Top Deals From the Weekly Email
Train & Coach Deals
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Whether it's by coach, train or bus, there are always a storm of deals to let you travel across the UK. Often if you know where to look you can get journeys of 100s miles for as little as £1.
This is a list of checked out deals, vouchers, and codes updated once a week that will enable you to cut your travel costs to the bone.
Yet these are just one-off promotions, it's also important you check out the Cheap Trains guide, full of cutting edge techniques to cut any journey’s cost. And if the worst comes to the worst there’s the Cheap Petrol guide too.
| Eurotunnel is running its £15 day return offer for February Half Term. Cars, car-based vans or motorcycles and up to 9 people can travel for £15. The offer is for travel on Tues 16, Wed 17 and and Thur 18 Feb. The trip is normally £44 for a return, so this is a saving of £29. To make bookings just call 0844 879 7371, as the offer's not available online or at travel check-in. You'll also have to leave after 6am and return before midnight that same day. Tickets are non-amendable and non-refundable. The offer will last until all the cheap tickets run out, so book quickly! |
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If you're at a loss of what to do either side of the Channel, Eurotunnel are also offering reduced tickets for Dover Castle (£5) and Nausicaa, a seaworld attraction near Calais (€5). You can get both those vouchers at the Folkestone passenger terminal (1 ticket per person, max. 5 tickets). More info on the offer on the Eurotunnel website. |
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You can get 25% off a Family and Friends Railcard with this offer. Simply buy the card online between Sun 7 Feb and Wed 31 Mar and enter the code promo25. Normally £26, this means you can get the card for £19.50.
Routes included: All routes across Britain, though no discount will be available when travelling peak time in London and the South East Mon-Fri. If you're unsure when these times are, as they differ according to the route, then check with your local station or call the National Rail Enquiries line on 08457 48 49 50.
How to get it: Online only, via the www.familyandfriends-railcard.co.uk special web page.
Megabus is offering 10,000 free tickets on any of its routes in England and Wales, for travel between 1 Feb and 21 March Mondays to Thursday plus you'll need to pay a 50p booking fee per transaction.
How to find the free seats
While 10,000 sounds a lot, they can still take some finding and it's mostly a case of trial and error. Plus they’re likely to run out very quickly after all the readers of the weekly email go for it.
Step 1: Go to Megabus* and search for the route you want to travel.
Step 2: Remember it is ONLY Mon-Thur and 1 Feb to 21 March tickets that are free.
Step 3: Any available tickets will say FREE e.g. on the 1 Feb, this London to Birmingham route has free tickets (may sell out).
Please report your free ticket finds in the forum
Free seats are not available when booking less than seven days in advance. See the full terms and conditions.
All TransPennine Express services are offering holders of the 16-25 Railcard (formerly the Young Persons Railcard) 50% off advanced fares rather than the 34% discount card holders normally get. To get 50% off bookings have to be made through the Transpennine Express website.
Tickets are non-refundable and only valid on the specific train booked. There is no end date set for the deal yet, the First Group plans to run the offer for the foreseeable future. Advanced tickets to and from Manchester Airport are excluded from the offer.
Routes included: All TransPennine Express routes except tickets to and from Manchester Airport.
How to book: Online only, via the special Transpennine Express web page.
Students who have an "NUS Extra" card can get an extra 10% off on certain Cross Country Advance tickets (the applicable tickets will show up in green in a search).
You can get the discount in addition to the 16-25 railcard discount if you have one.
Get 10% off lowest Standard Advance fares when you book online with East Coast trains. To search for discounted tickets, just visit the East Coast website and enter your journey details. Available discounted tickets will be displayed by a small red star.
The offer isn ’t valid on trains arriving into London before 11.15am, or leaving London before 9.29pm or between 3.33pm and 7.01pm inclusive, Monday – Friday. The promotion's currently ongoing.
Sister companies Megatrain and Megabus offer train and bus fares across the UK for £1 each way plus a 50p booking charge per transaction. Trips include Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Cardiff and many more. Go to Megabus or Megatrain (you're directed to the same site), pick where you're travelling to and from, and opt for train or bus to find available fares.
Routes included: Aberdeen, Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh Airport, Exeter, Leeds, Leicester, London, Oxford, Sheffield & many more.
Save up to 40% on Southern Advance train tickets when you book online through Southern’s website. Discounts are available on standard class tickets with selected routes.
Routes available under the discount are Brighton – London Victoria, Portsmouth – London Victoria, Littlehampton – London Victoria, Bognor Regis – London Victoria, Arun Valley (Arundel to Christs Hospital) – London Victoria, and London Metro area – Brighton.
The offer's running until the end of April 2010. Discounts are subject to availability. Book by 6pm before the day of travel and remember to bring your reservation coupon (issued with your ticket). No refunds are available, so check the terms and conditions on the website before you book.
Sister companies Megatrain and Megabus, which offer train and bus fares across the UK starting at £1 each way plus a 50p booking charge per transaction, have set up a combined train and coach service from London to Yorkshire called Megabusplus. Travel between London and new train station East Midlands Parkway is via train, and between East Midland Parkway and Yorkshire by coach.
Routes included: York, Castleford, Harrogate, Hull, Halifax, Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Huddersfield and Bradford.
How to book: Go to Megabusplus
This is a nifty service to slash the cost of travelling between Birmingham and London. Use the Chiltern Railways special ticket to your mobile service which costs from £5 each way and you could pay just £10 to get to London and back.
While the route is slower and takes you from Birmingham Snow Hill or Moor Street to Marylebone rather than Birmingham New Street to Euston, if you're willing to spend a little longer getting there, then the price difference can be huge.
Routes included: London to Birmingham
How to book: Visit Chiltern Railways website
Well-known US bus company Greyhound has launched in the UK with routes between London Victoria, Southampton and Portsmouth and tickets from £1. Every coach will have 2-4 seats for £1 and a further 2-4 for £3-£5.
Normal prices for tickets bought online range from £5.90 to £7.90, whilst the on-the-day fare is £10. Greyhound has confirmed that fares generally drop to around £5 a day before departure. A booking fee of 50p applies on all fares, and the offer's currently ongoing.
Routes included: London Victoria, Southampton and Portsmouth.
How to book: Visit Greyhound UK.
Cheap bus operator Easybus is currently offering journeys from Central and West London to Gatwick, Stansted and Luton airports starting at £2 each way. You don't have to be flying to use the service.
Routes included: Gatwick, Stansted & Luton to London
How to book: Visit the Easybus website or buy at the departure point
European low cost city shuttle bus company Terravision offers fares between Liverpool airport and Manchester city centre for £7 one way or £10 return.
Routes included: Liverpool to Manchester
How to book: Visit Terravision website
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There's a host of the other tips and techniques to bag yourself dirt cheap train tickets. Here's a few quick tips but for full info read the Cheap Trains guide.
Buy early, specifically 12 weeks early
Everyone knows book early and you can get cheaper fares, yet often these disappear quicker than empty seats on a commuter trip. Therefore to ensure a bargain, the key moment is buying 12 weeks in advance. This is because, contractually Network Rail must have the timetable set 12 weeks in advance; therefore this is commonly - though not definitely - when tickets are released.
If you know when and where you want to go, there's a sneaky way to be first in the cheap tickets queue. The TheTrainline's* ticket alert system emails the moment cheap advance tickets for a specific journey come on sale (commonly the cheapest fares).
Get early booking discounts at the last minute!
Everyone knows booking train tickets in advance is much cheaper, but what needs to be understood is Advance tickets can often be bought the night before, or even on the way to the station. So the golden rule is... Always check or call if advance tickets are still available, even if you're on the way to the station.
Spend over £72/year? Get a 16-25, Family & Friends or Senior Railcard.
Railcards which can be bought from the Railcard website typically cost £24 per year, or £65 for three years, and cut a third off the bill. Therefore spend over £72 a year (even in just one trip) and you save. Until May '08 railcards weren't valid on some super-cheap promotional fares; now they're valid on all tickets bought in advance and all standard class tickets.
Local rail cards, season tickets and Rover & Ranger tickets
Local rail cards, season tickets and Rover and Ranger tickets, such as the Network Railcard in the South East, are also available, offering holders unlimited travel within specific areas for specific periods of time. There's a full list of these on the National Rail website.
Calling National Rail Enquiries? Pay less for the call
If you need to dial National Rail Enquiries, the official number is 0845 748 49 50; yet you can cut the cost of calling by dialling 0121 634 2040 and then pressing '1', you'll get through to the same thing. See the SayNoTo0870 guide for more info.
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