• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Wrong Railcard type on ticket

Status
Not open for further replies.

lyndhurst25

Established Member
Joined
26 Nov 2010
Messages
1,406
I have a Dales Railcard and would like to buy tickets using Red Spotted Hanky to use up some e-vouchers. Unfortunately local railcards aren't listed on the website. Would it be acceptable to buy a ticket and apply a Senior Railcard discount for example, then present it with my Dales Railcard explaining the website situation to the guard? The discount amount is the same. Would this be allowed or not? Thanks.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

bb21

Emeritus Moderator
Joined
4 Feb 2010
Messages
24,151
Officially, no. However most guards would be understanding if the correct fare is paid anyway, especially if asked before boarding.

That said, please note that discretion is not guaranteed.
 

DaveNewcastle

Established Member
Joined
21 Dec 2007
Messages
7,387
Location
Newcastle (unless I'm out)
I agree with bb21 that your ticket if, discounted against a Railcard which you can't produce (which in this case is because it doesn't exist!), is not valid for travel.

However, bb21 is also reliable in predicting that you are likely to have the ticket accepted with the full explanation you have given us here. But what I do advise is, that you carry some evidence to demonstrate that you made a genuine attempt to buy the appropriate ticket and that you were frustrated by the on-line booking system. A screenshot of the page which includes the drop-down box which did NOT include your discount should help.

The experience of many on here (which is consistent with my own experience) is that rail staff easily recognise the difference between passengers with invalid tickets who can only blurt out mumbled and irrelevant excuses, and those who have prepared themselves with all the documentation to support the tickets they're presenting which clearly illustrates one of the many limitations of the on-line booking systems.

Don't worry. Take the printouts/screenshots and ticket. Where the price is the same, as your is, I would expect all staff to accept them.
 

Anon Mouse

Established Member
Joined
20 Mar 2011
Messages
1,274
I don'tknow anything about Dales Railcards, but often passengers buy tickets from the Ticket Office which have the wrong railcard type on (SNR when it should be YP, YP when it should be RCD etc) and I always accept it as its the same discount. However strictly speaking its not really valid. As the Dales Railcard is only for a small area I can't imagine the range of tickets to be particually wide. Would it not be best just to buy your ticket from your local station? (or on train if no office/machine)
 

lyndhurst25

Established Member
Joined
26 Nov 2010
Messages
1,406
As the Dales Railcard is only for a small area I can't imagine the range of tickets to be particually wide. Would it not be best just to buy your ticket from your local station? (or on train if no office/machine)

Normally I would. The only reason I'm wanting to buy on-line is to use up some Red Spotted Hanky e-vouchers. These can't be used for ticket purchases from a station or on train.
 

Solent&Wessex

Established Member
Joined
9 Jul 2009
Messages
2,683
Don't forget that Dales Railcards aren't valid for every journey, and are only valid for specific journeys, so don't forget to ensure your ticket and journey is actually valid for a Dales Railcard discount in the first place.
 

moonrakerz

Member
Joined
10 Feb 2009
Messages
870
This thread reminds me of a case a couple of years back when I purchased two tickets on line for the same journey.
I asked for one on a SNR card and one on a DSB card - the system defaulted to issuing both tickets as DSB. Now, I can understand why it did this, but it didn't help me when my wife couldn't travel and I was left with a DSB ticket and no accompanying card - which was why I asked for the two types of ticket in the first place !

It can be done, but not by following the "normal" procedure, which results in two DSB tickets each time.

My ticket wasn't queried on the journey !
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top