From mse obviously
From 00.01am on Thu 6 Jul until 11.59pm on Tue 11 Jul, Virgin Trains* is having an up to half-price sale across selected peak and off-peak routes on its West Coast network (see full map), including one-way standard advance adult tickets available between London and Birmingham for £5 each way, and between London and Manchester for £11 each way. You can also get some cracking first class fares with this offer (see below).

Tickets are for travel from Fri 21 Jul to Fri 8 Dec, with a few exclusions (see below). You can book the discounted fares via the Virgin Trains* site or its app – there's no booking fee.

What discounted fares can I get?

Virgin Trains says there are one million discounted standard and first class advance single tickets available. Discounted seats are randomly spread across the network and sale period, with most availability on off-peak services and limited availability during weekday peak times – so it will involve a bit of trial and error to find the cheaper fares. In the past, this has been very popular, so you'll need to 'make tracks' and be flexible on times and dates to get the cheapest tickets.

Virgin Trains told us you'll be able to get up to 50% off advance single tickets (if you want a return you'll need to book two singles), including the below examples of discounted fares:

£5 London to Birmingham each way (norm cheapest advance single £8, on-the-day single £30ish)
£11 Manchester to London each way (norm cheapest advance single £22, on-the-day single £80ish)
£18 London to Glasgow each way (norm cheapest advance single £30, on-the-day single £140ish)
Tickets in this offer are only valid for the specific train and seat reserved online, and are non-refundable. Unfortunately, no further discounts are available with a railcard.

It excludes Sat 26 Aug to Mon 28 Aug on all routes, all Saturdays and Sundays from 30 Sep onwards, and when journeys are affected by engineering works. There are also no promotions on Liverpool services between Fri 29 Sep and Mon 23 Oct, nor on Holyhead and Chester services between Thu 7 Sep and Mon 11 Sep.

Cheap first class fares are also available

Although it's not as MoneySaving, if you're looking for first class tickets, you can find some strong discounts in this sale – including from £17 each way (norm cheapest £26) between Birmingham and London, £30 each way (norm cheapest £45) between London and Manchester, and £37 each way (norm cheapest £55) between London and Glasgow.

What about child tickets?

Discounted child tickets are available in this sale for half the price of the adult sale ticket, so a family of four – two adults and two children – could visit London from Birmingham for £30 return (£5 each way for each adult, £2.50 each way for each child).