Split ticket change of dates - £30 admin fee?

[tomoufc]

Hi all.

I'm traveling from Leeds to Stapleton Road and return, using split tickets. The tickets split at Birmingham New Street and Cheltenham Spa. Each ticket is an off-peak return. The plan was to travel out tomorrow, 28th May, and back on 31st May.

Due to a change in circumstance, I now cannot travel out on 28th May, but instead have to go on 29th May (my return travel plans remain unchanged). I called Cross Country to ask if the outbound portion of the tickets could be amended to read 29th May. They advised me that they would have to issue refunds for all tickets, minus an admin fee of £10 for each ticket bought (so £30 in total), then sell me new tickets for the new date. This seems crazy to me.

So, what are my options, kind people? I work near Leeds train station. Should I go and print off my tickets from the machine at the station, then take them to the booking office to ask for the tickets to be amended (perhaps by endorsement?), or would that further complicate things? Is there any way to avoid this £30 'fine' for amending what should be a flexible ticket option?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Tom

 

[Bletchleyite]

For future reference I believe if you buy from trainsplit.com only one admin fee is charged. Otherwise, I think you just discovered one of the downsides of splitting. You can't win them all.

 

[SickyNicky]

For future reference I believe if you buy from trainsplit.com only one admin fee is charged. Otherwise, I think you just discovered one of the downsides of splitting. You can't win them all.

Correct. TrainSplit will charge only one admin fee per journey.

 

[Merseysider]

For walk-up tickets such as the Off Peak returns you purchased, there is no advantage to purchasing ahead of time. You may wish to consider purchasing walk-up tickets only on the day of travel in future, to prevent a situation like this from reoccurring.

 

[tomoufc]

For walk-up tickets such as the Off Peak returns you purchased, there is no advantage to purchasing ahead of time. You may wish to consider purchasing walk-up tickets only on the day of travel in future, to prevent a situation like this from reoccurring.

Indeed you're right - lesson learned.

Luckily I managed to persuade the CC call centre to waive the admin fees, but it did take up my entire lunchtime.

 

[lemonic]

Also, if you book Off Peak/Anytime tickets on the Southern website then you can get a full refund without any admin fees if you choose to collect the tickets from a station and haven't picked them up yet.

 

[tomoufc]

Also, if you book Off Peak/Anytime tickets on the Southern website then you can get a full refund without any admin fees if you choose to collect the tickets from a station and haven't picked them up yet.

That no longer seems to be the case, unfortunately: http://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-fares/refunds/ (see last paragraph)

 

[Bletchleyite]

That no longer seems to be the case, unfortunately: http://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-fares/refunds/ (see last paragraph)

They have removed Advances from it but it's still true of walk-ups.

 

[Olympian]

For walk-up tickets such as the Off Peak returns you purchased, there is no advantage to purchasing ahead of time.

I disagree. There's no financial advantage (unless just before a fares increase) but some people like myself do, depending on the journey, like to have reserved seats and/or obtain their tickets before the day of travel to avoid any ticket office queues etc. on the day depending on time of travel.

 

[gray1404]

You were very lucky getting the call centre to wave all the fees, I thought maybe they would have just charged you one, but that was very lucky to pay £0. Did it take a lot of convincing them and speaking to supervisors? Which company did you book though?