US Edition
On my way into work earlier this week, I spotted a large advertisement for Trainline, the app and website that has for years been my preferred option when it comes to purchasing rail tickets.
“No booking fee when you buy same-day tickets in our app”, it said. I thought, this rather odd – why would I pay a booking fee for any train ticket?
I don’t recall ever having done so before at a station, or on the Great Northern Rail website – or any other train operating company’s website for that matter.
As a frequent user of the Trainline app, had I been forking out for booking fees all this time?
Yes, as it turns out. Each time you book a journey using Trainline that is not scheduled for the same day, you incur a booking fee of up to £2.79. For train journeys abroad, this can be much higher.
Upon trying to book a return train journey in France from Lille to Nice in the Trainline app, I was confronted with a whopping £17 booking fee. If I book this journey on the SNCF website – France’s national rail provider – there is no booking fee to pay.
This is not the only way Trainline squeezes more cash out of its customers, who are already forking out for notoriously steep rail fares, which rose by an average of 4.9pc in March, following years of increases.
When booking foreign journeys through Trainline, you’re at the mercy of its exchange rate – the cost of tickets is converted into pounds on your behalf.
Trainline wanted to charge me £355 for the return journey from Lille to Nice for booking in the app, but if I were to use the SNCF website using one of the many debit or credit cards that do not charge foreign exchange fees, it would cost me £320.
Ultimately, Trainline is just another business and needs to make money somehow – but I intend to exercise my right to take my custom to one of its competitors in future.
Among these is Uber, traditionally a taxi app, which is likely to already be installed on your phone. Not only can you now book rail journeys using Uber, but it gives you 10pc of the cost of any tickets you buy back in the form of in-app credit.
You’ll also earn Avios points on your purchases, which can be redeemed against British Airways flights, hotels and much more. This applies to Eurostar tickets, too – booking a train ride to Paris could mean you’ll earn yourself a free taxi ride.
Next is Virgin Trains Ticketing. Its app and website let you book any journey on the National Rail network with no booking fees to pay. You can also earn Virgin Points on your purchases, which you can use towards future journeys, or spend on other products and services from Virgin Experience Days, Virgin Wines and Virgin Atlantic flights, as well as Greggs, London Theatre Direct and Vue.
Virgin Trains Ticketing also shows you cheaper “split-ticket” fares, which break your routes down into multiple smaller journeys to determine if you can save.
Trainpal is another app that is functionally very similar to Trainline, but with no booking fees to pay – whether or not a journey is booked on the same day it is scheduled.
Finally, you can ensure you never pay fees by booking directly through the relevant train operating company for your journey using the National Rail website.
I’ll miss the Trainline app’s easy-to-use interface. But when buying my train tickets, I intend never to give another penny to a company that operates entirely away from the railway track.
A spokesman for Trainline said: “We are proud to be Europe’s number one rail travel app and are one of the biggest advocates for rail internationally, helping to attract more people onboard trains while saving our customers 35pc on average for their UK journeys.
“Our constant innovation and investment in our technology helps our customers identify the best value journey, balancing price with ease and convenience for hassle-free travel. While we don’t charge a booking fee on the majority of our transactions, fees are essential to helping us improve our products and services and ensure we deliver more for our customers.”
As if rail tickets aren’t dear enough, Trainline has found new ways to rip us off
Steep fares won’t stop the popular app from squeezing more cash out of its customers