Off-peak single (online) and changing travel plans.

[faddy]

I was on the point of buying Advances twinned with Off-peak singles (online) (aka half Savers) when it dawned on me that I was thinking of the latter as being the same as the return half of an Off-peak Return when they are of course only valid for travel as dated.

Is the pop-up that describes them on the VT website correct that there's no way of getting that date changed so the only way to accommodate a change of plan would be to get a refund and buy a new full price single? Can you get a refund after the date on the ticket and after the matching Advance has been used? Does it have to be returned to and refunded by the online seller?

 

[Wallsendmag]

The only point that you could obtain a refund from is the original retailer.

 

[yorkie]

Contact Virgin Trains and see what they say. There is a possibility they may change the date by just charging an admin fee, or possibly waiving the admin fee altogether.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Hadders]

The danger with a refund and new ticket isntou won’t be able to buy a SVH on its own for a single journey, and will end up having to pay the SVS price.

I complained about this to VTWC a couple of years ago but they completely failed to understand the issue...

 

[faddy]

Contact Virgin Trains and see what they say. There is a possibility they may change the date by just charging an admin fee, or possibly waiving the admin fee altogether.

Let us know how you get on.

It's a hypothetical at the moment. We think we know what day we're returning but it's not certain, so I was wondering what the cost and hassle of changing the date would be. I'm thinking now of getting either Off-peak returns for full flexibility, or Advances in both directions as there is at least a clear pathway to changing an Advance to a different date if necessary (at any booking office without need to go back to original ticket seller as I understand it?).

The popup on the VT website re the online single says "You can change the time of your journey without changing your tickets. If you wish to change your date of travel or Class of ticket, you will need to buy a new ticket and apply for a refund on your current ticket." I'd just wondered whether there was a way around that for those in the know!

 

[Bletchleyite]

It does seem to be a flaw in these tickets. The cheapest way to change one is likely be to refund and book a new *return* journey with a throwaway Advance as the other leg.

 

[faddy]

It does seem to be a flaw in these tickets. The cheapest way to change one is likely be to refund and book a new *return* journey with a throwaway Advance as the other leg.

Or of course an actual Advance if available and you don't need the flexibility on the new date.

 

[Haywain]

When I was at (Virgin) East Coast the view we had was that if the similar ticket was presented at the ticket office for a change of date, we would refund the ticket purchased online and sell a new single at the full price. This was because the half price tickets are only available online. It was also the case that they were only available in advance and not on the day of travel, so changing date had that deadline tied in even if it could be done online.

 

[faddy]

When I was at (Virgin) East Coast the view we had was that if the similar ticket was presented at the ticket office for a change of date, we would refund the ticket purchased online and sell a new single at the full price. This was because the half price tickets are only available online. It was also the case that they were only available in advance and not on the day of travel, so changing date had that deadline tied in even if it could be done online.

With or without a £10 charge?

 

[Haywain]

With or without a £10 charge?

I tended to take the view that if you were paying double what you originally had it would be harsh to levy an admin fee on top, but others might have taken a different view.

 

[faddy]

It's over 40 years since I've sought a refund on a rail ticket so please excuse any naivety in my question: is obtaining a refund from an online seller under 29.1 of NRCoT (i.e. not asking for a free refund) generally straightforward? In this (as yet hypothetical) instance I'd be asking for a refund on an Off-peak single (online) and the retailer would likely be Trip.com (for the Skyscanner discount offer).

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's over 40 years since I've sought a refund on a rail ticket so please excuse any naivety in my question: is obtaining a refund from an online seller under 29.1 of NRCoT (i.e. not asking for a free refund) generally straightforward? In this (as yet hypothetical) instance I'd be asking for a refund on an Off-peak single (online) and the retailer would likely be Trip.com (for the Skyscanner discount offer).

I don't know about trip.com but if you are claiming a refund because you want to (i.e. with £10 fee) it's about 3 clicks on the Trainline derived sites provided the tickets haven't been collected, if they have you have to post them back too.

 

[island]

My colleague recently found she had left her SVH ticket at home and upon phoning Virgin was sold a new SVH ticket (with no return journey) and allowed to send in the old one for a refund. So it can be done.

 

[faddy]

it's about 3 clicks on the Trainline derived sites provided the tickets haven't been collected.

Do any retailers automatically refund uncollected tickets if you don't contact them?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Do any retailers automatically refund uncollected tickets if you don't contact them?

This wouldn't be useful in most cases. In particular you'd have to wait until a period return expired before refunding it, as the user might want to collect it and use only one portion.