7-day Travelcard / Two Together Railcard and 2FOR1 Offer

Posted by reform.O (Bellevue, WA) on 09/08/24 04:22 AM

Hi everyone! This is my first post here, and I'm sorry if, it turns out, there was an answer to my question on this forum but I couldn't find it. I did my best! :)

First, let me tell you that you all have been incredibly helpful! Thank you for that. I've found so much valuable information here!

My husband and I are staying in London for 6 nights in mid-October 2024, arriving one Saturday afternoon on Eurostar and leaving next Friday in the early morning from Heathrow. We're staying in Paddington area, so we plan on getting from St Pancras to Paddington by tube on our first day in London, and taking Heathrow Express from Paddington to the airport on our last day. I'm trying to figure out transportation passes for us if any (it seems we may benefit from a 7-day Travelcard) and an itinerary in London (we're not doing any day trips but staying all 6 full days in London).

I've stumbled upon this 2FOR1 offer and I can't get it out of my head! :) I'm not sure it's worth exploring but the level of complexity is so fascinating, it feels like a proper quest! Please, help me figure out if it can be used to our benefit.

For starters, there's conflicting information on this forum regarding the validity of 2FOR1 offer in 2024. The official website lists it as a still-going: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/days-out-guide/2for1-london/. However, I'm not absolutely certain which tickets can be used to qualify for the promotion. Here - https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/days-out-guide/train-fares-discounts-and-ticket-validity/ - they say that season tickets, including 7-day tickets, are valid. At the same time, slightly below they say that travelcards sold from London underground cannot be used. How should one understand all this? When they say "a 7-day season ticket", do they mean a 7-day Travelcard? But then they specify that this 7-day Travelcard has to be bought from National Rail to qualify for the promotion? And if that is the correct assumption, can a 7-day Travelcard be purchased from National Rail in London, in zone 1?

Also, I saw here the reports from others getting access to 2FOR1 Offer through a Two Together Railcard. How does that work exactly, step by step? (If that is not too much to ask, I'm sorry, I'm not sure if it is!) You buy a Two Together Railcard in advance, then you buy rail tickets to and from London (which tickets exactly? Elizabeth line tickets) - enjoying the discount on them provided by a Two Together Railcard - and then you present these rail tickets to qualify for 2FOR1 Offer? My current understanding is that we can't go this path because we arrive in London by Eurostar, and Eurostar tickets don't qualify as tickets for 2FOR1 Offer, correct?

Any information will be helpful! Hope you all are having a great weekend :)

Posted by isn31c

Lake District, England

09/08/24 06:52 AM

7317 posts

Welcome to the forum,

2For1 is still going, and you are correct that Eurostar tickets are not valid.

A season ticket is for someone who travels into London by National Rail from outside the London fare zones every day - say from Southend, Tunbridge Wells or Gatwick Airport (in my case at various stages in my life). People commute in from as far away as Bath for instance, even York or Manchester.

Yes a travelcard can be bought from National Rail stations in the London zones. At St Pancras that means East Midland Trains, Thameslink and South Eastern Trains. So what you would do on arrival is to buy your travelcard at St Pancras from one of the ticket offices or Ticket Machines (*) of one of those companies then proceed to the Underground with your freshly minted Travelcard in hand. The Thameslink ticket office is the closest to Eurostar.

*In the North of England we can buy Travelcards from the Ticket Machines and I have done so several times this year. In the South East the machines are not as advanced, so that option may or may not exist- so just go to the ticket office. It's simplest.

In your case a Two Together Railcard (which costs £30) will give no benefits. With such a railcard you get 1/3 off the price of daily travelcards, but not (I believe) weekly travelcards. Even if you did it would not pay for itself as an adult Zone 1/2 travelcard is £42.70, take 1/3 off that is about £14.25, 2 x £14.25= £28.50 which is less than £30.
Zone 1 to 6 is £78 weekly so if you were going into Zone 6 daily (unlikely) and if there is a railcard weekly travelcard that is when a 2T railcard could be worth it. But as I say I am pretty certain that product doesn't exist.

BTW- Looking at the HEx website discounted Early Bird tickets still exist for most days in "mid October". So if you buy now (tickets valid on any train that day) you can buy your Heathrow Express tickets for less than the £25 walk up fare- £17 on each day I have checked,

That is under £5 more than the slightly slower Elizabeth Line.