How daft is this? Irish Rail ticket prices

funnyname

I can get a single Adult ticket from Galway to Dublin for €15 however it's quoting €21.50 for a student fare!

StephenM_smc

Irish Rail regularly put on promotions for Adult and Children's tickets. It does seem strange that the student fare is more but I guess they'd have to discount every ticket when putting on a promotion to make it fair across all ticket types. Just book the cheapest most appropriate ticket.

Vic_08

funnyname wrote: »

I can get a single Adult ticket from Galway to Dublin for €15 however it's quoting €21.50 for a student fare!

What's daft about that? There are 2 different classes of fare; web/telesales only which are discounted and standard ticket office walk up fares. The cheaper pre-booked fares have no extra student discount.

It is explained on the website if you cared to look: http://www.irishrail.ie/your_ticket/fares_enquiries.asp#webfares


I suppose it is equally daft that a passenger who turns up at DAP and pays €200 for a seat on a Ryanair flight can find themselves sat next to a person who paid €10 for an identical journey.

funnyname

I found it daft because the student will buy the €15 ticket not the €21.50 one, so they should have a system in place whereby the student ticket price shown is also the same adult price until such time it is actually cheaper than the adult ticket.

Cookie_Monster

So every time they have a promotional fare they must also have a proportional discounted student promotion? Waste of time, just buy the promo one

JHMEG

It's well documented that some of IE's regular fares are cheaper than the student fare on the same journey.

There are plenty of pricing anomalies going on at IE, as highlighted by other groups.

lubo_moravcik

JHMEG wrote: »

It's well documented that some of IE's regular fares are cheaper than the student fare on the same journey.

There are plenty of pricing anomalies going on at IE, as highlighted by other groups.

pesky students are never happy

markpb

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

So every time they have a promotional fare they must also have a proportional discounted student promotion? Waste of time, just buy the promo one

He didn't say that - he said the student fare should be the same as the discounted adult fare. It's not unreasonable to except the system to offer you the lowest price available to you instead of expecting you to know which combinations to try until you find it yourself.

penexpers

funnyname wrote: »

I can get a single Adult ticket from Galway to Dublin for €15 however it's quoting €21.50 for a student fare!

€15 is a limited web only fare available only at certain off peak times and only valid for the train that you book it for.

€21.50 student fare is valid on any train between Galway and Dublin and can be purchased on the web or at a booking office.

Not really comparing like with like there.

penexpers

markpb wrote: »

He didn't say that - he said the student fare should be the same as the discounted adult fare. It's not unreasonable to except the system to offer you the lowest price available to you instead of expecting you to know which combinations to try until you find it yourself.

The IR website defaults to showing you the cheapest adult single fare for each journey. Sometimes it will be cheaper than the student fare, sometimes not.

Fratton Fred

Fwiw, I bought a ticket from Gatwick to London Bridge a few weeks ago. I only wanted a single, which was £11, but I purchased a return for £9. (Or there abouts anyway).

JHMEG

penexpers wrote: »

Not really comparing like with like there.

They're both tickets for the same journey with the same company.