Oyster card/Railcard/Days Out/2FOR1… help

The Railcard is certainly worth it. You can either buy in advance or at any staffed station.

But the discount can't be added to any Oyster card, or Bank Card.

You need to buy paper Off Peak Family Day Travelcards to do that for anywhere within the London fare zones 1 to 9 e.g. Surbiton and Sutton.

Travelcards are not valid on Heathrow Express but the Railcard is. Buy tickets on line selecting the Family Railcard option or at station.

On line for the Family Discounted Singles for Heathrow Express still exist- £26.60 for the family. Jump in now, buy those saying you have the railcard, then buy the railcard, that way round.

Northampton - either buy on line from LNWR or at station using your railcard. If you can fix your out and back train times each way there are Advance Fares for £15.30 for the whole family on the Friday (to Earls Barton) from 0956 onwards, as close in time as next Tuesday, currently.

On the Saturday Advance Tickets are in short supply on your way back - only on the 0705 and 0818 and 0848 (all too early for return car rental) so it is £56 for the family on Off Peak Singles before 12 noon then £33.60 Super Off Peak Singles.

But Off Peak returns for the family are £69.90 out any train Friday, back any train Saturday. £56 + £15.30= £71.30, so straightforward Off Peak Returns are the better deal, no worry about what train you are on.

Reverting to the previous thread Advance tickets from Wellingborough on the Saturday are running at £35.30, add in the one way car rental charge and it's about evens.

Where are you staying? Do you need to go to Paddington?

Fare Checks- Victoria to Sutton with railcard is £24.90 for the family (£43.80 without) as point to point fares or the Family Off Peak Travel card with railcard is £26.80 for unlimited travel in London that day after 0930 in Zones 1 to 5.

Waterloo to Surbiton is the £26.80 travelcard. The return point to point fare is £30.20 with railcard, £47.10 without.

So on those two trips alone the £30 railcard has saved you over £37!!e

2FOR1 is a subset of Days Out which also includes 1/3 off savings offers as well.

How the scheme works differs from place to place. Some now offer direct online booking whereas others are still the older method of "take a voucher to the venue and buy tickets there".

Oyster cards do not qualify for the promotion.

I'm usually a solo traveler but have occasionally used a 2-for-1 offer when I had a travel mate for part of a trip. At most of the covered sights it's not a problem (if policy allows it) to walk up to the ticket counter with the voucher and buy the tickets there. I did that at Kew Gardens, for example, and it was peak season and during a Dale Chihuly exhibition. I wouldn't try it at the Churchill War Rooms, a place where buying tickets in advance is always recommended due to the risk of long ticket lines and possible sellouts.

OK, I also did some fare research and came to the same conclusion (that the railcard makes sense).

So some logistical questions:

1) It looks like we can buy the railcard online and download it to our phones via the app. Is this correct? Is there any reason to wait until we arrive in the UK or should we go ahead and buy it now.

2) It also looks like we can buy our Heathrow Express tickets in advance and add the railcard discount. Should we go ahead and do that as well?

3) This is where things get confusing for me. In addition to the train travel I listed in the original post, we will be in London for 9 days (minus one day in Earls Barton) and will be traveling by underground/bus/etc. We will need at least one Oyster card (travel card?) for my daughter who is 13 and doesn't have her own form of contactless payment. We may also need something for my husband who is leery of using his bankcard/credit card to tap on/tap off. But I am uncertain what to buy and when/where to buy it.

not sure about the answers to your recent set of questions, but I hope you are aware of the planned strikes on the tube? They coincide with your travel dates I believe. You may need to develop alternatives to the tube (bus) and pack a whole bunch of patience. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/potential-london-tube-strikes-in-october

Yes, I’m following the strike thread and I’m not really sure how to fit that in. A lot can happen between now and Monday (when we arrive), so I’m going to pretend like it’s a tropical depression and just keep my eye on it until it either turns into a hurricane or heads out to sea.

Yes to your questions 1 and 2. Buy on line now.

Question 3 buy the Oysters from the machines at Heathrow Rail Station or any other tube station on arrival, and charge them up with an initial estimate of your planned spends.

I know that the machines at Heathrow Express rail station sell Oysters from a check visit in August.

The advantage to buying railcards at the last minute is that they are valid for a full 12 months. If there is any chance that you will return within that time and get the benefit twice, that's a good plan.

The advantage of buying them now is that you have them and that job is done. No chance of forgetting to do it.

there is an excellent FAQ page for the Days Out 2for1 promotion which should answer most questions, including which rail products qualify, it is all at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/days-out-guide/frequently-asked-questions/

I think the part that was confusing me was the relationship between the attraction and our train ticket.

So having read the national rail page (several times), tell me if I’m understanding this correctly.

If we arrive in London by train from Liverpool (for example), on a Monday with a return ticket to Liverpool on Friday, we can use any current 2FOR1 deals between Monday and Friday.

If we don’t have a return ticket, we can only 2FOR1 on the day we arrive. What if you arrive at night, can you use it the following day?

If we arrive in London by airplane, and take Heathrow Express, we are not eligible for any 2FOR1 deals. However, if we take the Elizabeth line, we are eligible. But not if we pay our fare using Oyster card/travel card, only if we buy actual tickets? And only on the day we arrive?

So if we leave London by train on a Friday and then return to London on Sunday, our tickets are eligible for 2FOR1 but only on Sunday, not the following day.

Travel cards are valid if they have the national rail symbol.

Thus ones issued at tube stations don't qualify.

Those issued at Heathrow Elizabeth Line/HEX station do have that symbol on.

That has been checked first hand after a query earlier in the year on the same issue.

For the 13 year old, set up the Young Visitor Discount on their Oyster Card. Any member of staff at any Underground Station can do that with the staff functions on the ticket machines
That way the child gets half price travel.

So when you arrive at Paddington off the HEX go downstairs to the tube and set that up.

That is good for 14 days.

You could buy a family travelcard with railcard discount each day for £26.80.

One return zone 1 tube fare for you 4 would be £12.50 with the YVD set up, as will every other. So if you do one journey you have basically paid £14.30 for your 241. More and your 241 is almost free.

Some maths to do there.

It all sounds very complicated but this promotion is primarily meant for people travelling into London for a day or short stay by train, ie people who live outside of London in other parts of the U.K. It’s to encourage them to take the train over the bus or car.

Once you start trying to use the scheme in other ways it does become a bit tricky to make it work. There are ways but as you’re finding out it isn’t straight forward. Try to keep in mind the original reason for the promotion and it will help you to make sense of it.

For example, if you only have a ticket into London and not a return to leave again then you are maybe a resident in London. You don’t have a ticket putting you within the category of day tripper or short stay visitor. You can use your ticket that day but not on the following days as you could then just buy one ticket and have 241 offers all year!

Hi Helen, once I figured that part out, it definitely became less confusing, but that messaging wasn't front and center for me (or clearly many other people). And I have read plenty of threads about how to game the system.

My confusion was that I wasn't actually trying to game the system. I read also read the offer as encouraging folks to use the train and that 2FOR1 is one of the bonus discounts that comes along with that (I also saw something about discounted theater tickets).

The thing is we ARE riding the train for purposes other than just 2for1 AND we made a decision to ride the train instead of renting a car. But we are riding the train out of London, in between visiting attractions in London, and I guess that is not the purpose of the program.

I'm still confused about the restrictions around same day use though. I see your point about the return ticket, but there are also folks who are a little more spontaneous and maybe want to have some flexibility around the end of their adventure and just plan to buy their return ticket when they are ready to return. In fact, one of the main reasons why my family often chooses to drive (here in the USA) rather than take public transit is because we want the flexibility of deciding when to head home. The population that these offers are directed at might be hesitant simply because of the requirement to show a return ticket.

For example, we could take the Elizabeth line from Heathrow, which is absolutely eligible. But we are not planning to go the Tower of London until the following day because of travel fatigue. And I'm not buying return tickets to Heathrow because we are supposed to fly out on the 12th and I'm waiting to see how this strike plays out to decide what makes the most sense.

Anyway, I was really just trying to understand if I should go ahead and buy tickets to the Tower of London or if we will be eligible for discounted tickets.

As far as I am concerned you are not trying to game the system. You want to be honest and we need a way to encourage that integrity.

Because the travelcard is Zones 1 to 6 you could be travelling from Outer London, which is totally allowed, no questions about that. C2C- the Southend commuter line-actively encourage it from all their stations, even the ones in Zones 1 to 9. They are rare in having zones 7 to 9 stations.

Last time I bought a travel Card I asked the machine to issue it from Heathrow (buying it ahead of time). The machine up here in Cumbria actually issued it as starting from Feltham, a zone 6 main line station!!

I was actually starting from Euston, going to Heathrow, but chose to have it issued backwards for my own reasons. I had no plans to visit Feltham that day but did eventually when the Central Line went into meltdown and the Piccadilly had a whole line signal failure at the same time so I had to use Plan Z.

What I propose is you buy the Travel Card on Tower of London day. If that is your only 2 for 1 day then do Oyster/contactless on the days when you aren't doing Surbiton, Sutton and Northampton.

I agree that you’re not gaming the system. It’s just you’re not the prime market for this promotion and that’s why it isn’t working out so well for you. If I was going to London for the day or a few days I would always have a return ticket. It could be an open return with flexibility but I’d always have one because I need to get home again!

Having a ticket to London (even just a qualifying one from Heathrow), and another back out is all you need for the intervening period, wherever they are. They don't have to be the same. Just don't put them through the automatic barrier if they are paper rather than etickets.