Help! I am trying to book tickets online using nationalrail.co.uk, as many people have recommended and can't seem to get to the "purchase tickets" point. There will be 2 adults and 2 children traveling on June 29. I found tickets for 12.50 pounds, versus paying over $500 on britrail.com. Any suggestions?

tracy27,

Just a theory, but...

When you get the list of fare options you will probably see that some of the fares have radio buttons next to them (little "circles" for you to click on signifying that you have chosen that option)while some don't.

If a fare doesn't have a radio button it's because it is no longer available. Are you sure that your £12.50 fare has a radio button next to it? Not surprisingly, these cheapest seats go very quickly so you may find that you are too late for that rate.

Jim

I went to nationalrail.co.uk and confirmed what Jim suspected. The cheap tickets are gone. The best price I found for all four of you was 279.30 GBP.

Have you thought of flying on a budget airline? BMI flies from Heathrow and has fares as low as 4.00 GBP (plus taxes). You can also fly from Gatwick on easyJet, from London City on Flybe, from Luton on easyJet, and from Stansted on either easyJet or FlyGlobespan.

I'd suggest starting with BMI because Heathrow is the cheapest airport to get to from London.

I suggest you go to www.gner.co.uk. This route takes you from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh and this is the route you want because it's the most scenic. GNER is only booking up to June 23, 2006 at the moment, so you have a good chance of getting cheaper tickets with them. I also suggest calling them rather than booking online. I did this a couple of years ago for Christmas holiday tickets and it worked very well. They are extremely helpful and will offer suggestions you may not have thought about or even known about. Then they will mail your tickets to you in the US if you want.

After reading Barbara's post, I did a little further checking myself. With the current June 23 cutoff date for booking directly with GNER in mind, I entered that date at nationalrail.co.uk. What do you know, suddenly those 12.50 GBP fares showed up! So it appears that while I could have booked the higher-priced tickets to Edinburgh for June 29 at the national rail site, I'm guessing the cheap tickets will show up there, too, when GNER allows booking for June 29. One learns something every day!

To JJBhoy, Barbara and TimS, THANK YOU for your help booking train tickets - the info you all gave me back in April was right on the mark. We leave tomorrow for London and a week later for Edinburgh.

<< I went to nationalrail.co.uk and confirmed what Jim suspected. The cheap tickets are gone. >>

Given the date of the post (1st April) & the date of travel (June 29) the cheap tickets wouldn't have been available as they don't become available until about 12 weeks before travel

Enjoy your trip, tracy21!

Jim

The telephone option is a good idea.
The assistant will talk you through lots of options