Amended journey online before collecting original tickets

[trainophile]

Hope I haven't blown it - I booked some tickets on the TPE website today, haven't collected them yet, and then this evening decided to change the travel dates, which I have just done.

Because the system will have cancelled the original booking, will I still be able to get the original tickets from a ToD machine, as I have just remembered that I will need them to validate the Excesses?

 

[Intermodal]

If you changed them online before collection you won't receive an excess but rather a proper set of tickets to the new specification

 

[gray1404]

When I played around doing a change it said that you will still need to collect the original tickets as you will need them when you travel. Therefore, I would assume you would still be able to collect them as you need these with the excess that they will post you. I would be interested to know how long the excess takes to arrive.

 

[trainophile]

Thanks so much, I will try to collect them tomorrow and report back if there's any problem.

I'll let you know when the new tickets arrive - it doesn't usually take more than a couple of working days.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Unfortunately, the clause that allowed that was deleted from the railway's terms and conditions when the NRCoT replaced the NRCoC. The current conditions provides no mechanism for this "exchange", but an excess fare may be possible in some cases. I don't think it's possible to excess from two individual tickets to a singular "duo" ticket.

The current conditions simply state that you must buy a ticket if there are facilities to do so, regardless of whether or not those facilities are capable and willing to sell you the ticket you actually want.

If you changed them online before collection you won't receive an excess but rather a proper set of tickets to the new specification

Really ?

 

[Intermodal]

Really ?

Sounds like I was wrong!

 

[gray1404]

I think as it was booked with TPE you need to still collect both the original tickets and show these plus the excess when you travel. Others may wish to confirm this.

 

[trainophile]

Collected tickets today, no problems. Will probably receive the new ones in Monday's post.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Suggest considering using Crosscountry instead to sidestep this issue. They also offer no admin fee for amending Advances. They use a 'refund and reissue' process - the old ticket is cancelled (if you haven't collected the ticket then there's nowt to do - if you have, the ticket needs to be posted back), then the new ticket is available for collection.

 

[trainophile]

I will do that next time.

Slightly off topic but just kicking myself as I now have the same situation with a GWR Advance ticket - well two actually, and on their website there seems to be no facility whatsoever for amending an Advance. So that’s £24.40 just wasted as we decided to come back a day later . I suppose by the time we’d paid the admin fee (is it £10 per ticket or per booking?) it’s not a big deal, but just annoying that there doesn’t seem to be any way of amending Advances. It’s for travel on GWR’s own train too, which is why I used their website . Won’t make that mistake again.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I will do that next time.

Slightly off topic but just kicking myself as I now have the same situation with a GWR Advance ticket - well two actually, and on their website there seems to be no facility whatsoever for amending an Advance. So that’s £24.40 just wasted as we decided to come back a day later . I suppose by the time we’d paid the admin fee (is it £10 per ticket or per booking?) it’s not a big deal, but just annoying that there doesn’t seem to be any way of amending Advances. It’s for travel on GWR’s own train too, which is why I used their website . Won’t make that mistake again.

It is still your contractual right to get the change. If they won't accommodate that through the website they must accommodate it in another way, e.g. at one of their ticket offices.

 

[trainophile]

Pity I live in Hereford, no idea where the nearest GWR station is. I will investigate!

 

[gray1404]

Pity I live in Hereford, no idea where the nearest GWR station is. I will investigate!

In that case I would phone them up and see what they say. You might get fobbed off but if they do that put in a formal complaint to customers services and take it to the railway ombudsman if needed. It time this made up 5 day rule which is not part of the contract formed was dealt with.

 

[trainophile]

What is the 5 day rule? Sorry, I've never heard of that.

 

[gray1404]

First off its is not a formal rule so I am using it as a slang term if anything. It also does not form part of your contract when you buy the ticket. Contractually speaking, that you can change your advance ticket up to the departure time of your first booked train. However, this right is being wrongly denied to passengers and that is wrong (see below).

Retailers such as Transpennine Express and Great Western Railway are wrongly telling customers who book online and over the phone that if they wish to change the date or time of travel of their advance ticket, this must be done no later then 5 days before departure (I do not know if this is calculated as calendar or working days). The reason they give for this is that an excess ticket needs to be posted out to the customer reflecting the change so there needs to be time to send this. However, I do not believe this is the customers issue as they should be providing a workaround. If a customer does not do their change within 5 days of travel they are being told they have to visit one of their own booking offices. There are also stories of some booking offices (Paddington) saying they cannot change advances booked online.

In terms of a work around I do accept that the ticket issuing systems which they use do require an excess to be issued. But surely they could arrange for this to be collected with a ToD reference from a TVM or booking office that can print such tickets. They could also use the refund and rebook system TOCs that use trainline have in place. They could even stick to their existing system of posting out an excess but if a customer does try to make a change within 5 days of travel then they could do refund and rebook over the phone in such a case provided the tickets have not yet been collected. If the tickets have been collected then do a new booking but refund the originals if they are posted back.

There are solutions but First Group needs to be willing to actually come up and implement such solutions.

 

[trainophile]

Thanks for that comprehensive explanation. The tickets I wanted to change are for travel in March, so the 5 day rule wouldn't apply anyway.

I see there is a GWR Help feed on Twitter, which I may have to try. It's a bit tricky at the moment as although I know we don't now need the tickets, I don't know when we might like to re-book them for. Plenty of time to decide what to do.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Are they not saying if you want to change your ticket online you must do it 5 days before departure, obviously you can change them at a ticket office until departure time.

 

[trainophile]

What, any ticket office, or just a GWR one? I don't fancy my chances with my local one tbh, most things out of the ordinary seem to be impossible for them.

 

[Wallsendmag]

What, any ticket office, or just a GWR one? I don't fancy my chances with my local one tbh, most things out of the ordinary seem to be impossible for them.

Any would be fine, as long as they are capable of selling the full range of tickets.

 

[trainophile]

Won't they throw the "you can't change Advance tickets" line at me?

 

[sheff1]

Won't they throw the "you can't change Advance tickets" line at me?

If they are the sort of people who make up their own rules, then quite possibly. If they are competent they will, without fuss, change the tickets in line with the published Advance ticket Terms & Conditions. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46546.aspx

 

[island]

Pity I live in Hereford, no idea where the nearest GWR station is. I will investigate!

You don’t need a GWR station (though I suppose Pershore is the nearest). Any station with a competent ticket clerk can do it.

 

[trainophile]

You don’t need a GWR station (though I suppose Pershore is the nearest). Any station with a competent ticket clerk can do it.

I had better not say anything to that other than hmmm...

 

[Paul Kelly]

I would have thought that changing advance tickets to a different journey and charging the £10 change of journey fee is a common, run-of-the-mill transaction at a booking office and no difficulty should be expected? Certainly any time I have done it the clerk has barely batted an eyelid.

 

[island]

Selling advance fares at a booking office is not common at all. The overwhelming majority are booked online.

Changing advance fares at a booking office is rarer still.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Selling advance fares at a booking office is not common at all. The overwhelming majority are booked online.

Changing advance fares at a booking office is rarer still.

It's true, they're both rare transactions compared to walk-up ticket purchases, but a trained clerk should have no difficulty selling or changing an Advance. If they can't do it, they haven't been trained properly (or the TOC hasn't provided them with the appropriate equipment to do it). Both are the TOC's fault.

 

[island]

Which is what I said yesterday evening

 

[sheff1]

Selling advance fares at a booking office is not common at all.

Hmm. I always try and buy/collect my tickets from the TVM closest to the booking office and am forced to buy a Derbyshire Wayfarer from the booking office - as such I hear many requests being made and a significant number are from people seeking to book 'advance' tickets. In fact, it would probably be more uncommon not to hear at least one such request whenever I am there.

I agree that most 'advance' tickets will be booked on line, but purchase at the station is much more common than you might think. This may well be a regional thing - after all, I regularly queue behind people at the local supermarket who are paying significant amounts (over £100 not unusual) in cash and yet SE-based posters on here assure us that cash is dead and that even the smallest of transactions are now made by card.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Selling advance fares at a booking office is not common at all. The overwhelming majority are booked online.

Changing advance fares at a booking office is rarer still.

Really?