I have always bought an annual zone 1-3 travel card on oyster, but this year it makes more sense for me to buy a southern rail pass.
I travel from Honor Oak to London Bridge, but note that the cost of the season ticket is the same if I were to buy Forest Hill to London Bridge.
If I were to purchase a Forest Hill season ticket, can I use the ticket gates at Honor Oak? Or vice versa (given that the cost is the same)?
I’ve messed around with single and return paper tickets in that way, and yes, it did open the barriers when I got of at an ‘earlier’ stop. The barriers also didn’t consume the ticket, which can be useful if you want to then go on to send a picture into delay-repay or similar.
At the time I looked up the conditions of carriage on the ticket, and my reading of it was that it was totally permitted as I still had a single ticket covering the whole journey. I don’t recall the exact section now though!
I travel from Sydenham to London Bridge on a weekly return and I sometime get off at Forest Hill. My ticket doesn’t work there but the staff are always happy to let me out when I show them my ticket.
When I used to buy the Southern Rail annual season ticket, I uploaded it to my Oyster card which covers you for zones rather than to certain stations. I could tap out at Honor Oak or Forest Hill with no problems. I haven’t purchase a season ticket for a couple of years now but I do believe you can still do this.