Fare avoidance, as distinct from fare evasion, is the lawful use of knowledge to travel using tickets which cost significantly less than the 'normal' fare for a given journey, which is what one might be expected to use. It is common in some parts of the world with complex travel networks, notably the National Rail network of Great Britain.
The term is sometimes used as a synonym of fare evasion.
Methods of avoiding fares
Split ticketing
The practice of buying multiple tickets instead of one ticket for a transport itinerary is called split ticketing. Multiple apps, including Split My Fare, provide such service.
Some rail systems or airlines calculate fares based on an individual route's popularity and a host of other factors in addition to mileage. Thus, the total cost of two tickets, from A to P and from P to B, may be less than one ticket from A to B, giving an opportunity to save money, especially if P is en route between A and B.
For example, a train from London Paddington to Bristol can stop on the way at Didcot Parkway. When a split ticket is used, this has been shown to reduce the fare from £118 to £75, helping travellers make a significant saving. This is a well-known station to split tickets and among others has been used for this purpose.
Starting and stopping short
Even if mileage is the sole factor in pricing apart from discounts, applicable to journeys exceeding a certain mileage, there may be an anomaly for borderline cases. For example, a rail system may charge a fare of $100 for the first 100 km and $6 for each additional 10 km. A ticket from A to B, 380 km apart, costs $268. If a discount of 15% applies to mileages exceeding 400 km only, a ticket from A to C, 420 km apart, would cost $292 × 85% = $248.20. A traveller may buy a ticket from A to C and alight at B, saving $19.80.
Running a negative balance on stored-value tickets
Frequently, smart cards, as a convenience, allow the user to run a negative balance. If this balance is greater than the cost of the card, the user may profit by simply discarding the card and purchasing another.
Examples
Hong Kong
In the MTR system of Hong Kong, Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau station of East Rail line serve as checkpoints for rail passengers between Hong Kong and mainland China and vice versa. If a passenger travels to/from stations from urban area (on or before Kowloon Tong), it is possible to save money by splitting the journey into 2 legs. For example, travelling directly from Hung Hom to Lo Wu costs HK$40.60. If the passenger exits and enters again at Sheung Shui station, the journey costs HK$36.50 (Hung Hom - Sheung Shui: HK$10.80, Sheung Shui - Lo Wu: $25.70), which is HK$4.10 lower than the direct journey.
In the era of Common stored value tickets, it was possible to travel on the whole network regardless of the fare as long as there was some value on the ticket, which would be recycled when it ran out of value. Therefore, passengers could save fare by keeping tickets with low value (as low as HK$0.10) and use them to travel for long distance journeys.
Sweden
The rail operator SJ had a loophole around 2010, where ticket prices were calculated the shortest way, even if going a detour with a train change. It was possible to book a short distance ticket with an extreme detour and end the journey halfway. This loophole has been tightened.
United Kingdom
The privatisation of British Rail has resulted in a complex fare structure, with passengers regularly mis-sold tickets, or not aware of the full entitlement a ticket gives them. Enthusiasts, and those with connections to the industry, use the Great Britain railway technical manuals to identify which fares offer best value. This often involves purchasing tickets for stations which one has no intention of actually visiting, for a number of reasons. Since rail journeys in Great Britain are not always priced on mileage, often it is cheaper to buy a ticket from A to D via B and C, solely to travel from B to C (in some cases A = B or C = D). When splitting a journey it is important that the train stops at the location where you transfer from one ticket to another.
In the National Rail network, split ticketing is legal as long as the train calls at the stations where a change of tickets occurs, and, unless on advance tickets or where break of journey is specifically prohibited by restrictions, starting or ending a journey short is also legal.
There are many applications that have been developed to carry out split ticketing, for example Trainline and TrainSplit. These applications search for the lowest combination of tickets for a given journey