Problem with train ticket Waterloo to southampton

[chismrules]

Trying to purchase tickets from Nationalrail which transfers me to Southwestern RR, my problem is I'm in US and it wants me to set up account to be able to sign on and when i do and put United States, it comes up and says this is wrong and should be United Kingdom even with the zip and address being US, and then I can't go any furthure. Has anyone else had this problem? Where can I purchase my train tickets, its from Waterloo WAT to Southampton Central to catch a cruise. 

[Globaliser]

Try the discussion that started with this post:

 

[chismrules]

So for anyone else that had this problem. So instead of National Rail or South Western , I went to Trainline and purchased the same tickets as guest. They only charged like $1.25 processing fee. And showed in US

[John Bull]

7 hours ago, chismrules said:

So for anyone else that had this problem. So instead of National Rail or South Western , I went to Trainline and purchased the same tickets as guest. They only charged like $1.25 processing fee. And showed in USD 

 

 

If you were charged in USD, the Trainline will have converted at their exchange rate, which will be poorer than your card issuer - but even if you add those extra cents to their processing fee the total extra cost is peanuts to overcome the problem.

(so my mantra of "in order to get the best conversion rate, always but always keep a transaction in local currency and not  the currency of your card" needs the addition of "..........except when it's a low-value transaction and it resolves a blockage in a transaction") 🙄

 

I've heard of this problem before, but couldn't find the post mentioned by Globaliser amongst the 469 pages (!!!!) on this forum.

I tried on the South-western site and found that they needed me to register, including my post-code (= US zipcode), even though I've booked before without having to register.🙄

 

One workaround, which really shouldn't be necessary, is to book on the website of a different train operator, all train operators can provide bookings for travellers on any UK journey regardless of which operator runs that particular service.

I did a dummy booking for London Waterloo to Southampton on the website of Scotrail (which, as its name suggests, operates routes in Scotland, 300 miles away). No problems, no need to register, e-mail ticket, same price as on NationalRail & South-western websites.

 

Privatisation of the railways brought some advantages, but the complicated and convoluted ticket-pricing ain't one of them.

 

Word is that the whole ticketing system is going to be re-vamped & simplified.

Watch this space - but don't hold your breath 🙄

 

JB 🙂

[fruitmachine]

12 hours ago, chismrules said:

So for anyone else that had this problem. So instead of National Rail or South Western , I went to Trainline and purchased the same tickets as guest. They only charged like $1.25 processing fee. And showed in US

For a fee-free experience in future, use LNER.co.uk

 

They are the main East Coast rail company and, like every UK rail company, can sell tickets for any UK rail journey.

 

 

[Twilightstar18]

On 6/16/2023 at 6:38 PM, chismrules said:

Trying to purchase tickets from Nationalrail which transfers me to Southwestern RR, my problem is I'm in US and it wants me to set up account to be able to sign on and when i do and put United States, it comes up and says this is wrong and should be United Kingdom even with the zip and address being US, and then I can't go any furthure. Has anyone else had this problem? Where can I purchase my train tickets, its from Waterloo WAT to Southampton Central to catch a cruise. 

I had the same issue so I entered UK and went ahead and paid as usual. The train e-tickets were emailed to me right away. 

[atlast95]

On 6/18/2023 at 9:48 AM, Twilightstar18 said:

I had the same issue so I entered UK and went ahead and paid as usual. The train e-tickets were emailed to me right away. 

I did the same. Put in my address in Canada and then changed the country to UK. Tickets were emailed right away.