Agh! How can I get my train fare to Cardiff for less?!

A question about : Agh! How can I get my train fare to Cardiff for less?!

I have read the MSE article on how to get cheaper train tickets but I have not been able to crack this.

I need to go to Cardiff in April - from the 20th of April (arrive before 12 noon) to the 27th of April (depart about 12 noon.)

I thought that buying my tickets nearly 12 weeks in advance would make this easy to get a good deal. But the tickets are Ј69 each way! I tried various tricks on the train-splitting thing but nothing did more than to save me more than about Ј5 each way.

I checked fares for much closer to the time - next week, a month from now - also for same weekdays (Mondays) and times of day - and the fares were more like Ј25.

Is this because the fares are going to jump after Easter? Or might they come down a bit closer to the date? As far as I know, tickets are non-refundable so I don't want to buy now and then find out that I could have saved more than half my money.

I can't really change the days and I can't really change the times of day so it's not really a matter of being flexible for cheaper fares. I can do a couple of hours in each direction, which makes little difference. Also, I don't qualify for any of those rail cards.

Does anyone have any advice?

Best answers:

• Where are you travelling from?
  According to this National Rail page, most train companies haven't released their cheaper, 'Advance' fares for that week yet.
  Once they are released, you should be able to find the Ј25-ish tickets you are seeing for earlier dates.
• I thought you just used it for planning purposes and then bought the ticket yourself via the train company's website. I will have another look at it to see how it actually works for purchasing tickets.
• Oh! I just went through and saw what you meant! I will open the train company's website in another browser and follow the little pop-up thing from the splitter site to make sure I get the right times and then save Ј3 on the booking.
  I checked a fair for similar days in March and it was Ј5 cheaper from the Ј39 fare so it would be worth doing. However, I checked another day and found a fare for Ј18 that didn't split any further (not that I really expected it to.)
  I will use that for sure when the fares go down (hopefully sometime in the next week or so.)
• So this is tool that works best for journeys you can't plan well in advance and the fares are really high.
  In the meantime, I got a return ticket Manchester-London for Ј35 in March!