Train/Transit Questions

You're on the right track using nationalrail.co.uk. When tickets are available, that site will transfer you to the train operator for ticket purchase. Trains leave from Kings Cross station itself, but the two stations are practically joined at the hip and share a Tube stop. There is only one station in York.

Since Manchester airport is served by regular trains, you can search those schedules in the same way; travel time 15-20 minutes from Manchester Picadilly station, for instance. Also see https://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/getting-to-and-from/.

For York to Manchester Airport it is YRK > MIA and the trains are roughly every 30 minutes. Pay on the day is about £38. Book and pay the day before for a specific train will be about £24 whilst pre-book well in advance can get the price down to around £13.

Kings Cross & St Pancras are two separate railway stations across the road from each other: you need Kings Cross.

However they are both served by a single tube station called Kings Cross St Pancras. So if you’re travelling by tube from elsewhere in London you would travel to Kings Cross St Pancras tube station then follow the signs to Kings Cross.

I’m British but I don’t know what nationality you are so I get confused by “7/12” - do you mean 7th December (which is what is it means to a Brit) or 12th July?

The 12 weeks in advance is a fairly general guideline and so keep an eye on schedules and if it’s July, it should appear soon. You’re right on the edge of the time period. If December, you’ll need to wait.

Www.nationalrail.co.uk is the right site. Look for tickets that say Advance with a capital A for the cheapest prices but bear in mind these aren’t flexible and can only be used on the specified train.

" I get confused by “7/12” - do you mean 7th December (which is what is it means to a Brit) or 12th July?"

Yes, I've seen that cause a lot of confusion in the past, assuming the OP is from the USA then dates in the UK (and a lot of the world) are written the more logical way of DD/MM/YYYY.

" I get confused by “7/12” - do you mean 7th December (which is what is it means to a Brit) or 12th July?"

I would normally agree when this is unclear but in this case the OP mentions July in the first sentence.

This page gives a summary across all railway operators as to the availability of Advance tickets:
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/44703.aspx

Presently for example the main operator on London-York LNER are selling Advances to 5 July weekdays and the weekend of 22-23 June.

I didn’t spot the word “July” - apologies to the OP.

I didn't read the 7/12 that way at all. I guess that when people put in shortcuts they can be misunderstood by various readers, including myself.

How I read it was that they couldn't get tickets 12 weeks out because they are just planning now, and some tickets haven't yet been posted. So now they are 7 weeks into the 12 (7/12), which means that they have 5 weeks of the 12 (5/12) yet to buy them. 5 weeks from today is 21st of May.

Maybe jj.smartcar could come back and clarify?

I’m pretty sure reading back that the OP does mean 12th July, because that’s just over twelve weeks away.

My dear British friends, while you might write 12 July as 12/7, we in the colonies do the opposite. We write month/day/year. So July 12 is 7/12.

Emma, there is, as you could probably guess, a Wikipedia article on the subject:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country

And the answer is yes, DMY is only the USA, and the Philippines (which used to be a colony of the USA). Though there are some countries which go YMD (2019-07-12), which is equally obvious.

Have you noticed, that although 7th July and July 7th are both grammatically acceptable in the UK, July 7th is sort of "old fashioned". Newspapers that might be considered "conservative" (with a small c) write "July 7th" on their mastheads (The Telegraph, Daily Mail). More "modern" papers write "7th July".

For or colonial friends, whichever way people say it, it is always written numerically as dd/mm/yyyy. Other countries in Europe sometimes use different separators: dd-mm-yyyy or dd.mm.yyyy (German). In Scandinavian countries I have occasionally seen Roman numbers for months: 12-VII-2019.

@ jj.smartcar - sorry for the off-topic diversion.

"Have you noticed, that although 7th July and July 7th are both grammatically acceptable in the UK, July 7th is sort of "old fashioned". Newspapers that might be considered "conservative" (with a small c) write "July 7th" on their mastheads (The Telegraph, Daily Mail). More "modern" papers write "7th July".

I'd always been schooled to say day/month/year, it's only since I've been contributing to travel forums that I've seen month/day/year (it's an illogical order to me).

Also it is increasingly house style in British publications to use the form of 7 July rather than 7th July. This is part of the trend to reduce ornamentation seen also in reduction of punctuation such as full stops within abbreviations or within addresses etc. American publication style guides are often more conservative in these changes.

Thank you everyone for the valuable answers! Apologize for my late response due to some family issues :( We are in the states so 7/12 is July 12. Very sorry about the confusion. The train prices are not up yet but will keep an eye daily from now. Really appreciated Rick Steves provides this platform!