Purchase and Use of Travel Card with 2-1 discounts, etc.

Check the TripAdvisor site for several good posts on similar questions. From my reading of those posts and the website, the ticket must be active on the day you use the 2-4-1 offers. Printing the "vouchers" is possibly optional- I think you can get a booklet with them instead of printing them out, but I am not certain.

Yes I believe you are right about the train stations having a booklet with the coupons. These tickets are so complicated.

We purchased 3 one day passes and along with it got a coupon book.On the day we used the passes we also used the coupon book. Be sure they give it to you and it has to be at a RR station.We got ours at Victoria Station.

How do you plan to get to Hampton Court Palace? The usual way is by rail from Waterloo in which case your rail ticket will be valid for the Days Out 2 for 1 admission offer. If not, Toni is correct in saying that the rail ticket must be valid on the day you use the offer. The Days Out brochures should be on display in London rail stations. I advise downloading the voucher from the website to make sure you comply with all the fine print. A paper travelcard or other rail ticket bought at Victoria rail (not underground) station will be good for the Days Out offers on the day of the ticket's validity. This thread and the Google spread sheet link should help clarify the Days Out offers. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g186338-i17-k3883322-Some_2_for_1_offers_have_been_extended_to_30_APR_2011-London_England.html

Thanks for the link Clinton. We are actually driving to Hampton Court and continuing on to Salisbury/Stonehenge so we won't be using Travel Cards in London until a couple of days later.

Many of the offers weren't being accepted when we were in London this summer for various reasons. Be prepared to pay full price...

I looked up the Hampton Court station and it looks like tickets may be purchased from machines and is only staffed part-time.

You can use your Oyster card to get to Hampton Court. Go via the Waterloo station.

Thanks, Andrea. That's interesting that the offers were not being accepted. Was it because the criteria wasn't being met for the offer? If that's the case I would go a ahead and purchase our tickets online instead.

Andrea, I'm very interested in why the 2 for 1 offers weren't accepted. You said a variety of reasons. I suggest these to a lot of people, both here on the helpline and people that I meet travelling around the UK. I certainly could do with understanding who and why they aren't taking them, if you don't mind sharing. Thanks

We were in London this summer and had no problems using the 2 for 1 offers. We used them at the tower, the cabinet war rooms/churchill museum and the imperial war museum. I think the card needs to be active on the day you use it for the discount, though our cards were not closely scrutinized by the ticket sellers.

I have had no trouble with the 2 for 1 offers either. Make sure you comply with all the fine print in the Days Out 2 for 1 offers. The offers are 2 for 1, not half price. Solo travelers are out of luck. Discounts, with rare exceptions, are not valid for pre-booked tickets. The travelcard or rail ticket must be a paper ticket and must be valid on the day you take the discount, though like Lyyne, no one looked closely. Two rail issued tickets and one voucher are required. Oyster cards can not be used for the offers. Theatre and dining offers frequently exclude weekend evenings. The discount can not be combined with other offers. A group of 4 using the discount may have to be handled as two transactions. Large groups may be refused.

As I recall, Hampton Court is not a large Railway station- so may not be able to buy them there. Possibly at Heathrow or some other larger station on the way? We have on occassions found some of the smaller stations (Windsor for example) the staff seemed to disappear and we had to buy our train tickets from the machine - or miss the first train

I first of all tried to use the 2 for 1 offer for Les Mis. Nope...Nick Jonas was in the cast for several weeks, so no special offer. We bought tickets at full price and enjoyed it, though the clerk wasn't very helpful and gave us tickets for a different night. Be sure to check! Next, was another offer for one of the plays listed, Sister Act. Nope, they weren't accepting them for some reason I can't recall, but did give us a discount when I asked for teacher or senior or something that applied. So, bottom line, from my experience with the theater portion of offers, you don't know until you show up. Of course, you can get deals for theater at the box office frequently and at the tkts booth in Leicester Sq. Good luck!

That's interesting Andrea. I am really looking for the 2-1 tickets at attractions and have not really looked into the theater aspect yet. Good to know. I think I read on Trip Advisor that others had issues with the 2-1 theater tickets also.