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Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"

In the week that rail users have been told to expect above-inflation fare increases in the new year there is more bad news for passengers - relying on the internet to find cheap tickets could actually mean you pay more. Daniel Elkan reports

Saturday December 13, 2003
The Guardian

Are you planning an intercity rail journey this Christmas? If you think you can look to the web to find the cheapest book-in-advance tickets, be warned. Jobs & Money has discovered that you could be taken for a financial ride.
This is not what rail passengers will want to hear after being told this week by the government that fares will increase across the board by as much as 9% from January, 2004. But many people who book online are paying over the odds.
One-fifth of tickets for all UK intercity journeys are now sold through the two rail ticketing websites, Thetrainline.com and Qjump.co.uk. Seven million people have registered with Thetrainline since its launch in 1999, while Qjump - two years old this January - has seen sales increase 400% in the past year. The popularity of online booking is in part a reflection of the complex British rail ticket system: there are 25 different companies and 170 types of ticket. Go from London to Manchester and back, and you have the pleasure - or pain - of choosing between 28 different types of ticket alone, with prices ranging from £20 to £275.
Qjump's advertising slogan - "Save 50% by buying in advance online" - might have you thinking that there are special savings to be made. But in fact, there are very few web-only promotions. A Qjump spokesperson admitted that "the discounts relate to booking in advance rather than online."
But why are people paying too much online? For some journey enquiries, the websites lead people to unknowingly book more expensive tickets when cheaper ones are available. We examined some of the websites' flaws by testing whether people with experience of using the sites would be caught out when looking for the cheapest tickets. The results show that they were.
First of all, Thetrainline only offers the fastest journeys, because the website's search engines are 'tweaked' to ignore slower trains or routes. This hinders the search for cheaper tickets because it doesn't let you choose discount tickets from slower trains or routes. Once the cheapest tickets on the fastest journeys are sold out, the only option is higher-priced tickets.
But Thetrainline does not clearly inform users of this policy. In practice, for a return journey from London to Manchester, this could mean that you buy a £66 ticket, when you could have bought a seat for £20 on a different route taking only an average of 23 minutes longer each way. In fact, until Jobs & Money highlighted the problem, the website did not mention the faster journeys policy on the bookings page at all.
The booking page now says that tickets are "based upon the fastest trains". However, only at the bottom of the 2,636-word terms and conditions section does it tell you that "there may be cheaper fares available on other operators' routes".
"Thetrainline needs to have a big warning on the site," said Pete Tynan, principle researcher at the Consumers' Association. "Rather than just having it hidden away, the website must say upfront that it doesn't give you the cheaper options and advise you to try another source."
A spokesperson for Thetrainline said: "We are planning to make some improvements to our site in the next few weeks to ensure [the existence of] these [cheaper] journeys are communicated in a customer-friendly way."
Qjump's site initially selects only faster journeys, but does give users the option of searching slower journeys too. However, if you use Qjump there is a different problem that could trip you up. In May, Virgin Trains, one of the largest operators, decided that they would sell their cheapest advance tickets, the Virgin Value range, as single tickets only.
However, on both websites, in order to get price information, you have to indicate whether you want a single or return fare. While Thetrainline gives return fares and at the same time alerts users to cheaper single fare prices, Qjump doesn't mention the cheaper single tickets.
"It's ludicrous," said Mr Tynan. "The rail industry has traditionally made return tickets cheaper than singles, so there is no way a consumer would think 'let's try the single option - there might be a bargain fare'. Yet National Rail Enquiries and telesales lines proactively inform customers of the cheaper single fares when they have asked for a return. On Qjump, customers who don't know about the single fares can end up paying £61 instead of £27 for the same seat."
Jobs & Money rang the Qjump sales helpline, posing as a customer, to ask about this problem. A member of staff told us they "had often seen passengers pay far more than they need to" on the site by buying Virgin returns instead of singles.
A Qjump spokesman said it recognised there was a problem and planned to change the site in the next few months, allowing users the opportunity to combine two singles. "We admit that it is unfortunate that we have not had this facility previously, but we do advise customers in our online Help section that it may be cheaper to buy a combination of tickets." A spokesman for Virgin Trains said: "When we introduced Virgin Value as single tickets we outlined the rationale behind this to Qjump. Following your call we are taking this up again with Qjump and await their response."
Another problem affects both websites. Discount seat reservations are not bookable until about eight weeks before the date of travel, whereas walk-on non-reserved tickets can be bought three months in advance. If a customer rings the telesales line, and the train has not yet opened for reservation, they will be told so. In contrast, the websites just indicate that tickets are not available.
Janine Paterson, senior lawyer at Which? Magazine, says: "You should be told what you are told by telesales. It looks like they are breaching the Consumer Protection Act 1987, which makes it a criminal offence to give misleading price indications."
The websites have responded positively to Jobs & Money's investigation. Mark Furlong, commercial director of Thetrainline, said: "This is information that we have. I do accept that this additional information [about trains not yet available for discount reservation] would be potentially helpful to customers. We are looking at how we can provide that information."
A Qjump spokesman said: "Whilst we are delighted with the overall performance of the site we are constantly looking at ways to improve it and all our customers are invited to give feedback after completing their purchase, which we use to further develop the site. It has tweaked its site to say the tickets are not available for two reasons. It now says tickets might have sold out or "reservations may not yet be available".
According to leading independent rail-travel expert Barry Doe: "You should be able to say 'I want to go from London to Manchester - what are the fares?' and then it searches and finds the ticket at the price that is nearest to your preferred day or time of travel. That's what happens if you go to a station: booking clerks can look at fares first. Why can't the public?"
So where should you turn? Last year, the Consumers' Association tested the National Rail Enquiries Service and station booking offices, and found that "overcharging and wrong advice were endemic." Also, train companies' telesales lines don't have to be impartial, and usually recommend their own tickets. "Try a combination of different sources - the web, the phone and the station," said Mr Tynan. "It might be a bit of a pain, but it could easily save you half the price of a ticket."

bargain – okazja
to breach – naruszać
book-in-advance – wcześniejsza rezerwacja
to catch out sb – zagiąć kogoś
discount – obniżka
endemic – powszechny
enquiries – zapytania
Fare – opłata
flaw – słaby punkt
to hinder – utrudniać
ludicrous – śmiechu warty
misleading – wprowadzający w błąd
policy – polityka
rationale – racjonalna podstawa
spokesperson – rzecznik
to take sb for a ride – oszukać kogoś
track - tor
to trip sb up – podstawić komuś nogę
tweaked – podkręcony
unknowingly - nieświadomie


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