Gatwick to London by Train - East Croydon trick

24/2/22  Updated with carriage details

In a previous post about the pricing quirks of travelling from Gatwick to Zone 1 or Zone 2, I mentioned that you could also reduce the price by exiting at East Croydon and reentering straight away.

Since I used it recently, I thought it was worth going through in more detail.

The standard price between Gatwick and Zone 2 in London is £12.90 peak and £8.70 off peak

But if you break your journey at East Croydon, the price between Gatwick and East Croydon is £5.50 peak or £3.40 off peak

And the price between East Croydon and Zone 2 is £4 peak or £3 off peak (as long as you don't travel through Zone 1)

So that's a total of £9.50 peak or £6.40 off peak with the East Croydon break - compared with £12.90 peak and £8.70 off peak if you don't break your journey.

You may say that it's just not worth the hassle to save £3.40 peak of £2.30 off peak ... but actually it may not be much hassle at all (if you're only travelling with hand luggage).

Trains from Gatwick to East Croydon mostly end in either Victoria or Blackfriars - so you may find that the first train from Gatwick goes to the wrong destination.  In which case, take it, do the barrier trick at East Croydon, and return to the same platform at East Croydon for the train that you actually want!  I did this recently and it worked a treat.

And if you're really lucky, at East Croydon you can get up the ramp from the platform to the ticket barrier, out and in, and back down the ramp to the same train that you just arrived on - although I've only managed this once on a busy train that was slow to depart.

The prices are the same either to or from Gatwick - although if you're rushing for a flight, you probably don't want to do this!

With Zone 1, the non change pricing is £18.30 peak or £11.10 off peak

And with the change in East Croydon it's £7.30 + £5.50 peak or £5.20 + £3.40 off peak

So the Zone 1 savings are £5.50 peak or £2.50 off peak

If you are jumping out at East Croydon, on the journey towards London, in a 12 carriage train you want the rear of the 11th carriage.  Then it's up the ramp on your right, turn right at the top, through the gateline and back again.

Enjoy the saving whilst this trick still works.

Avios.com vs British Airways Executive Club

I've written before about the ever changing taxes/surcharges charged on Aer Lingus reward flights - and the difference between booking through British Airways Executive club telephone line, and using the Avios.com website.

I was just looking at a simple Heathrow to Dublin one way flight and phoned up BA to compare prices.  What's really weird is the structure of the Avios/price combination - BA's work in the opposite direction that Avios.com use.

For simplicity let's value each Avios at 1p

On Avios.com the Avios/price combinations are:

4,000 avios + £27.82

3,676 avios + £32.82

3,136 avios + £37.82

2,055 avios + £47.82

1,600 avios + £62.82

1,276 avios + £72.82

Using 1p per Avios value, the 4,000 avios option is the best, with the 2,054 avios option close behind.  The 1,276 avios option is by far the worst.

Assuming the British Airways telephone operator gave me the correct prices - their Avios/price combinations are:

4,000 avios + £40.33

3,676 avios + £43.08

3,136 avios + £47.08

2,055 avios + £55.33

1,600 avios + £60.33

1,276 avios + £65.33

Again using 1p per Avios value, the 2,054 avios option is the best, with the 1,600 avios option close behind.  The 4,000 avios option is the worst.

The best option on Avios.com is significantly cheaper than the best option that the British Airways call agent offered.

But if you only have 1,600 avios to use, then the best option is to book using a British Airways phone operator.

Whilst the Aer Lingus reward flights are still more expensive than the flat Reward Flight Saver option on BA reward flights - at least the Aer Lingus taxes/fees are cheaper than the £39 they were charging a few years ago!