LNER PERKS - alternative service

[cornishjohn]

I have a bought a E-ticket throught LNER website in the LNER Perks scheme, on a route served by multiple TOCs. The ticket is a "Off-Peak Single", and incudes the element "Itinerary - Mandatory Reservations <date>: <Origin>eparture time> etc.". The routing is "NOT <LOCATION>"

The event I was attending is now closing earlier than planned. There is an earlier service on a different TOC I could use. Is this E-ticket also valid with the non-LNER TOC? Would it be valid on an earlier LNER service?

Thanks,

 

[signed]

Is this E-ticket also valid with the non-LNER TOC? Would it be valid on an earlier LNER service?

As long as you abide by the routing, absolutely

 

[Bletchleyite]

As long as you abide by the routing, absolutely

And any time restrictions.

 

[AlterEgo]

It would help to know exactly what the ticket is, but it sounds like your ticket has a geographic route restriction and a time restriction, both of which you need to abide by.

 

[cornishjohn]

Thanks all. The routeing and timing restrictions are not a problem - I can see that same fare and fare category in the ticket offerings for non-LNER services at appropriate times.
But I don't want to appear in the next forum on "fraud" charge, so how do LNER know whether to give me the perk for having travelled on their service? Do I have to ensure my ticket gets scanned by LNER? At present I see my perk accrual is "pending" in my account - what will happen if i travel with another TOC after all?

And why does the reservation say "Mandatory"?

 

[30907]

My guess is
1. LNER claim reservations are mandatory on their trains.
2. Perks apply if all or part of your journey is with LNER - I imagine that if you didn't use LNER at all for your trip they might not award your perks, but how they woukd determine that I don't know. Using the ticket as permitted cannot be fraudulent.

 

[AlterEgo]

You don’t have to literally travel on LNER to earn Perks. You don’t even need to travel at all.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Dec 2024 ==

how do LNER know whether to give me the perk for having travelled on their service?

It depends on the itinerary issued against your ticket and nothing else.

Do I have to ensure my ticket gets scanned by LNER?

No, not relevant.

At present I see my perk accrual is "pending" in my account - what will happen if i travel with another TOC after all?

Nothing. You will earn the Perks as usual.

 

[Starmill]

The ticket must be valid for travel with LNER - you don't have to actually travel with them. The way this is determined simply goes on the "dumb" metric of whether an LNER service was selected as part of the booking or not. Sometimes people will lose out on the Perk by not selecting LNER and then travelling with them, other times they'll gain it by selecting them and not actually travelling with them. I would imagine it roughly evens out, and even if it doesn't, it's only a 2% marketing bonus.

Obviously you must use the ticket in accordance with its terms at all times.

 

[cornishjohn]

You don’t have to literally travel on LNER to earn Perks. You don’t even need to travel at all.

The way this is determined simply goes on the "dumb" metric of whether an LNER service was selected as part of the booking or not.

OK thanks all. wish it was a little clearer on their site...

 

[rocrat]

The ticket must be valid for travel with LNER - you don't have to actually travel with them. The way this is determined simply goes on the "dumb" metric of whether an LNER service was selected as part of the booking or not. Sometimes people will lose out on the Perk by not selecting LNER and then travelling with them, other times they'll gain it by selecting them and not actually travelling with them. I would imagine it roughly evens out, and even if it doesn't, it's only a 2% marketing bonus.

Obviously you must use the ticket in accordance with its terms at all times.

This. I've been awarded perks credit by ringing up and complaining that my ticket is valid with LNER but they won't generate an itinerary etc.

They are getting the same slice of fare whether you physically get on their train or not, so I don't think you need to worry too much about this.

If you bought a paper ticket, there'd be little way of tracking which route you'd taken anyway, so this isn't hugely enforceable.

 

[mad_rich]

The ticket must be valid for travel with LNER - you don't have to actually travel with them. The way this is determined simply goes on the "dumb" metric of whether an LNER service was selected as part of the booking or not. Sometimes people will lose out on the Perk by not selecting LNER and then travelling with them, other times they'll gain it by selecting them and not actually travelling with them. I would imagine it roughly evens out, and even if it doesn't, it's only a 2% marketing bonus.

Obviously you must use the ticket in accordance with its terms at all times.

I didn't realise this, but it's true from the T&Cs that the ticket only has to be valid on LNER. The terms for adding tickets bought elsewhere also indicate that you must have made a seat reservation at the time of booking (although it doesn't specify that that reservation must have been on an LNER service):

To be eligible for earned credit a ticket must:

• Be valid for travel on a LNER train (whether for the whole journey or just part of it)
• Have a travel date no more than 7 days prior to the date of the ticket being added to LNER PERKS
• Not have been previously added to the scheme
• Not have been sold online through lner.co.uk (desktop website, mobile website) or the LNER mobile app
• Not have been refunded
• Include a seat reservation that was made at the point of booking.

To be eligible for earned credit the customer adding the ticket must:

• Be a member of LNER PERKS at the point that ticket is added
• Not have previously added more than one other ticket with the same travel date
• Not have added more than 15 tickets in the last 7 days
• Not have added tickets with a combined cost of over £1,000 in the last 7 days

I have a ticket that's valid on LNER but includes a seat reservation on Cross Country, so I'll see if it can be credited.

 

[Starmill]

I didn't realise this, but it's true from the T&Cs that the ticket only has to be valid on LNER. The terms for adding tickets bought elsewhere also indicate that you must have made a seat reservation at the time of booking (although it doesn't specify that that reservation must have been on an LNER service):


I have a ticket that's valid on LNER but includes a seat reservation on Cross Country, so I'll see if it can be credited.

I'm glad you could actually find those terms! The last time I tried, I couldn't actually see where they were, and submitted a ticket that had been issued without a reservation at all. This wasn't accepted, as per the terms.