Qualifying for National Rail 2-for-1 Offers

Brodick Castle is especially interesting. That would be valid with a rail-sea ticket from any Scottish station to Brodick (as opposed to Troon or Ardrossan), so would be valid with an Ayr to Brodick, or a Brodick to Glasgow ticket.

However sale of such tickets was suspended last summer when the ferries were in a mess. Allegedly they are back on sale BUT experience within the last two weeks is that they are not available on line, or on station ticket machines.

You would have to buy both tickets as real paper tickets from the clerk at Ayr station. But that puts you in the bottom standby boarding tier for the ferries, even if the through tickets are available. That should not be a problem in early May unless an imponderable happens on the ferry.
So for my money that one is not worth the doubts about it. The ferry system is still too fragile for my liking. I would rather have a confirmed ferry reservation. YMMV.

If you go to a place where 2 for 1 deals for those who arrive by train are on offer - DO NOT put your ticket into the gate slot on arrival or you will never see it again and lose your proof of arrival be train. DO THIS > at the gate - see a member of staff and tell them that you need to retain your ticket and they will let you through.

I presume that if the ticket is loaded onto a phone that it can just stay on the phone unless you wipe it out. I also presume that if you use contactless tap in/out in some areas - such as London - that you would have no proof of arrival by train inoprder to get the 2 for 1 deals.

It's not worth getting bounced off a planned ferry to save the cost of one entry ticket to the castle. I checked the Cal-Mac website a few hours ago. Tickets seemed to be available for all sailings on Saturday (for foot passengers, I mean), so it doesn't feel very risky to me, but really not worth the doubt, i guess. The Arran hotel is really, really expensive, so we want to have as much time on the island as we can manage.

I thought the language for 2-for-1s referred to closest rail station, so a ticket from somewhere to Troon seems as if it should be OK; my question is with the mismatch between the inbound ticket (origin: Ayr) and the intended outbound ticket (destination: Glasgow).

My underlying ferry worry or nervousness currently is what happens if either ship goes tech. There is nothing to replace it with, so capacity is then at a premium.

I may be wrong, but Brodick is certainly a Station with a Station code (but no trains) so I believe the ticket has to be to Brodick, not Troon.

Ultimately it is a test case, and may be worth trying. My rule interpretation may be in error. Please report back, positive or negative.

EDIT - I posted earlier about using Travelcards in London and the Spirit of Scotland - it posted then vanished, but you should have received the e mail

Thank you; I did find the missing post in my notification email.

It will be interesting to see how many of these we manage to take advantage of. If anything unusual occurs, I'll post a report later.

What are the “travelcards purchased from a National Rail station” that can be used to support 2-for-1 offers? This TfL webpage says 7-day travelcards can be purchased on Oyster cards from ticket machines in rail stations, but I don’t see how that sort of travelcard could be used at a 2-for-1 deal

National Rail stations in London operated other than by the Overground or Elizabeth Line will sell 7-day travelcards on their own smartcards (such as The Key from GTR or Touch from GWR/SWR) which qualify). Getting the smartcard itself can be difficult as many are only mailed out after an online application. Southern ticket offices though can issue them.

If you want to post this question on the TripAdvisor London forum, there are those there who are well versed in such offers (who could answer your post with much more knowledge than I have) for the 241 deals outside of London.

However, if you want to know about 241 at sites like Hampton Court Palace, Bletchley Park (not really in London per se, but close enough that you could visit them as a day trip, during your first or last five days), which then could also help qualify you for other in-London sites, I can help you with those, if you want to send me a PM.

And just an fyi: rail tickets bought through contactless (where available) will not work, since any rail tickets used for the offers need to have the National Rail logo on them, whether bought electronically at home and printed out, or bought the day of travel at a kiosk/desk.

That is incorrect misinformation about print at home tickets not having the national rail logo on them. Simply they do. However normally anyone who has such pdf style tickets just shows them on their phone. Few people waste paper and ink printing them.
Likewise any ticket bought on the day from a Clerk or a kiosk/machine at a National Rail station IS valid as It has the logo on it, irrespective of how you paid.

isn31c,

You DID NOT read my post correctly.

I pointed out that "rail tickets bought through CONTACTLESS (where available) will not work." Contactless, also called tap and pay, does not show up as an electronic ticket saved on your phone.

I then continued by stating that RAIL TICKETS USED FOR THE OFFERS NEED TO HAVE THE NATIONAL RAIL LOGO ON THEM. You are merely restating what I already said. Why the argument?

As for wasting paper printing them, some people have mentioned that their electronic tickets did not appear to have the National Rail logo on them, but printed ones did.

The DaysOut website even states that "These tickets cannot be used: etickets where the National Rail logo is not present." If all etickets had the logo, there would be no need to mention it on the website, hmm?

Thank you all for the additional information. I'll print this thread out before I head out on Tuesday so I can consider all our options.

As always, there is tons of interest in London, most of those sights not having 2-for-1 offers (which I guess is a good thing, in a way). It's a matter of deciding what we most want to see, what we have time to see, and where we can perhaps save some money.

It certainly seems like you’ll have plenty to keep you going this trip! Have a great vacation!

Sorry to jump in but does anyone know if the vouchers from the 2 for 1 booklets are also required to enter the places doing the deal - or will the train tickets suffice?

It varies. Some places (especially book ahead ones) don't need vouchers at all.

I wouldn't rely on finding the old style voucher books at stations now. Availability post pandemic seems to be spasmodic, with some train companies being better than others at stocking the booklets. C2C and Greater Anglia seem from random observations to be the best in that regard, at least to me- it drives income from ticket sales for them.

Many thanks for the speedy response isn31c.