Originally Posted by
Guy Betsy
I tried looking for a cheap oneway ticket from London to Manchester for Sunday June 1st. I thought that tickets , if bought in advance, especially on a weekend, would be relatively cheap. I wanted a train after 6pm.
But no, the 'special' is going for about 70 quid in 2nd class.
What is going on?
Sun evenings are usually peak weekend travel time (it's usually best to travel early afternoon on Sun to get the cheaper fares) but as has been already said, it's a holiday weekend so Sun is expensive (by comparison, if you travelled on Sat evening that weekend it would only cost £12.50).
It often used to be cheaper to buy a return instead of a single. I did a quick check on Virgin's website and it still is. If you travel LON-MAN on Sun 1 June after 6pm and book your "fantasy" return for MAN-LON the following Sat, your total ticket price will be £52.35, saving you around £25 on the single fare.