Brit Rail Pass for family - 1st or 2nd class?

For any meaningful answer you need to state your planned itinerary.

For most people these days buying advance tickets is more economical (maybe combined with the Friends and Family Railcard), but you have left your planning slightly on the late side.

You may have some longer distance peak time journeys though which make the Rail Pass a good deal.

If you’re happy to splash the cash then go first class. There’s no guarantee you’ll all sit together but it’s more likely in first class than standard.

First class isn’t luxury by any means and on shorter routes is not worth it.

Without the itinerary what Marco said is spot on. No way to tell.

Where in Wales? Many trains have no first class on the train so the extra money is wasted.

Unless you are on the big intercity trains many of the others - throughout England - either have a very small first class with little difference in seating or none at all.

What time of day are these trips? At rush hour both first and standard may be full and people standing.

I haven't heard about children going free (except under 5). Is this a special promotion?

For each adult or senior pass, one free child's pass is included (if required). Only some pass types though.

Thanks for the replies - itinerary is mid-June to end of June - arrive to Heathrow, then to Bath for 3 days, back to London for 3 days, on to Conwy for 2 days, up to Penrith (then bus to Keswick) for a couple days, next York for a couple days and back to London.
The BritRail website says that for each purchase of an adult BritRail pass 1 child (5-15) travels free - here is the website text:
BritRail Family Discount
Purchase any select adult or senior BritRail Pass and one accompanying child (age 5 to 15) receives a Pass of the same type and duration for free. For additional children, the price is up to 50% off the adult fare. The BritRail Family Discount is available in both 1st and Standard Class.

You could likely do much better with a Friends and Family Railcard and Advance Fares.

According to this website, an 8-day BritRail Flexi Pass for the 4 of you is $848 in 2d class. That is over $100 for each day of travel, if you use 8 days. But I count 6 travel days, which brings the cost to $161 average per day.

Here are representative Advance fares (for all four of you) that I found for a random day in mid-June, with a Friend's and Family Railcard:

Reading to Bath, £21.30 (yes, for all four). Younwould have to add the cost of bus tix from LHR to Reading

Bath Spa to London, £27.90

London to Conwy, £150

Conwy to Penrith, £117

Penrith to York, £99

York to London, £61.20

You may be able to reduce the cost of the 3 more expensive journeys by booking segments separately (we did that in traveling to Penrith via Manchester last May) but Indid not try that here.

You would need to add £30 to the total for the Railcard. And these exact fares may not be available on the specific days you travel, so check them yourself for your actual travel dates.

A benefit of this travel, apart from the savings, is that you have the flexibility to mix First and Second Class travel if you want.

To add to Lola's excellent post:

To find train schedules and prices, go to http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/. This will then take you to links to book the tickets. For many of them, you will have to pick up the tickets at a station in the UK, but you should be able to pick up all tickets at once. Before buying, make sure you understand the terms. For instance, an Advance ticket is cheap, but not changeable; you must take the specific train you booked, or the ticket becomes scrap paper.

If you want to use a Friends and Family Card, you do not need it to make the bookings, but you will need to buy it when you get to the UK. You should be able to do this at the same time and places as you pick up your tickets. On the train, you show your tickets along with the card.

Thank you for the detailed reply Lola - this is our first family trip to England so I am still figuring out the best options. I will check the website for the individual fares and see what is available.

I have one more question - do any of you know whether a BritRail pass includes the Heathrow Express?
The website says "Get access to the Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Express trains - trains from Luton Airport to London, from Birmingham and Manchester airports are also included. The boundary stations for this pass are: Carlisle, Berwick upon Tweed, Lydney, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Hereford, Bucknell, Shrewsbury, Chirk, Crewe, Chester, West Kirby.."
Does "get access" mean included in price of BritRail pass, or just that you can buy the Heathrow Express ticket on the same website? Thanks for all the help!

Update - found the answer under the rail pass section on this website - express trains included - thanks!

Answer from the Heathrow Express website:

https://www.heathrowexpress.com/tickets-deals/railcards

But note that there is also a discount with the Friends and Family Railcard. And kids 15 and under ride free.

Tickets bought 30-90 days in advance are £14.30 ( no additional discount for a Railcard).

But is you are going to Bath from the airport, you do not need to travel into London on the Heathrow Express; you can go straight to Reading from the airport and pick up the train there. The bus runs every 20 minutes and costs £16 for adults (not sure about child prices).

So if you do buy the BritRail passes, then yes, it might make sense to use the Heathrow Express to Paddington, and catch the train to Bath there. And for this one train, after the longhaul'flight, there is a risk to buying Advance tickets for a specific train. Here the pass has a distinct advantage, namely flexibility.

Lots to consider.

Why are you wasting time and money going back to London in order to get from Bath to Conwy (Conway)? The best way to do this is to leave Bath on the 12.36 (Portsmouth to Cardiff train) and get off at Newport where you wait about 10 minutes for the Cardiff to Holyhead train - which will take you to Conwy arriving at 17.18. If I pre-booked this today for tomorrow (Monday), it would cost £42 one way without a railcard. (Trip takes 4 hours 42 minutes). Booking ahead several weeks, you could perhaps get the price down to about £32. However, if you did purchase a Britrail Pass and it was valid for this route, I would suggest that you hop off at Ludlow and spend around 1 hour 30 minutes having a look around this town. Shrewsbury is another place worth having a look at en-route and Chester is even better. By hopping off at such places, you could leave Bath on an earlier service to give yourselves more time. All trains stop at Llandudno Junction - which is 1 mile east of Conwy. Those that stop at Conwy are by request only - so make sure the guard knows after leaving Chester.

You could also consider going from Bath to Cardiff for 1 or 2 nights. (Direct trains hourly & it takes around an hour). From Cardiff, direct trains go to Conwy and other places in north Wales. Click this link and select ROUTE MAP where you will see Bristol (near Bath) in the bottom right. Make sure you have food and drink on these trains as they only have a trolley service every so often.https://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk

http://www.visitcardiff.com

James - thank you for the suggestion. That was my original plan but it meant arriving in Conwy on a weekend and I could not find lodging (next time will book things much further in advance!). So - switched London from end of trip to middle so we could still go to Conwy and have a place to stay. Will keep your suggestion for a future visit.