If I had a season ticket from the last station where Oyster/contactless cards are valid to a couple of stops further out and wanted to go back from London to the final stop covered by the ticket, I think the official answer is that I should:
- Touch in in London (pay as you go).
- Get off the train at the last Oyster stop, go to the station entrance and touch out.
- Go back and take the next train 20-30min later to go the last bit.
or
- Get a paper ticket for the TfL zone part at a higher price.
That is obviously not ideal - to put it mildly - to me the logical thing seems to be to use Oyster/contactless pay as you go and stay on the train. I am not sure why that really needs to be a problem for the Oyster/contactless ticketing, but I am happy to be educated.
My belief is that if I stay on the train and do not touch out, the highest fare may be charged (fair enough if it is for that route), but that this will not count towards the daily cap.
(I don't quite see why the latter point would be fair as only in the best case would you not be penalised even if the journey would count towards the cap. Perhaps my mindset is just missing the possible exploits.)
If all that is correct, is there any way to get around this, basically, can I set up the Oyster/contactless card to close the journey for the last station in the Oyster area for a regular trip (I have heard of automatic completion)?
Or would I repeatedly have to ask staff to close the journey?