mhwhite

7 of us will be traveling from Heathrow to a hotel near Tower Bridge (4 adults and 3 children ages 8, 10 and 12). Then 2 adults will leave two days later from Heathrow (arrive Aug 16, depart Aug 18) and will visit sites in central London.
The other 2 adults and 3 children will also arrive Aug 16 then depart Aug 18 on a train from Kings Cross and return to London on Aug 23 to Kings Cross and go to a hotel near Heathrow.
If I buy a travel card for the second group to enable us to get a lower train ticket, what type of travel card or oyster card should I get for the first 2 adults. Thank you for clarifying this for me.

PatrickLondon

Since none of you is going to be in London for more than a couple of days, travelcards offer no great benefit (not sure what you mean about reduced train fares). Get Oyster pay-as-you-go for each adult with £20 on. That should cover two days with the add-ons for Heathrow; those returning to London on the 23rd can top-up if and as necessary.

The 8 and 10 year olds travel free if accompanied by an adult. For the 12 year old, you would either need to apply in advance for a child rate Oyster card, or buy a day travelcard each day, or just get an adult Oystercard and accept the additional cost.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx

sparkchaser

Yes, get Oyster PAYG.

PatrickLondon

On second thoughts, is there an issue here about the 2for1s available for tickets bought from National Rail companies (www.daysoutguide.co.uk)? If you want to take advantage of those, you'd need to have printed out in advance the vouchers for the places you might want to visit, and get to a National Rail station each day to buy one-day paper travelcards for zones 1 and 2. Then you'd only need about £10 on the Oyster PAYG, but you'd have to spend time getting to a National Rail station.

mhwhite

East Coast Trains have reduced fares if you have a travel card from what I understand so we would need to get an Oyster Card for all of us for the journey from and to Heathrow and in London. Am I right? It's getting complicated.

flanneruk

"East Coast Trains have reduced fares if you have a travel card"

I've never heard of that, neither has Patrick and your descriptions are far too vague for anyone to try and work out what you really mean.

If you think there are special reductions to be had, get them. If you want advice, tell us what you think you can get a saving on and how you think you can get that saving.

People here try to help. We can't help people telling us their father's third cousin thinks he read something once.

janisj

>>East Coast Trains have reduced fares if you have a travel card from what I understand so we would need to get an Oyster Card for all of us for the journey from and to Heathrow and in London. Am I right? It's getting complicated.<<

There are a few confusing bits in your post. I'm not aware of any East Coast Trains fare reductions w/ a <i>London</i> travel card of any sort. However there ARE discounts for seniors who have senior railcards (which are NOT London travelcards).

So please clarify what it is you are talking about.

PatrickLondon

The only reference I can find to this on the East Coast website is to buying a travelcard for London from them if you're travelling TO London (which is the same as all the national rail companies) - and they seem to be offering only a full zone 1-6 card, which you're unlikely to need. East Coast Trains don't serve any other stations in the TfL zones, so there'd be no services you could validly use a London travelcard on anyway.

mhwhite

Thank you all for trying to help and I'm sorry it's confusing. On the eastcoast.co.uk website there is a box to check if you have a travel card and it shows a lower fare than if you don't have one. I don't understand if it would include all 7 of us for travel in London plus the 5 of us going to Scotland on the train. Seemingly this Thursday our dates would open up and I'll have to get up in the middle of the night to get the best choice of fares since we live in Washington State.

mhwhite

p.s. I looked again at the website for the train and it's called a Rail Card and I can get one called "family and friends" which gives a discount so I assume that would just cover the train part. So we'd have to get a travel card or ostrich card for the London part. Does that sound right?

mjdh1957

It seems you're overcomplicating things.

A Family and Friends Railcard is something you buy for a year and it gives you some discounts on train travel. I doubt it is worth you getting one (I think it costs £28).

Follow the information given in the first reply to your question above.

It's Oyster not Ostrich, by the way.

sparkchaser

I'm going to start calling it an ostrich card.

mjdh1957

Maybe they could market Ostrich cards for people who are allergic to shellfish.

sparkchaser

Or people that like to keep their head in the ground.