra money on there to cover journeys beyond zones 1-2, or a trip on the water bus.

The disadvantage of having a Travelcard on Oyster is that you cannot use it for the 2-4-1 offers. We found the paper Travelcard very useful for those offers, and made good use of it.

You can buy it at any National Rail station, so in addition to Blackfriars, you can reach Waterloo or London Bridge Station by crossing the river.

Posted by
5326 posts

Not sure if your 10 days includes arrival/departure days or not, but my suggestion is that you buy a 7-day paper travelcard somewhere to cover the 'middle' of your stay where you are looking to take advantage of the 2-For-1 offers, and use something else for the day or two either side, where you are either in transit, or could maybe plan a day away somewhere else. One day travelcards are deliberately ridiculously expensive and you will in some way need to cover your trip from (to?) Heathrow, for which a zone 1-2 travelcard won't cut it anyway.

If any in your party have a contactless payment card, then he/she might as well be the one left out of the travecards and use it, taking advantage of the capping advantages available especially Monday-Sunday, presuming the issuer doesn't levy exorbitant forex charges.

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