Rail from London to York

John - Without knowing the full details and based on your post, I'd say there is an issue with mailing the ticket to the US. There is an option National Express East Coast to pick up our tickets in the UK.

John,

Can you give us a little more detail on what you did? What did you enter? What was the message that came back. Is the issue on the billing side or is it on the actually finding of tickets to purchase?

If you are trying to get reservations for weekend rail travel, you may be running into the disruptions caused by weekend engineering works. Try a non-weekend date and see if that helps.

Try this link
http://www.rail.co.uk/

We have never had problems checking times, etc. But we use BritRail passes and haven't had to try to buy tickets.

I just purchased London-York tickets for June 19 with no problem. Are you trying to have the tickets mailed to you? I remember reading on the website that they will not mail to non-uk addresses. I got a reference number and will have to pick up my ticket from a machine when I get there.

John, the web is the least expensive way to purchase your tickest. Not certain when you are in the UK but purchasing them early saves you lots of pounds. If all else fails simply call National Rail direct and have the tickets mailed to your home or pick them up at your departure point - Kings Cross rail station. The National Rail phone number from your home in the states is 01144 8457 225 225. Last year I phoned and had tickets mailed to my home and received them in about five days. Perhaps Marcie is correct and mailing to the US is not possible. But I'd make a call and see if you have an option . Good Luck!

I will reply with more detail about the message I got back later but meanwhile, the trip requested is Sat., Aug. 22, after 9am, which is non-negotiable now. I requested pickup at King's Cross, not mail. Thanks everyone for your answers.

Hi John; have done the trip as recently as 6 weeks ago, and also spring last year. Booked online through NationalExpress.Com, using a Canadian address/postal code, and picking up tickets from the machines at Kings Cross, using a credit card.

Always get my confirmation email back in a matter of minutes and as long as using the same credit card in London to collect the tickets as I used online to book, no problems.

I just went through the NExpress system for Aug. 22/09 up to the point I'd actually have to give them my CC# and looks like around noon you can get tickets for about 32GBP. I'm stymied why you're being refused; it's either an address issue (shouldn't be as it doesn't matter if you're picking up at Kings Cross), or a credit card issue (I use Visa).

Did you click on the next to last step where it asks if you're using an international address? And did you previously click on "pick up ticket on departure"? I'd be interested to see the refusal messages from NExpress but the advice to sent them an email or call them may be you're only option to sort it out.

If you give up on doing an online purchase, and try to buy as a 'walk-up' on the 22nd at Kings Cross, the prices will be a shock. Got to be a simple fix and worth an overseas call. NExpress are good on the phone sorting problems; you can probably book at the same time. Good luck.

Thanks, Geoff. We will try again by both companies and see what happens. I, too, used Visa. In fact, with National Express, I entered the data several times and a Visa person called to ask what was going on. I told him and he said the card request was OK.

Again, I thank everyone for their helpful replies. I was finally able to arrange tickets using my Mastercard instead of Visa. It must be the Visa verification system that caused the problem since M/C doesn't have one. I don't like to use M/C for foreign travel because of the added surcharge Chase (and before it BOA and MBNA) applies.