Raileasy.co.uk vs. Virgin Trains - Fare Questions
 

Hi, Fodorites.

Just a quick question: I'm pricing train fares from London to Macclesfield and London from Lake District... those routes.

Looks like raileasy.co.uk is much cheaper than Virgin Trains' own website.
And... single-way tickets are pricing cheaper than round-trip/return tickets.

That seems unusual to me as that's generally not the case with travel providers in the U.S.

Can any British rail travelers confirm this is "normal"? Am I missing something, do you think? Perhaps I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Any thoughts?

Also, am looking at advance fare, restricted/non-changeable trains.
Virgin calls their cheaper fares: Standard Advance
Raileasy calls it Virgin Trains Advance Single

Many thanks in advance for any confirmation.

There shouldn't be a difference. I THINK Raileasy charges a booking fee, but it's only £1 or so. Raileasy's legitimate, but has a slightly iffy reputation on customer service messes.

The way to check is to look at fares on nationalrail.co.uk, which will show a range of fares for many journeys, letting you understand why some are cheaper - including the "return" vs "two singles" cases (there are a number of reasons why this isn't rare, and US providers' policies are irrelevant)

Any big gap between two sites almost always means you're not really comparing like with like. With railway fare complexity, it's surprisingly easy.

Thanks, flanneruk. I'll look at fares on nationalrail, too. Just is hitting me as strange as it looks like I'm comparing apples to apples between the sites, but the fares (at least between these two sites) is quite different. I must be missing something...
I'll log back on if I figure it out.
Many thanks!

Can we have the dates and times of travel please.

I've never known a re-seller/agent be cheaper apart from Megatrain (who are legit and well worth checking to save some money, they only sell certain routes not all and are not quite normal re-seller/agent situation).

Give us the details and we can double check for you.

One little tip if you are looking for 1st class - I've just booked myself some London-Edinburgh seats and found that adding first class at the booking stage as an 'upgrade' is cheaper than selecting first class as the ticket option in the first place.