Travelcard 2-4-1 Days Out Program on 7-day card - Clarification?

Hampton Court is in zone 6 and Kew Gardens is in zone 4. A zone 1-2 Travelcard only covers travel in zone 1 and 2.

You can use your Oyster to get from Whitechapel to Victoria. At Victoria, you will need to buy train tickets either for the Gatwick Express or the Southern train that stops at Gatwick.

If you want to save money by using the 2 for 1 deals, then get a paper travelcard.

"Q: Are there any advantages of putting a "paper" Travelcard on an Oyster? After all, it can't be used for the 2-4-1 deals."

That's not possible - the paper travelcard is an actual physical paper ticket bought from National Rail stations. Oyster is analogous to your bank's debit card - it's an electronic way to store cash or "travelcards" bought from Tube stations.

"The only way to get the 2 for 1 deal is to show voucher and Travelcard at attraction ticket office. (Q: any other way?)" - No - the clue is in the word 'only'.

There are a number of ways to get from Whitechapel to Gatwick, which all take the same time, give or take five minutes or so.

Rather than going to Victoria, I would suggest going to Blackfriars, turning in your Oyster cards there for a refund, then going on to Gatwick (4 trains an hour). Fare is £7.90 weekends and bank holidays, £10.20 otherwise.

Oyster cards are not presently accepted for travel to Gatwick; if you do you will be liable for at least a penalty fare on arrival. There is some kind of aspiration that they will be acceptable on Thameslink (ie the route above) by September this year, but this requires technical issues to be resolved and nothing has been announced yet.

Thanks, for your responses and information. In Rick's London book, he says that one can use an Oyster card loaded with Travelcard to get to Hampton Court. this prompted my inquiry as to whether the paper travelcard could be used in the same manner for this specific destination. Naturally, I understand that one can't paste a paper card onto a plastic Oyster card. I know that it is possible to put the value of a 7-day Travelcard onto an Oyster; however, it cannot be used for the 2-4-1 deals. I simply wondered if there were other reasons - other than convenience - of using the plastic Oyster instead of the paper Travelcard. Semantics, perhaps. I realize I asked a seemingly silly question about alternatives for redeeming the 2-4-1 vouchers at the attraction. But sometimes, people know of, or have had different experiences. Thank you, Marco, for your clear explanation of how to get from Whitechapel to Gatwick. Very helpful.

Kay, your question was not silly. It takes a while to understand all of the train/tube/oyster/voucher/travelcard issues in London!

Kay, if you decide to get a plastic Oyster card and have a travelcard for zones 1-2 loaded on it, you just need to put some PAYGO (pay as you go) funds on it to cover your trips to Hampton Court and Kew Gardens, and any place else you decide to go outside of zones 1-2. If you turn in the Oyster card when you leave, any unused funds will be refunded to you.

Thanks, Rebecca and Mary!