We’re mighty keen on things that hurtle along on rails at Wirefresh, although we often find ourselves shouting at rail booking websites which often bedazzle us with endless options and befuddle us with complex pricing structures.
Hoping to get up a head of steam in the market is redspottedhanky.com, a new online travel retailer aimed at business travellers and corporate travel types, coming with the added twist of offering loyalty points to customers for train travel.
Hefty discounts
The new site claims to save up to 80% on the cost of tickets booked in advance, and unlike several other online retailers doesn’t sting you for a credit or debit card fee – but manages to make up for that by charging £1 per transaction. Ticket delivery is free.
Customers spending over a hundred quid earn enough loyalty points to waive the booking fee on their next purchase (colour us unimpressed with that one), while the company’s Price Promise guarantees to match any cheaper fares that business travellers may find and will refund the difference in loyalty points direct to the business customer’s account.
Ursula Morgenstern for redspottedhanky.com, got up to throw some shapes on the PR dance floor:
We are proud to be the first UK train ticket website to offer loyalty points for regular travellers. We believe that business customers will benefit hugely from using our independent service and encourage them to compare prices on our site next time they’re booking business travel.
We all know the frustrations of the airport check-in queue and traffic jams. Rail is often the better choice for domestic business travel and as our research shows, can save companies valuable money and time – both of which businesses can re-invest. With other forms of transport, there are often unforeseen costs and time implications – for example, check-in time requirements and onward travel for plane journeys – and companies need to start factoring this in for more informed business travel decisions.
We’ve yet to try out this lot, but please drop us a line with your experiences if you’ve booked a trip with them.
Wrexham win
On a slightly related note, whenever we’re heading north of London, we always try and use the fabulous Wrexham and Shropshire railway which is by miles the best railway in the UK.
The service is spot on, the staff cheerful and any company serving up local Welsh cakes and proper in-seat meals is just dandy with us!
See a report of our trip on the line here: Bravo the Wrexham and Shropshire railway company!
Read the Redspottedhanky.com article, then checked there competition (TheTrainline.com, MyTrainTicket.co.uk, Raileasy.co.uk). They do seem to be the cheapest independant train ticket retailer e.g. TheTrainline.com charge £1 Booking Fee AND £3.50 Credit Card Fee!!!! I guess if you travel often the Redspottedhanky.com loyalty points will make a difference, would be good if they offered other redemption options.
Love the site design and the name!
I don’t like the fact that a “Total Price” is repeated again and again until the very last page where the “Total Price” appears at the bottom “marked-up” by an extra £1 – it just seems a bit sneaky!
Apart from that, the site is nice but for more details and how to avoid ALL ticket charges and credit card fees see here:
http://tinyurl.com/2fxnrob