No time like the present to start the preparation for the coming season!

A little tip for those travelling from afar who want to lock in the cheap price advance fares for possible home games from July 30 to the end of September. There is a perennial problem for us long-distance travellers to home games in that by the time we know the fixtures the cheap advance ticket for the first couple of months of matches have already been all sold.

However, you can currently avoid this thanks to the extension of the “Buy with Confidence” Advance fares promise by all Rail Companies. This means if you later discover you don’t want to travel or want to change the journey details, times or dates, you can, for free, or you can ask for a voucher to spend at a later date.

Here’s the actual wording from GWR but it’s the same for all Train Operating Companies but check first to make sure:

“Can I get a refund on my Advance ticket? Advance tickets are non-refundable. Advance tickets (which are valid on a specific train only) for travel up to 30 September 2022 can have their date and time changed for free up until 18:00 the day before. If the price of your new ticket is more expensive, you’ll need to pay the difference. You can still change your ticket at any time before you travel, but there will be an admin fee of £10. If you don’t know when your new journey will be, you can ask for a travel voucher instead. This will be valid for 12 months. Off-Peak and Anytime tickets can also be changed free from admin fees, up to the date of departure.”

This means you can buy tickets for all the possible home dates i.e., every Saturday; and then hand back the ones you don’t need for a voucher which you can use for later trips.

We received this information from our contacts in the FSA and hopefully this will help the cost of getting to those initial away games – especially for the pre-season games.

Enjoy the break and look forward to seeing you in the new season.