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Fare changes

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Mojo

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I've noticed that if I ask for fares on the 1st January it gives me the current fare, but if I select the 2nd January it gives the fare after the fares changes.

If I go to the ticket office on Friday and ask for a ticket for 2nd January, will I pay the current fare or the new fare? What about if I go to the ticket office after 1200 on the 1st and ask for one the following day (the soonest you can buy a season for a weekday)?
 
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yorkie

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I am pretty sure that Thetrainline are charging incorrectly, and there have been stories about this before.

I've been charged twice by thetrainline, and they were not helpful at all, so I contacted my bank and got them to reverse one of the charges. Never heard anything back from thetrainline.

Confirmations with missing reference numbers have also occured, and this means they did not actually complete the booking.

For nearly a year Thetrainline refused to charge railcard discounts on PBO-YRK/DON day returns, they kept sending standard messages back such as "We are looking at the problem" when the evidence suggested otherwise.

Their customer support is well-known to be poor, with the people there to "help" you being based somewhere like India and have very little knowledge of anything. I think they work from a simple script. I was once told I could buy a SVR from KGX to YRK for about £3. (The exact background behind that is very complicated, but it's to do with the FSR50 offer and the way they calculate discounts...).

I was once given the option of a York-Newcastle ticket for 15p, but the ticket never arrived. Obviously a mistake - but theirs! Thetrainline were rubbish in dealing with it, and left it to Virgin (whose train I was booked to get) to handle it (to be fair Virgin were great!).

Their refund policy is extremely dubious, for example if you are badly delayed on an advance ticket and try to claim a refund it says "No refund allowed on that ticket type" which is FALSE. I sent my ticket to the company I travelled with and got the full amount back in vouchers.

Overall, my opinion of thetrainline is very low. I've spent a 4-figure sum on tickets through their website until now because there has been no other choice. Now, fortunately, NXEC (formerly GNER) have an alternative! :D http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/
 

W14Fishbourne

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I've noticed that if I ask for fares on the 1st January it gives me the current fare, but if I select the 2nd January it gives the fare after the fares changes.

If I go to the ticket office on Friday and ask for a ticket for 2nd January, will I pay the current fare or the new fare? What about if I go to the ticket office after 1200 on the 1st and ask for one the following day (the soonest you can buy a season for a weekday)?

AFAIR the rule has now been changed. It used to be that if you bought a ticket today, you pay today's price, no matter when you're travelling. Now, as soon as increased prices are announced, you pay the price which would apply on the first day of travel. In other words, if you buy a ticket to start on Jan 2, you'll pay the new prices, no matter when you buy it.



Their refund policy is extremely dubious, for example if you are badly delayed on an advance ticket and try to claim a refund it says "No refund allowed on that ticket type" which is FALSE. I sent my ticket to the company I travelled with and got the full amount back in vouchers.

No, they are quite correct. There are no refunds on AP tickets. In the event of severe delays what you are entitled to is compensation, not a refund.
 

yorkie

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AFAIR the rule has now been changed. It used to be that if you bought a ticket today, you pay today's price, no matter when you're travelling. Now, as soon as increased prices are announced, you pay the price which would apply on the first day of travel. In other words, if you buy a ticket to start on Jan 2, you'll pay the new prices, no matter when you buy it.
Nice of the TOCs to announce this..... (!)

I do wonder if they changed it because of the bad publicity last time where people were charged more online because of the trainline not complying with the rule? No wonder thetrainline are so arrogant if rules get changed for them! :o
No, they are quite correct. There are no refunds on AP tickets. In the event of severe delays what you are entitled to is compensation, not a refund.
I, and any passenger, don't really care whether it's called a "refund" or "compensation", but whatever it's called, I got the full amount but thetrainline tried to claim I wasn't eligible, even though I was. Another example is where the TOCs change their timetables at short notice - in such cases you can get your ticket such as a Saver, re-dated at no extra cost, but when you ask at the ticket office they say "you have to do it where you bought it", so you go online and it charges you a £10 admin fee! Then they take weeks over processing it...
 

Mojo

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I think I'll buy my 1 month season on Friday then!

Many thanks for the replies.
 
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