Need help with advance booking UK train tickets---thanks.

Sasha,

If you want a quick answer, sorry, im not wired that way.

But i usually google "UK train system" and see what pop up. I do the same for other countries.

To try and answer your question and this was from what i was there and did my trips.

*I would like to save money by booking in advance. When do I do that --- is it two months ahead, or three?

I found out that the earliest i could book was 3 months. your mileage may vary (ymmv) and ive only travel from London to Edinburg and London to Leeds in the UK. Be aware that depending on the TIME, the cost will be more since the due to the commuters. I noticed that if you can travel in the late AM early PM, than you can find less expensive fees. Also the off hours too.

*Is there one rail website that will work for all?

Im not sure but others will chime in. i used Eastern Rail or something like that for my trains. what i would do is to pick one and to plug and chug your destinations and find out - thats what i do.

*Also, do the tickets appear at the time of booking as a printable ticket, or do they send an email with a printable ticket ( accessible later), or do you get a code and pick up the actual ticket at the station?

I like to experiment on my travels to see what and how things work. So i have done the "print @ home" and pick up (p/u) ticket at the train station kiosk. Both have worked in every country i tried. I havent tried to do the p/u @ window. I did have an issue in but it was in Germany. yes, you will receive an email with your "print @ home" ticket if you choose that option. The p/u @ station is just as you say.

Note that if you choose the p/u @ station, you MUST use the credit card you used to buy the ticket to retrieve them out of the kisok. Since i only have 1 credit card, for now, i wasnt able to try using a different one to see what happens.

*Finally, my sis is old enough to qualify for a Senior Rail Card. Can I book the tickets with that discount for her, even tho she can't actually buy the card until wearrive in London?

Unknown at this time. In a few years, i will be able to do the Senior thingy, but for now im enjoying not. others more experienced in that will chime in.

im sure if i have any errors, I will hear about it.

happy trails.

Some operators discount advance tickets on their own services via their website. So the best thing maybe to work out your route, and if a leg is exclusively on one operator, look on their website for any special offers.

FGW might not do printable tickets, but you can download tickets into their mobile app. Note though that having a flat battery would mean paying again ...

www.seat61.com

Sasha,

I don't buy a lot of train tickets, but I always start with the National Rail site. Though they don't sell the actual tickets, if you click the "buy" button, it will take you to the site of the company that runs the trains on that route. So on our last trip I started with National Rail and bought tickets with both FGW and Southern (I think). It's been a couple years, so I don't know if they had an option to print tickets at home. I seem to remember people on this forum talking about that possibility. We had one set of tickets sent to the home of our friends who live in England and picked up the other set at the train station. We did have a code for the pick-up, but I didn't even need it when I inserted my credit card into the machine (we joked that it was probably the only AMEX it had seen all year). One nice thing about buying online is you often get even more of a discount on advance tickets. I just inquired about a trip from London to Bath and had the advance price come up as 15 pounds, but when I clicked the buy button, FGW gave the price as 13.50 for buying online. Had that happen with our Chichester to London trip also--quoted 10 pounds for 2 tickets at National Rail, ended up paying 7.50. Good Luck!

Thanks everyone! I guess there is no one website to do it all so I will just have to deal,with that..

My concern with " print at home" is that our printer broke and we won't replace it for awhile, so I will have to go to the library to buy and print tickets if that is the option. So I would actually prefer the " pick up at station" option if I can sort that out.

Keith, we chose Cheltenham as it is right on our route. We won't stay there, we plan to catch a taxi to Winchcomb and do some walks from there.

So I've got the twelve weeks out date marked on my calendar and will get busy with buying tickets then.

We bought tix this past summer via Virgin Trains on South West Trains from Waterloo to Bath. We checked the pick up in station option, which we did upon arrival in town (several days before the train trip). Does not matter which station you tell it you will pick them up in, they were available at any station that had a kiosk to tie in to. Kiosk printed out the tickets plus a receipt. No need to print at home.
If you want to gamble, you can get a lower price via Mega Trains (same company as Mega Bus), the gamble is that they don't come available there until 6 weeks prior. And though they should be lower, if you can't get their limited number of tickets before they sell out then they will be higher from any other source, as everyone else puts them on sale 12 weeks out. And Megatrain is restricted to a specific car of that train.
Only remarkable thing about the whole process was conductor looking at our tickets on the way home and remarking on the low price!

Sasha,

My concern with " print at home" is that our printer broke and we won't replace it for awhile, so I will have to go to the library to buy and print tickets if that is the option. So I would actually prefer the " pick up at station" option if I can sort that out.

This isnt an issue. The file doent have a timebomb in it so file disappears after x amount of time.

As long as you dont "delete" or "trash" it, it will be in your mail box and you can print it anytime/anywhere you can access your email. ALso, it could be an attachment PDF file to your confirmation e mail. So read/scan your emails from whoever you buy from.

just an fyi, Everywhere but the USA uses a different size letter paper. So, when you do print it make sure you get all of the important info on the hardcopy. If there are any bar codes on the e ticket, make sure they are on the hard copy too.

Also, sometimes you have to do more work to get the job done. Its not fun, but its life and that includes traveling.

happy trails.