I recently purchased a railcard through Trip.com, expecting to save £4.50 from the price of the railcard offered by National Rail. However, the process was frustrating and confusing. According to the poorly explained email I received after purchasing, it appeared that I had to buy a train ticket from Trip.com’s website in order to activate the railcard. However, when I tried to purchase a ticket, I was unable to easily apply the railcard to get the discount, which was the whole point of purchasing the railcard in the first place. Going by the National Rail website: the discounted ticket using the railcard was supposed to be £13.25, but I would end up paying the full price of £19.90, making me financially worse off. Additionally, the discount I initially received from purchasing the railcard at £24.50 was further eroded by the booking fee Trip.com added. This made the overall experience even less advantageous compared to purchasing directly from National Rail, where I could have paid £30 for the railcard and avoided the unnecessary fees, complications and wasted time. Furthermore, when I enquired about how I would access the railcard in the future when asked by ticket inspectors to show I had one, I was informed that I would have to permanently have Trip.com’s app on my phone or log into their website. This unnecessarily ties me to Trip.com for the entire year the railcard is valid, creating an inconvenient and avoidable dependency on their platform. Overall, this experience was a complete loss. What I initially thought was a minimal £4.50 discount turned out to be over a £10 loss when adding in the booking fee, the inability to apply the railcard discount on the first ticket I needed to buy to gain access to the card, and the time wasted going back and forth with customer service. Not to mention, after I decided to ask for a refund, I now have to wait 1-10 days for MY money I paid less than an hour before to be returned to my account. In these cost-of-living crisis times, when we are all looking for ways to maximize savings so we can live comfortably after working so hard, it’s deeply disappointing that companies engage in practices like this, which could easily take advantage of less savvy individuals and leave them financially worse off. I was not only financially worse off but also left with a poor customer experience. The added booking fee and the lack of clarity throughout the process made it feel like deceptive business practices. I now question the integrity of this company, and after this ordeal, I will not trust Trip.com for any future bookings — whether for a railcard or a holiday. This has been a frustrating and disappointing experience, and I want to warn others about the potential pitfalls of using this platform.