Oyster Revolution

Last week Future Cities Catapult organised a talk by Matthew Hudson from TfL entitled The Story of Oyster: How TfL Revolutionised Urban Fare Collection.

I missed the first few minutes, but it was still a fascinating run through Oyster / Contactless ... not least a reminder that the original impetus to develop Oyster was the queues that used to build up at the ticket barriers, as the use of paper tickets (Magstripe) was incredibly slow compared to Oyster and even Contactless !

One option was to build lots more ticket barriers - but thankfully TfL developed Oyster.

Below are some random nuggets from the talk together with some of my views ...

A maximum of 15 passengers per minute can get through ticket barriers using the old Magstripe tickets

A busy commuter station like Liverpool Street (as opposed to a station with lots of tourists) can get over 25 passengers per minute through each barrier using Oyster

Contactless is a bit slower (it has to run more check processes before deciding to open the gate) but it is getting quicker with new Contactless chips, and also TfL are trying to reduce the number of check processes to speed it up.

5.5m people regularly use Oyster Pay as You Go (PAYG)

This represents 86% of users - although some/many also have a Travelcard

58% of fares come from PAYG

The TfL board have decided PAYG should be the primary product in future

The original incentive for season tickets (which was the cost of issue and congestion at the ticket office) is gone

It sounds like in future the PAYG and Travelcard fares will be equalised

Matthew talked about the original requirement for tickets being to stop the bus conductors from pocketing the fares - it wasn't to control passengers.

Oyster customer level data is kept for 2 months - to help resolve customer issues

This compares with Paris where customer data has to be binned at the end of every day

The original Oyster configuration where if you failed to "touch out" you were charged the minimum fare resulted in 15% fare evasion

No mention of what fare evasion level is on Boris buses !

Serious Oyster analysis started in the lead up to London 2012

There was up to a 7% decrease in passenger volumes following widespread warnings about congestion - some stations felt empty !

There are many requests from different parts of TfL for Oyster analysis - most of which get denied as they won't actually lead to better decision making.

TfL have licenced the intellectual property behind Oyster/Contactless to the company Cubic for 15m gbp - TfL themselves will not be directly installing Oyster around the world.

Matthew said that in future TfL will make Oyster "more like Contactless"

There will be a weekly cap on Oyster in the future - and refunds will be pushed out to all Oyster readers (including buses) ready for collection the next time the Oyster card is tapped.

Sounds to me that I will be able to stop using my Contactless once weekly Oyster capping arrives !

Contactless is 40% more expensive than Oyster

I've written before about how Contactless can be more expensive that Oyster - but I've never done the (fairly simple) calculations to work out by how much.

The important point is that with Contactless, Transport for London computers take your Monday to Sunday travel, and work out whether you have paid more than the cost of a weekly travelcard - and refund you the difference another week later.  That's fine if you arrive into London on a Monday ... but what if you don't arrive on a Monday ?

Let's take somebody arriving into London on a Wednesday and departs the following Tuesday (7 days in London) - and assume a few tube trips around Zone 1-2 each day - enough to reach the daily 6.60 gbp cap

With Contactless it looks like this:

Wednesday £6.60
Thursday £6.60

Friday £6.60

Saturday £6.60

Sunday £6.60

Total £33.00

Monday to Sunday cap of £33.00 - so no refund

Monday £6.60

Tuesday £6.60

Total £13.20

Grand Total £46.20

But if you'd bought a 7 day travelcard on your Oystercard on the Wednesday morning - it would have been a straightforward £33.00 - a saving of £13.20

So if you start your 7 days using Contactless on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday it is a whopping 40% more expensive than Oyster.

So much for all those adverts that "Contactless is the same price as Oyster".

If you start your 7 days using Contactless on a Tuesday or a Sunday it is still an unpleasant 20% more expensive than Oyster.

If you're staying in London for five days or less, then Contactless is the same price as Oyster Pay as you Go.
If you're staying in London for more than 7 days (and not arriving on a Monday) then Contactless will almost always be more expensive than Oyster.

The moral of the story is don't believe the TfL propaganda - Contact is NOT the same price as Oyster.

Transport for London fare increases

One of my complaints about how companies increase their prices is that they don't normally tell you what percentage they are going up by - so you can't get a feel for whether it's reasonable or how it compares to inflation over the last year.

TfL seem to suffer the same failing - with just a general comment about travelcards going up by less than 2%.  So I thought that it might be useful to start saving the annual list of prices - they delete the old prices from their website when they announce the new ones !

After some time googling for the 2016 list - I finally managed to find the pdf:

And of course the the 2017 pdf that is currently available on the TfL website - which I've saved for posterity:

I also came across a london.gov webpage (which will presumably be removed at the end of the year as well) which handily breaks down the increases - and of course blames the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) !

EI avios redemptions available online

You can now search for availability and book Aer Lingus flights using Avios on the Avios.com website ... although you probably won't want to actually book them there !

I've written previously about the high "carrier surcharges" that BA impose on european EI flights - and booking through Avios.com - they are even slightly higher !

Here's a few examples:

LHR - DUB  76 gbp

DUB - LHR  41 gbp

return 117 gbp

For context - if you chose a BA flight and had flown or earned miles in the last year (so were eligible for their lower fees reward flight) a single ex LHR would be 17.5 gbp and a single ex DUB would be 10.3 gbp (book through BA no Avios.com who charge everything at 17.5 gbp)

LGW - NOC  57 gbp

NOC - LGW  36 gbp (plus airport 10 eur "development" fee)

ex NOC return 94 gbp

ex LGW return 92 gbp

when I phoned up BA in June 2015 the NOC - LGW fee was 27 gbp

when I phoned up BA in August 2015 the LGW - NOC fee was 54 gbp

The longhaul prices are a bit more reasonable - but you still shouldn't book them through Avios.com

In the 13,000 avios category (for an off-peak economy single)

DUB - Hartford  100gbp

DUB - Boston  100 gbp

DUB - Chicago  109 gbp

DUB - JFK  100 gbp

In the 16,250 avios category (for an off-peak economy single)

DUB - Orlando  109 gbp

DUB - LAX  117 gbp

For a return flight the taxes and fees come to around 180 gbp - but a commenter over on HeadForPoints rang up BA and for the same flights the taxes and fees are 90 gbp

So ring up BA before booking EI flights on Avios.com

Another attempt to get to LYR

I've written a few times over the last year about planning a trip to Svalbard - but I still haven't managed to execute it !

This winter it looks like Norwegian are flying just twice a week - on a Monday (departing at 09:50) and a Friday (departing at 08:45) - with return flights at 12:30 or 13:35

SAS has more options - with flights from TrOmSo on Mondays (depart 12:20), Tuesdays (depart 12:20,  Thursday (depart 00:20 and 12:20), Friday (depart 12:20) and Sunday (depart 12:20).

All these flights (apart from Thursday's midnight flight) originate in OSLo - stopping for 35 mins in TOS.

Norwegian have three direct flights a week from LGW - TOS on Mondays (depart 14:20), Wednesdays (depart 05:50) and Fridays (depart 14:20) - but these can cost anything from 31.50 gbp to 202 gbp plus each way.

It looks like SAS don't fly London - TOS direct.

FlyBe check-in options - or lack of

The email from FlyBe confirming my NOC - BHX flight encouraged me to check-in online, saying that it opened 36 hours before departure ...

So of course I attempted to check-in ... but it wouldn't work.  Assuming that I was making a mistake, I kept trying and trying ... and failing, and failing.

Eventually I discovered a page on their website that listed check-in options by airport - including this nugget:

Airport	code	Airport Check-in	Self Service Check-in	Web Check-in	Automatic Check-in (email)	Automatic Check-in (mobile)
Knock	NOC	Yes	No	No	No	No

So why the hell did they send me an email telling me to check-in online !

short trip to Åre

I wrote a while ago about trying to arrange a trip to Sweden to ski ... without any direct flights, it wasn't easy to arrange, and so I never went !

Now that Easyjet have announced a weekly flight on a Sunday from LGW to OSD (which is about 80km from the ski area), it should make the trip more feasible.

The EZY flight departs LGW at 07:00, arriving OSD at 10:50 - and then departing at 11:10, arriving back into LGW at 12:55

The LGW-OSD price during March is between 42 gpb and 75 gbp for a single.

The OSD-LGW price during March is 27.50 gbp (26th), 33.50 gbp (19th) or 55 gbp (12th)

Getting to OSD on connecting flights from London takes a while - using SAS flights connecting in Stockholm, you could depart LHR at 10:35 and arrive OSD at 16:35 with a very safe 4 hour margin in ARN.  Prices in March are about 88 gbp single.

It would be possible to get a shared transfer for these flights for 295 SEK each way per person (approx 27 gbp each way).

The same company also does shared transfers from Trondheim - at 13:15 and 17:15 on a Thursday (and further times on a Sunday) - but sadly the only direct flight from London to TRD arrives into TRD at 23:35 on a Thursday.  The cost is 390 SEK per person each way.

However, there's a direct flight from TRD to LGW departing at 18:00 which would require getting the 13:30 bus from the ski resort (arriving at the airport around 16:00) - but it would be another option.

Another option would be to fly from London to Stockholm on Wednesday evening - so able to do a full day's work, and then travel up to Åre on Thursday morning.  This might work better, as it appears the standard "handover" days in Åre are Thursday and Sunday.  Flights are generally available for 52 gbp from LGW to ARN with Norwegian.

Flights from ARN to OSD are generally available for 54 gbp - with 5 flights a day from SAS and more from BRA (which are slightly more expensive).

Another option is the overnight train from Stockholm - a seat would cost 595 SEK and a berth would cost 746 SEK (68 gbp).  The day time train takes about 7 hours and costs anything from 195 SEK, with a more typical price being 365 SEK (33 gbp).  Prices are only currently available on the Swedish Rail website until 19th March - presumably because it's too far in advance.

As far as accommodation - it looks like there are basic self catering apartment/studios available near the main town for 268 eur for Thu-Sun - which sleep 2 or 3 people.

in summary

Wed 22nd eve LGW-ARN  52 gbp

Wed 22nd overnight train to Åre with cabin 68 gbp

Thu 23rd train to ski area 10 gbp

3 nights accomm 120 gbp (two people sharing the cheap accommodation)

3 days ski pass 114 gbp

3 days ski / boot hire 85 gbp

Sun 26th transfer to OSD airport 27 gbp

Sun 26th OSD-LGW  17.50 gbp

Total 493.50 plus transfer to and from LGW

Ryanair seat allocation order

Update - Ryanair have changed their seat allocation algorithm, and now allocate all their middle seats first.  So if you want a window or aisle seat, you have to wait until they've all gone before you check-in.  The row order has not yet been fully established.


Original post:

If you don't enjoy paying extra to select a seat on your Ryanair flight, and you have some time available ... you can use the allocation order that Low Cost Routes blog has worked out, to select a seat that you want.

It's worth reading the whole page - but the crucial point is that rows get allocated in the order:

33, 20, 19, 22, 15, 24, 12, 26, 10, 28, 8, 30, 18, 21, 14, 23, 11, 25, 9, 27, 29, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (or 1,2, not sure), 17, 16, 31, 32

You can even watch a video showing how one flight got allocated, as an example.

I've used this order many times to avoid seats that I didn't want - it does take up quite a bit of time, as you have to keep checking the Ryanair website. Sometimes you miss out on the seat that you actually want - but I've always managed to avoid a nasty middle seat.

You can also use it just before online checkin closes to work out if a neighbouring row is likely to be empty !

London to St Anton

I'm looking to get to St Anton on Saturday 20th February ... there are loads of different options from London ... so I ended up putting together a spreadsheet to work out the different total costs - including the various different baggage fees from different airlines, and the different rail costs from different airports.  Below are the cheapest flights I could find, ignoring the 7am departures !

I ended up booking this flight to Innsbruck - it has the shortest transfer time - so hopefully I will be able to go and pick up my skis and boots from the hire shop in St Anton on Saturday evening.  The trip from Innsbruck airport into town by bus is quite straightforward ... and with a direct train from the main station at 17:15, i could get a taxi into town if the connection was getting tight.

Dep LGW	13:25
Arr INN	16:25
Flight	76	gbp
Bag	18	gbp
Airport - HBf	2.7	eur
Inn HBf - StAaA	21	eur
Train time	1.5 hrs
Total	112	gbp

Whilst the option of going to Salzburg was a bit cheaper - the airport is a bit of a mosh pit at weekends during the winter, and i wouldn't get into St Anton until after the ski shops had closed.  And the amount Monarch charge for a bag in the hold is just crazy.

Dep LGW	14:15
Arr SZG	17:20
Flight	33	gbp
Bag	23.75	gbp
SZG - StAaA	53.6	eur
Train time	3 hrs
Total	99	gbp

The Friedrichshafen option was quite attractive - but it would mean an earlier start in the morning, and some of the train connections were a bit tight (although there were plenty more trains, it would just take a bit longer).

dep LGW	11:00
arr FDH	13:45
Flight	52	gbp
Bag	18	gbp
FDH - StAaA	31	eur
Train time	2.5 hrs	3 changes
Total	94	gbp

I've never flown to or from Memmingen airport ... but it just sounded like too much effort on this occasion (including a not overly frequent bus service from the airport to the train station) ... even though the fare is very good.

dep STN	11:45
arr FMM	14:30
Flight	33	gbp
Bag - guess	15	gbp
FMM - HBf	3	eur
Memm - StAaA	48	eur
Train time	4 hrs
Total	88	gbp

I really like Zurich airport, and the fact that mainline trains depart from underneath the airport - but the fare just wasn't competitive.

dep LHR	15:40
arr ZRH	20:05
Flight	86	gbp
Bag	20	gbp
ZRH - StAaA	54	eur
Train time	2.75 hrs
Total	148	gbp

I also looked at prices to Munich - but sadly the cheap Lufthansa flights arrived to late to make the last train to St Anton.

Flights to Geneva weren't particularly cheap, and the train costs around 120 euro each way - so the totals weren't competitive.