Two Together Railcard and 7-Day TFL Travel Card

Leslie, if you can purchase the digital railcard online ahead of time, why not? That wasn't an option several years ago when I purchased the railcard and it is great to hear that it is now available.

That's probably what we will do Carol, but I admit to being curious about whether or not the card can be purchased at Heathrow. I've seen the comment several times, and no one has ever jumped in to say it wasn't possible.

“You can only get the Railcard in person at national rail stations, there aren't any at Heathrow otherwise it is by post to a UK address or the digital version.”

I remember this when we traveled to England several years ago. It looks like it hasn’t changed. I’m not sure why you think this isn’t true.

Although there are now machines at the Heathrow rail stations to buy and collect National Rail tickets, there isn't a full service National Rail ticket office.

if the government gets its way with the strikes and shuts every single ticket office, like they did on the Underground, I guess everybody will have to have virtual passes and smartphones.

This will likely affect tourists quite a lot.

My reason for not buying the rail card before leaving home would be that things happen and trips get canceled. I only buy ahead of time if it will save me money or if it will be significantly inconvenient to make the purchase after arrival. I've bought senior rail cards in the UK twice--once in London and once in Edinburgh, and it was simple both times. However, I don't schedule myself tightly, so if I got hung up in a line somewhere (hasn't happened in the UK), it wouldn't be a disaster for me.

Thank you for all the replies. It wasn't that I thought the information wasn't true, as much as I wondered whether it was out of date. I realized that though we've gone from London TO Heathrow by train, we've never LEFT Heathrow by train, so I wasn't familiar with the station. By the time we're heading for our flight home, I have eyes only for getting to the gate on time! We will plan on buying the digital pass and ordering tickets ahead.

Hi Leslie,
Will you be taking the Tube from LHR to another station in London where you will actually be boarding a train to another city? If so you can get the Two Together card there. At least, I hope so as that’s our plan!

Hi Terry,

No, our plan is to take the Heathrow Express from Heathrow into London, thus the need for the railcard before we leave the airport. My next task is to figure out whether I can buy an Oyster Card from a machine, and add a 7-day Travel-card to it, since it appears from Nigel's reply that the manned ticket counter for the underground may no longer exist at Heathrow. The TFL site hints at a Visitors' Centre office at Heathrow that may sell cards, but trying to find that office on Heathrow's online interactive map has been futile so far.

No, our plan is to take the Heathrow Express from Heathrow into London, thus the need for the railcard before we leave the airport. My next task is to figure out whether I can buy an Oyster Card from a machine, and add a 7-day Travel-card to it, since it appears from Nigel's reply that the manned ticket counter for the underground may no longer exist at Heathrow. The TFL site hints at a Visitors' Centre office at Heathrow that may sell cards, but trying to find that office on Heathrow's online interactive map has been futile so far.

If your only concern at first is getting into London, then maybe having the "Two Together card" right away is not a great concern, just go into London, then get it there for the rest of your travels. Depending on where you are staying, the Heathrow Express may not be the best option, the Underground may be better.

As for an Oyster Card, if you each have a credit card with contactless capability (or Apple Pay/Google Pay on your phone), you can use that just like an Oyster card with no additional effort. Just tap in and tap out (or tap in only on a bus), same benefit as an Oyster card. When I was at Heathrow a few years ago, machines did sell Oyster cards though....or just buy a ticket to get into London.

I guess I wasn't clear--since we can save on the Heathrow Express tickets with the railcard, then we might as well start saving immediately rather than waiting until our next train travel in the trip.

We are aware that we can use a credit card/Apple Pay, etc. for the underground, but we since we're going to be in London for over a week, I'd like to use a 7-day Travel-Card and those can't be added to a credit card, nor does it appear they can be added to the Visitor's Card I could order online.

**However, I just found the information on TFL that says there is indeed a Visitor Centre in Heathrow Terminal 3 where I can buy an Oyster card AND get a travel card added to it. One more task checked off the list. :-)

Unless you buy your Heathrow Express tickets more than 90 days in advance, the Elizabeth Line is the cheaper option to Central London than HX, even with railcard discount.
You can't use Oyster PAYG or travelcards on the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow, but on contactless you still get the daily price cap of £14.10. So take the Elizabeth line on a contactless daily price cap and start your Travelcard on Day 2 is the cheapest option.
The Elizabeth line goes beyond Paddington (out to Essex and Kent) and is an express metro (so much faster than the all stations Piccadilly line tube), so by connecting in central London will get you straight to your hotel.
From Heathrow Travelcards are only accepted on the Piccadilly Line and bus routes (bus is not a sensible daytime option to central London, but is at night).

The key to Heathrow to London transport is to know first where you need to get to, rather than planning to take the Heathrow Express (HEX) just because it has the word express on it. The HEX can be a good choice IF you buy a cheap ticket 90 days in advance. But it still leaves you in Paddington, not the best place to stay unless you have business there or are planning a train out to the west the dat after.
Buying a HEX ticket with a railcard discount isn’t the bargain you might think. You can only get the 34% discount on the £25 full price, so still c£17. The Elizabeth line is a bit slower to Paddington, but it carries on right through central London so may well go much nearer where you want to be. Or, very often, the even cheaper Piccadilly line (£5.50) will take you straight to many good areas.

For the Heathrow Express, you will get a much better price by buying online 90+ days in advance. Then it is only £5.50 each, and you won’t need a Two Together Railcard for that trip.

https://www.heathrowexpress.com/tickets-and-offers/book-early-to-save-money#/

Since your trip isn’t until July, you have until April to buy the tickets online.

Again, thank you to everyone for your suggestions. We will still be buying the digital railcard since we can have it on both of our phones rather than keeping track of one physical card. We have plenty more train trips during this visit. (And now I will be checking the individual rail company discounts from the Two Together webpage to make sure they apply to the advanced booking reduced rates.) We will also be ordering our Heathrow Express tickets ahead of time to get the £5.50 price.

I realize the HEX takes you to Paddington (see my comment above about taking that train TO Heathrow), but that doesn't mean we need to stay in that area. None of the suggested ways--HEX, Piccadilly Line, Elizabeth Line--will take us within walking distance of the place where we are staying in Kensington. We will simply change from train to underground or get a taxi from the queue depending on how the travel day has gone.

For the record, we have taken the Piccadilly line into London on our past two trips. While it wasn't horrible, it also wasn't something I look back on fondly. :-)

what time do you get in to Heathrow. Two Together Railcards not valid before 9:30 M-F.

Leslie, you are being very diplomatic about the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow.

We had to take it when we landed at HeThrow last September because the Heathrow Express was not running that day—there was a fire somewhere that stopped but the HEx and the Elizabeth line into London. So we took the Tube. We will NEVER make that mistake again. It was so crowded with people boarding at the 2 stations after Heathrow that it was very difficult for people who wanted to get off to make their way to the exit.

Fortunately the HEx refunded the £11 we paid for our ticket immediately upon my request.

We don't arrive until after 10 a.m., so will miss the morning rush.

We are aware that we can use a credit card/Apple Pay, etc. for the underground, but we since we're going to be in London for over a week, I'd like to use a 7-day Travel-Card ...

If you are going to be in London for over a week, the part of the visit between Monday to Sunday would be capped if using PAYG at the same price as a 7-day Travelcard. What were you thinking of doing for the days not covered by a Travelcard?

Okay Marco, I'm confused now. Why does TFL advertise the 7-Day travel card as being 7 days of travel for 5 days of cost (£7.70 x 5 = £38.40--okay, £38.50, but they charge less), if a week of travel is capped at the same amount? Does it have to be Monday-Sunday, or can it be Wednesday-Tuesday? In other words, is Monday-Sunday another way of saying there's a weekly cap, or would only our Wednesday through Sunday fares be counted towards the £38.40 limit?

For days not covered by a travel card, or journeys outside Zones 1-2 (where we'll be doing most of our traveling), we plan to put additional money on the Oyster card. My understanding is that the system will automatically draw from that money for the journey beyond Zone 2 to say Zone 4. Am I mistaken about that?

We would still rather have the Oyster card than using a credit card or Apple pay. I've read that some VISA cards (the type card we'll be using) don't work with the Tube readers, and my husband has more than once had to tap his Apple watch several times to get a charge to go through when paying for groceries here at home. I'd rather not become a "stone in the stream" when getting through the gates. Not that an Oyster card would guarantee that, but we had no trouble with them the last time we visited London.

My husband’s Visa card from Bank of America did not work for contactless payment on the London buses or Tube. My American Express did work ( the TFL website validates this). Fortunately we also have Oyster cards from a prior visit, so he was able to use the ££ that were left on those.

The price cap of £7.70 daily (£38.40 weekly) PAYG is for Zones 1 to 2 (increases Zone by Zone) - weekly is for a Monday to Sunday of travelling, as it's really aimed at the commuter. A 7 day travelcard can be for any 7 days. As a 1 day Z1 and 2 travelcard is £14.40 you are really saving on day 3. The difference is that £14.40 daily covers Zones 1 to 6 or £15.30 covers Zones 1 to 9 whereas a weekly Z1 to 3 is £45.20, Z1 to 4 £55,20, Z1 to 5 £65.70 Z 1 to 6 £70.30 right up to £100.20 for Zones 1 to 9. It is unlikely as a tourist that you would go into Zones 6 to 9 which are the very outer suburbs. Only you know how often you would be going beyond Zone 2 but almost all tourist destinations are in Zones 1 and 2.
To travel beyond your Zone you have to get off the train at the boundary station and tap your travelcard out then tap Oyster PAYG/contactless etc in to continue your journey.
Realistically if you are there for 3 or 4 days it is cheaper to go on capped PAYG (the increases in the cap per zone are only slight so you don't really need to worry about the zone boundaries). If you are there for 5 days there is no difference in Zones 1 to 2 between weekly Travelcard and daily capping. If you are there for 6 or 7 days other than Monday to Sunday then weekly Travelcard is cheapest.
It's a complicated answer because you need to think about your intended destinations, length and days of stay and choose the best value accordingly. TfL don't make it easy!!

Thanks isn31c--that's a very clear explanation of a complicated subject. One thing is not clear to me however: if my travel card is loaded onto my Oyster card, how can I tap out of the travel card and tap in for the other money when it's the same physical card? Does the reader sort all that out for you since it knows where you boarded the train? And is the reader on the platform to make things easier? :-) Currently we are only planning one trip out to Zone 4 to visit Richmond Park.

Yes the system works it all out automatically. If you have a travelcard then it will deduct the appropriate fare from the boundary of the zone the travelcard is valid for to where you are going. If not it will work it out on a mixture of the appropriate zone cappings and the travel history made (both by zone or mode - there might be a day when you only use the bus for example).

Why does TFL advertise the 7-Day travel card as being 7 days of travel for 5 days of cost (£7.70 x 5 = £38.40--okay, £38.50, but they charge less), if a week of travel is capped at the same amount?

They hardly advertise the 7-day travelcard at all these days here, it is a bit of a legacy product for residents / commuters although as said above it can still be of benefit over PAYG for specific cases.