On 19/11/2017 11:41, mechanic wrote:
On Sat, 18 Nov 2017 21:14:45 +0000, JNugent wrote:

I would love a pensioner's bus pass but am not old enough unfortunately,
and was wistfully thinking about them only the other day.

I concluded I would be prepared to pay a couple of hundred quid, if not
more, for such a wonderful perk that cannot actually be purchased at any
price.

Doesn't anyone sell fake ones ?

They'd be easy to make with a laser printer, especially since London bus
drivers don't do much to check "out of town" bus passes (which do not
work with the Oyster machines, meaning that flashing it at the driver is
all you need do and it can be done from within the plastic window in a
wallet or similar).

It's an obvious flaw.

Ours have embedded RFID chips. Which the ticket machines read.

The way it works here (as I understand it) is that if I get on a local
bus (which would be so rare that I can't remember the last time I did
it, but at least two years ago), the pass is presented to something
which looks like an Oyster reader which makes a beeping noise in
recognition of the pass. This eventually means that the county council
has to pay an incremental sum to the bus company.

But when I get on a London bus, the Oyster machine does not recognise my
pass (I've tried it, more than once). The only check made is a swift
visual one by the driver (who usually takes absolutely no interest
beyond a cursory nod and only thenm if the card is actively shown to him*).

It would be as easy to scan and print a copy and keep it in a plastic
window inside my wallet (for use in London or anywhere else where the
reading machines are imcompatible with the ones at home).

[* I do that in order not to give the impression to any undercover LT
inspector that I either have an Oyster card I'm not using up or haven't
bought a ticket for dishonest reasons.]