Virgin Trains Aftersales can't excess tickets

[Aictos]

I brought some tickets from them using a railcard at £51 now I asked the social media team if I could excess them to the full price without a railcard which is £102 all good so far.

I then got told to speak to the After Sales team who said they can see my booking however to make any changes to it bearing in mind I'm travelling the same route, same times and same trains they can only charge me £10 to cancel the first lot of tickets then charge me a fortune to buy brand new tickets as their computers won't excess tickets.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but as I want to excess my tickets without the railcard to the full price and as I've already paid £51, surely they should be able to excess it to the full price and have me only pay the remaining £51 of the balance?

I still need to raise this with Virgin Trains Customer Services as it's not acceptable that they cannot do something as simple as excess tickets saying that can any ticket office excess advance tickets, I know I'm limited to specific trains, date and times etc but as I want to pay the excess surely they can do this?

I don't want to cancel the tickets either.

 

[RJ]

Nobody can excess one Advance ticket to another Advance ticket, not even a ticket office.

They'd have to cancel the original discounted tickets and then issue whatever the cheapest available option is. There is no guarantee the same ticket will become available.

What a ticket office can do, is excess an Advance ticket to a walk up ticket type such as Off Peak or Anytime.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Given that Railcards cost £30 why not simply buy one? Or were you ineligible in the first place?

Or is this a Family and Friends group where the child can no longer travel? If so you might find a ticket office that will excess away the discount provided you will also excess up to the walk-up fare - shop around.

 

[Aictos]

The railcard I have is currently supplied by the local JCP who are in dire need of extensive training on everything, there's every chance that they will not renew it despite this not being a issue with the previous JCP.

Railcards such as the Network Railcard are only valid in the former NSE area and as my booking will take me well out of the area, I can't use one.

I have tried looking at walk up tickets too, Virgin Trains have told me that I can excess the tickets however I can only do so on the actual day my only issue with that is 1. The likelihood of the first ticket office being open at 5am is zero and the chances of the second ticket office agreeing to the excess is zero as I have already partly travelled on the tickets.

At the moment, even if I could excess to a walk up fare it seems flying is far far cheaper which considering rail travel is meant to be eco friendly etc comes across as rather stupid to have such high rail fares.

The cheapest walk up fare comes to £177 which even if they did as a excess I can still find flights for a fraction of that at £61.

Still lesson learnt, instead of travelling long distance within the UK and Ireland instead of using Rail and Ferry it's cheaper and easier to go by Air which for someone who would rather travel by rail to cut back on CO2 emissions is a move I rather not do.

 

[janb]

Nobody can excess one Advance ticket to another Advance ticket, not even a ticket office.

Yes they can. Do it all the time for change of advances. The wrinkle for this one would be the change from discounted ticket to non discounted ticket which may lead to refusal from some on transferable ticket grounds but assuming genuine would have to do a manual excess rather than the automated process that exists in STAR for instance.

 

[47271]

I think this is the same problem that I highlighted here:
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/virgin-ticket-office-exchanges.174615/

 

[Tetchytyke]

Nobody can excess one Advance ticket to another Advance ticket, not even a ticket office.

Are you sure? I was on an LNER train yesterday where a passenger in 1st class had "forgotten" their two together railcard and the guard offered to excess away the railcard discount.

The woman booted off about unfair it was so got served a UFN instead (with a cheery "you'll get 21 days to sort it out!") but presumably the guard wouldn't offer an impossible solution?

 

[Haywain]

I think what RJ means is that there is no automatic right to excess away a railcard discount, and most retail systems do not allow it. Things can be 'fudged' sometimes, but that's another matter.

 

[yorkie]

LNER will do it.

It should be made possible at all ticket offices, however the rail industry has insufficient safeguards in place to ensure the fair treatment of passengers whose needs and circumstances change between the time of booking and the time of travel. I cannot see that underlying problem changing any time soon.

 

[RJ]

Yes they can. Do it all the time for change of advances. The wrinkle for this one would be the change from discounted ticket to non discounted ticket which may lead to refusal from some on transferable ticket grounds but assuming genuine would have to do a manual excess rather than the automated process that exists in STAR for instance.

If you are excessing to an Advance ticket type, you're going against the guidance published by the Rail Delivery Group which states the following;

General Principles

The Excess fare to charge is the difference between the price of the ticket held and the price of the cheapest ticket(s) available for immediate travel on the chosen service.

The cheapest available ticket(s) suitable for the journey being made may vary, depending on the specific train, time of day or day of week on which customers wish to travel. The cheapest ticket could be an Anytime, Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak ticket. It will never be an Advance ticket.

 

[Paul Kelly]

The cheapest ticket could be an Anytime, Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak ticket. It will never be an Advance ticket.

Notwithstanding the debate earlier in the thread, presumably it could be an APOD (advance purchase on the day) ticket, though? I seem to remember reports of some ticket offices selling these for immediate travel on Northern services.

 

[janb]

If you are excessing to an Advance ticket type, you're going against the guidance published by the Rail Delivery Group which states the following;

RJ look up iKB, Advance Ticketing, Changes and Refunds to Advance Tickets.
1st question and answer, "The excess is up to the next cheapest available, walk-up or advance purchase, plus a change fee of £10 per ticket."


Also interestingly given this thread, the last question and answer on that page about expired railcard was one I had not noticed before "change the discounted ticket to the exact same ticket without discount".

 

[Aictos]

RJ look up iKB, Advance Ticketing, Changes and Refunds to Advance Tickets.
1st question and answer, "The excess is up to the next cheapest available, walk-up or advance purchase, plus a change fee of £10 per ticket."


Also interestingly given this thread, the last question and answer on that page about expired railcard was one I had not noticed before "change the discounted ticket to the exact same ticket without discount".

As I said before Virgin Trains said that wasn't possible, indeed the next cheapest ticket is £102 which happens to be the advance ticket I booked in the first place with the railcard discount it came down to £51.

So as the IKB (Not sure what that stands for) says I can excess the ticket then why did VT say otherwise, is it a issue with their training?

 

[cactustwirly]

Nobody can excess one Advance ticket to another Advance ticket, not even a ticket office.

They'd have to cancel the original discounted tickets and then issue whatever the cheapest available option is. There is no guarantee the same ticket will become available.

What a ticket office can do, is excess an Advance ticket to a walk up ticket type such as Off Peak or Anytime.

You can change the date and time of an advance with a £10 fee, which is usually issued as an excess.

 

[Wallsendmag]

LNER will definitely do it , by all accounts though RDG want a refund and rebook policy to be in place.

 

[Bletchleyite]

LNER will definitely do it , by all accounts though RDG want a refund and rebook policy to be in place.

How does that work when Advances are not refundable?

 

[yorkie]

How does that work when Advances are not refundable?

You're not actually getting a refund though. RDG appear to want changes to be made as if they were refunds on the basis the customer re-books.