London tube passes

You each need your own card. There are several ways of dealing with the tube. One is to buy single tickets. Or you can buy passes for a day or several days. You need to buy a pass to cover all the zones you will travel through, or buy single tickets to cover longer journeys. Obviously, each person must carry and use there own pass or single ticket. The third alternative is an Oyster Card. Oysters are essentially a debit card for the tube. You load it with pounds and spend them as you go. The cost of each trip is discounted from the single ticket price and costs more or less depending on the time of day and how far you go. I'm assuming this is the "pass" you are considering useing just one of. However, you still need an Oyster for each person because that is the way they are designed. First with the exception of small children everyone on the tubes must have proof that they have paid in the form of an Oyster, ticket, or pass. One Oyster between two would not pass muster. Second, Oyster cards are debited when you exit the tube based upon where you entered. So if you went through the turnstile and handed the card to a friend so that they could come too, the Oyster would be immediately debited as if one person had just taken the longest possible tube ride. When you exited the same thing would happen again. The result would be very expensive. For three days, I'd just get passes, unless you plan on mostly walking in which case I'd get single tickets. There have been days in London where we have just walked to everything and not used the tube at all. By the way the passes, tickets and Oysters will all work on local rail and buses too.

Jenny, thanks for the information-- When we use the subway in NYC it deducts the amount for each rider, so it's not like we are trying to sneak someone on--but it sounds like the Oyster card doesn't do that--
so we will each get our own card-- probably a daily one, since we think we will want to walk a lot too!! But this will be at the end of our 2 weeks in England, so maybe we will be walked out!! lol

Sorry if I implied you meant to sneak. I didn't mean to. The problem is the tube guards would do more than imply. I understand that passes work differently in different cities. The Oyster is a scary smart: it knows where you have come in; it knows where you have gone; it knows what time you did it; so be good for goodness sake . . . because if you go out where you went in it thinks that you've been bad. Actually, just the last trip our family entered at the wrong entrance in a station where there were separate entrances for the different lines and had to turn around and come right back out. The card reader deducted exactly the highest fare from each card. Fortunately, it was easy to fix. We when to the ticket desk and explained what we had done and the lady at the desk re-credited the cards. What we should have done is talked to a guard and had him fix it. The result would have been the same but faster. British tube and rail officials are kind to idiot tourists.

ANother reason for seperate cards: my husband lost his the second day in May. Fortunately, not much money was on it. Another thought: the bus rides are less expensive than the tube rides, but both less than a taxi.

Since you will only be in London three days and since you plan to walk a lot, your best option is to buy two Oyster cards and load some pay-as-you-go pounds on them. The Oyster computer will automatically give you the lowest fare for every ride you take and each day you will never pay more than the equivalent of a one-day travelcard for the zones in which you travel that day. If your cards run low on PAYG pounds, you can add more. When you're ready to leave London you can get a refund on any unspent PAYG pounds plus the deposit you paid when you bought the cards.

I'm also going to be in London for 3 days. For those of you that recommended the oyster card, how many pounds would you suggest I load on the card?

Amara: If I were in your shoes I would get an oyster card and load it with about 25 pounds. I don't have the exact number at hand but a one day travel card costs something like 7 pounds, and that will be the maximum you will be charged for each day's use of the oyster card. Whatever you do pay the deposit for the card and all the top off recharges in cash - this will make the refund of the deposit and unused funds much easier. I was in London and made the mistake of recharging the card once with a credit card, all other times I used cash. When I requested a refund I had to spend down my balance so that it was under 5 pounds. I had to make an unnecessary trip costing 3 pounds to bring the balance down. If you will be doing a lot of travel in those three days you might want to consider buying a seven day travel card - it might be less than using the oyster card. I used an oyster card because on some days my travel was free so I needed something to be used on the in-between days. Have a good trip.