Ticket

A travel expert has shown how a perfectly legal train booking method called ticket splitting helped her save significant money on a journey from London to Manchester

If soaring rail fares have driven you towards lengthy car journeys and packed coaches, one travel expert claims there’s a completely legal method to pay significantly less for both short and long trips across Britain.

Amy Doherty, a travel expert at Travel by Luxe who frequently shares money-saving tips for British travellers, says she has discovered a technique that can “beat the system” without breaking any rules. She explains the secret lies in something known as train splitting.

“You’re essentially buying two or more tickets that cover your whole trip, and bizarrely, this often works out cheaper than buying one straightforward ticket from A to B,” said Amy.

Amy insists the process is far simpler than most people think. “A few years ago, you had to manually check every stop the train passed through to find savings. Now, most major booking platforms do it for you. They scan thousands of fare combinations and bring up the cheapest. It’s honestly one of the simplest ways to save money on train travel.”

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To demonstrate its effectiveness, she recently tested it using an actual journey from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, one of Britain’s busiest long-distance routes.

Amy explained: “A direct ticket from London to Manchester can easily cost around £90 for a standard single if you book late. But by splitting the journey at Milton Keynes Central, the price dropped dramatically.

“I booked a standard ticket from London to Milton Keynes, and then another from Milton Keynes to Manchester. The total came in at £65 instead of £90. Exact same journey, same day, same destination… but £25 cheaper.”

Whilst some passengers simply use split tickets to cut the basic fare, Amy revealed an even cleverer approach: dividing your journey between standard and first class.

“What the booking apps don’t always highlight is when you could upgrade part of your trip to first class, and still save money overall. That’s the real magic of this hack. Sometimes the first-class fare for a shorter section of the route is incredibly cheap. If you combine that with a standard ticket for the first leg, you can travel in serious comfort without paying a premium.”

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Using the Manchester example, she explains: “I went through every stop the train passed. On this route, Milton Keynes offered the perfect balance. A standard fare into Milton Keynes can be reasonable, and first-class advance fares from Milton Keynes up to Manchester can be surprisingly low if you book ahead. It meant I could upgrade to first class for the second half of the trip without blowing the budget.”

In Amy’s situation, the direct first-class ticket from London to Manchester on the same day was over £150. However, by splitting the fare, she managed to secure the standard-plus-first-class combination for around £80, saving roughly £70 overall, whilst still enjoying the benefits.

She adds: “This isn’t always the case, but it happens more often than people think. British rail pricing is unpredictable at the best of times, and that inconsistency actually creates opportunities.”

Amy also revealed that occasionally this method means hanging around briefly at the changeover station. “For the Manchester trip, we ended up waiting about 40 minutes at Milton Keynes because the earlier train into the station was cheaper and quicker. That little pause saved enough money to feel well worth it, and Milton Keynes has plenty of places to grab a coffee while you wait.”

How to save money with train splitting

1. First, check how much the full first-class ticket would cost. That gives you your baseline.
2. Next, examine every potential stopping point along the route. On certain lines there are two distinct train services, an express service and a stopping service, so you’ll need to review both.
3. After that, start searching individual single fares between your starting point and each of those stops, checking the standard price and the first-class price for each section.” Amy says she frequently uses booking platforms that display standard and first-class prices together, because “it becomes so obvious where the sweet spot is.”
4. When you identify that “cheap first-class leg”, she says, the choice is straightforward. “If the numbers work out, book it. You can often treat yourself to a proper comfy ride for less than the cost of a single standard ticket for the whole journey.”

LA28 hopes to sell more tickets for the 2028 Games than any other Olympic organizing committee in history, and the private group launched a fundraising campaign Thursday to help keep those tickets accessible to local fans.

The fundraising effort invites local sports teams, philanthropists and partners to fund ticket donations that will go to local organizations that will distribute tickets within their communities. The Rams are the inaugural partners, donating $5 million to the campaign.

“The 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games are for everyone,” LA28 president Casey Wasserman said in a statement. “This program is about making sure that the people who live, work and contribute to the spirit of Los Angeles can access the Games taking place in their hometown. We’re incredibly thankful to Stan Kroenke and the Rams for being the first to step up for the people of their city. This is true partnership in action, and we look forward to welcoming others for this meaningful initiative.”

Registration for tickets will open in January and single tickets will start at $28. Amid concerns about skyrocketing prices for sporting events, LA28 said it will not use dynamic pricing that is common for large sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup.

Tickets for the FIFA World Cup coming to Canada, Mexico and the United States next year will start at $60 for some group-stage matches and climb to $6,730, the international soccer governing body said this year. Excluding the opening or closing ceremonies, tickets for the Paris Games ranged between 24 euros (about $27) and 950 euros ($1,097).

Leading up to the Games, the Paris organizing committee set aside more than 1 million tickets at 24 euros each and ensured half of the tickets on sale to the general public would be 50 euros or less. Hoping to keep the Games relatively affordable to fans, Paris 2024 used an “adapted pricing policy” that aimed to use the 15% of the tickets offered at the highest rates to allow the millions of lower-priced tickets.

The Paris Games sold a record 12 million tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics, which helped the organizing committee blow past its initial ticketing and hospitality revenue estimate by $365 million.

LA28 organizers expect to make 14 million tickets available for the largest Olympics in history and the first Paralympics in L.A.

After fans register for the ticket lottery beginning in January, purchasing windows will open that spring. Fans living near Olympic venue cities will have access to presale opportunities.

The Olympics are spread across more than 40 venues, with most clustered in L.A., Long Beach, Inglewood and Carson. Southern California residents and those living in Oklahoma City where softball and canoe slalom events will take place who are selected for the presale window will have access to all tickets for all venues.

Tickets for the Paralympics will go on sale in 2027.

Want to hear Ariana Grande, actor, playing Ariana Grande, pop star? Make sure you have a ticket for her Eternal Sunshine Tour next summer, because after that she’s not planning to do another one any time soon.

In fact, she’s calling the tour her “one last hurrah.”

“I’m very excited to do this small tour, but I think it might not happen again for a long, long, long, long time,” she said Tuesday on the “Good Hang With Amy Poehler” podcast. “So I’m going to give it my all and it’s going to be beautiful and I think that’s why I’m doing it, because it’s like, one last hurrah.”

One. Last. Hurrah.

Grande is a mere 32 years old. That said, her last tour had 97 shows on two continents in less than a year. We would be tired of it too.

The 2026 tour, which runs from June 6 to Sept. 1, hits only 10 cities with multiple dates in each. Tickets went on sale a couple of months back, but there’s always the resale market.

Also, Ariana Grande the actor is very busy at the moment, with more going on than simply “Wicked: For Good” promotion. That obligation, though, has taken her all over the world for multiple premieres, including one in Singapore last week where she was accosted on the yellow carpet by a self-proclaimed troll looking to glom onto her fame and make it his own. (He is currently in jail.)

She has also been busy filming “Focker In-Law,” the fourth installment in the somewhat unlikely “Meet the Fockers” franchise.

“It’s just so great to sort of experience a new, new journey and learn from those around me,” one that includes Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Beanie Feldstein, she told Poehler.

The host said it sounded like this movie was “much less physically exhausting” than her work in “Wicked,” but Grande begged to disagree.

“I’m not sure I’m supposed to say this, but I have to say it ’cause you’re going to laugh your ass off. My character’s a triathlete,” she explained.

“Oh nooooo!” Poehler said. “So you’re always running?”

“I spent yesterday doing burpees and high knees with Robert De Niro, and he’s like, ‘Good job, Olivia. Good job,’” said the “Thank U, Next” singer, whose character is named Olivia Jones. “It’s like the craziest, most — I’m like, what is this movie? What are we doing? But I’m having a blast.”

There’s no corset, like Glinda wore, in “Focker In-Law.” No posture-altering shoes, according to Grande. But Stiller and De Niro are both big runners in their free time, which apparently starts in the neighborhood of 4:40 a.m. As for Ariana?

“There’s a lot of biking in this movie. Like a lot lot lot lot.”

No rest, apparently, for the wicked.

President Donald Trump has announced US embassies will give visa appointment priority to travellers with tickets to the 2026 World Cup.

The Fifa Prioritised Appointment Scheduling System (Pass) will “allow World Cup ticket-holders with long wait times to opt with Fifa for a prioritised interview,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.

Ticket-holders for the tournament – set for next June and July in the US, Canada and Mexico – will not be automatically granted a tourist visa, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

But foreign nationals with tickets to World Cup football matches could get an interview at an embassy or consulate within six to eight weeks of applying, Rubio said.

“Your ticket is not a visa; it doesn’t guarantee admission to the US,” Rubio said, also at the White House on Monday.

“We’re going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get. The only difference here is we’re moving them up in the queue.”

The 2026 men’s World Cup will be co-hosted across North America, with Mexico and Canada, with most matches played in the United States.

Speaking in the Oval Office with Trump and Rubio, Fifa President Gianni Infantino said up to 10 million visitors could come to the US to watch World Cup matches.

“With this Fifa Pass, we can make sure that those who buy a ticket, that are legitimate football fans or soccer fans, they can come and attend the World Cup in the best conditions, starting from getting their visa,” he said.

Some countries whose national teams have already qualified for next year’s tournament currently have long wait times for visa appointments.

In Colombia, travellers applying for US visas are currently waiting around 11 months for an interview appointment, according to data published by the US State Department, the agency which processes visa applications.

The average wait time in Mexico City is nine and half months, while non-Canadian citizen residents of Toronto can expect a wait of 14 months for appointments.

If those wait times hold, the World Cup will have already been played and the golden trophy already awarded by the time fans from some countries have their visas approved or denied.

Monday’s announcement was lauded by US Travel Association, a tourism industry trade group. “The expedited process for Fifa ticket-holders adds needed efficiency without sacrificing security,” its CEO Geoff Freeman said in a statement.

“This is the kind of practical action that strengthens security, increases capacity and cuts wait times, putting the U.S. on stronger footing to welcome millions of visitors next year.”

It is unclear if the new appointment rules will cover ticket-holders from countries whose citizens are mostly or entirely banned from travelling to the US. In June, Trump signed an executive order banning nationals from 12 countries from entering the US, citing an effort to manage security threats

Iran, whose football team has qualified for the World Cup, is among the countries affected by the ban. The June executive order exempts athletes and coaching staff travelling for the World Cup and 2028 Olympics, though its fans could still face a ban.

The BBC has contacted the US State Department for comment.

Not all travellers coming to the US next year will need a visa. Most citizens of countries under the US waiver programme can ordinarily travel visa-free for up to 90 days. That scheme covers much of Europe, including the UK, along with Japan, Australia and others.

At the two most recent World Cups, in Russia and Qatar, a ticket to a game generated a fan ID that could be used like a visa to enter the host country.

The plans, inspired by Denmark’s approach, aim to slash irregular immigration and counter the UK’s far right.

The United Kingdom has announced a drastic reduction in the protections for asylum seekers and refugees under a new plan aimed at slashing irregular immigration and countering the far right.

The measures, modelled on Denmark’s strict asylum system, were announced late on Saturday as Prime Minister Keir Starmer comes under pressure from surging popularity for the anti-immigrant Reform UK party.

“I’ll end UK’s golden ticket for asylum seekers,” Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood declared in a statement, with the Home Office, as her ministry is known, calling the new proposals the “largest overhaul of asylum policy in modern times”.

Mahmood is due to lay out the policy in parliament on Monday.

Meanwhile, the head of the UK’s Refugee Council warned the government that the measures would not deter people from trying to reach the country and urged a rethink.

“They should ensure that refugees who work hard and contribute to Britain can build secure, settled lives and give back to their communities,” Enver Solomon said.

Currently, people get refugee status for five years, after which they can apply for indefinite leave to remain and eventually, citizenship.

Mahmood’s ministry says it would cut the length of refugee status to 30 months. That protection will be “regularly reviewed”, and refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once they are deemed safe, it added.

The ministry also said it intended to make those refugees who were granted asylum wait 20 years before applying to be allowed to live in the UK long-term.

Asylum claims record high

Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high. Polls suggest immigration has overtaken the economy as voters’ top concern.

Some 109,343 people claimed asylum in the UK in the year ending March 2025, a 17 percent rise on the previous year and 6 percent above the 2002 peak of 103,081.

The Home Office said the reforms would make it less attractive for irregular migrants and refugees to come to the UK and make it easier to remove those already in the country.

A statutory legal duty to provide support to asylum seekers, introduced in a 2005 law, would also be revoked, the ministry said. That means housing and weekly financial allowances would no longer be guaranteed for asylum seekers.

It would be “discretionary”, meaning the government could deny assistance to any asylum seeker who could work or support themselves, or those who committed crimes.

Starmer, elected last year, is under pressure to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, something that also troubled his Conservative predecessors.

More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year following such dangerous journeys – more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022.

The crossings are helping raise the popularity of Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, which has led Labour by double-digit margins in opinion polls for most of this year.

More than 100 British charities wrote to Mahmood, urging her to “end the scapegoating of migrants and performative policies that only cause harm”, saying such steps are prompting racism and violence.