Thoughts on delaying purchase of rail tickets to Lake District

Are you certain you need the Railcard in hand to purchase online with the Friends and Family discount? My experience was that I could get the Advance fare and the Railcard discount (senior Railcard) without having the Railcard. We bought them when we arrived in the UK, before our train trip. As far as I know, ther is no need to have the Railcard in hand when purchasing tickets online. You must, of course, have it to show when you make the journey.

Thanks for your info, Lola. So you purchased your tickets online before you left the US, then purchased your Railcard at a station prior to your train travel? That sounds great!

Here's what I read from the Family & Friends Railcard FAQ page:
Can I buy tickets at a discounted rate before my Railcard arrives?
A: No. You must carry your Railcard with you on any journey where you have bought discounted tickets with the Railcard. Therefore, if you buy discounted Railcard tickets before you receive your Railcard, you do this at your own risk.

I guess I got hung-up on the "at your own risk" part. There is little risk for us as we WILL get the card before we embark on our rail journey.

I just went through the booking process again, clicking the Railcard box for Family & Friends card. Our family fare went from ￡604 to ￡164.60!! THAT'S more like it!

Thanks so much, Lola!!!

It sounds like you're set now, as long as you do remember to buy the Friends and Family Card before boarding the train.

I'm curious about the number of people in your party and whether there were cheaper fares for other departures that you did not choose. For instance, the cheapest Advance rate I see today for the 10:30 departure on June 29 is 47 pounds per adult in 2nd class or 58 in 1st class, from London to Windermere.

You can NOT order the Family and Friends Railcard and have it sent to you in the USA. They will ONLY send it to UK addresses and it takes a week to get to the UK addresses. Here is that info- www.familyandfriends-railcard.co.uk/help/faqs/visiting-outside-GB/

You can not access the discounts using the pass until you have the pass. You are not eligible prior to that.The Family and Friends Railcard is a specific plan and you must buy it to get the discount. You can get the passes at the manned rail station staff and then get the discounts. I am not certain you will save that much with it. You are paying for an annual card which is really designed for people living in the UK who will be doing quite a bit of travel. I don't see the benefit of buying a year long pass for a one day trip.

Senior railcards and discounts are not the same thing as the Family and Friends Railcard. We had the Family and Friends Railcards while living in London and they are quite useful for residents who travel out of the city a good bit.

It is really quite simple. The question about waiting for delivery of the Card is really a red herring. The quote above relates to postal delivery.

There is absolutely no need to purchase the Card prior to ordering tickets - but you must remember to buy the Railcard prior to the first train trip using the discount. There is a huge FAM printed on the tickets so the gateline staff and the Conductors or Train Managers on the train will see that and will require sight of the pink Card. If you don't have it, the ticket is not valid.

It is not hard to obtain the Family and Friends Railcard on your arrival. All staffed railway stations can and do sell it, over the counter, in about 3 or 4 minutes. Do yourselves a favour and go to a larger station for this process because some of the smaller stations are not staffed all the time. Also, try not to queue up for the Railcard at the rush hour. Commuters trying to run for a train won't like waiting behind tourists buying a Railcard which takes a bit longer than banging out a local ticket.

Do the maths to see if it is worth it to you. It will cost £30. The adult savings will be 30% and the child savings 60%. Add 'em up and see if the savings come to more than £30. Then add a bit for the slight hassle factor, and go for it.

Valid for either 1,2,3 or 4 adults traveling with at least 1 child aged 5 to 15 and up to 4 of those children. At least one of the named adults named on the Railcard must be in the traveling group.

Thank you, Nigel, for the clarification. That's what it sounded like to me. I don't want to misuse the system, and I don't think we are at all. It is certainly worth it for us to pay the ￡30 to save >￡400! We definitely WON'T forget to buy the Railcard.

Laura, as far as our options for travel, we are on a pretty tight schedule since we are meeting a tour guide early (8:30 am) in Oxenholm and will be dropped off by the tour at the train station at a certain time at the end of the day for our return as well. We didn't have but one choice on departure from London (the first train of the day). The price for the morning train is crazy without the railcard (￡540 for the 4 of us)! The return is Off-Peak, much more reasonable. I'm sure there were cheaper fares later in the morning, but those wouldn't work for us.

So glad to get this issue straightened out. This forum is a MUST for travel planning. Thanks to the whole RickSteves.com crew!

Nigel is 100% correct.
When prebooking from abroad,just select the Pass of choice in the drop down menu.The Pass can be bought on the spot once over here and before travel

Hello all you helpful people!

Here's my next hurdle before I finally get our tickets: I need to decipher the lingo from the Virgin website. Would you wise folks help me out, please? Obviously, you have successfully made your way through it, so I'd love for you to chime in. Nigel? Richard? Lola? Terri Lynn? Laura?

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/help-i-m-drowning-in-the-virgin-trains-ticket-types-and-conditions

Thanks.