Yesterday I went to from London to Birmingham to visit relatives in Sutton Coldfield, and today I'm going back home with CrossCountry. For ticketing I bought a London Terminals to Sutton Coldfield route Via High Wycombe off-peak return (SVR) for me and my dad. So I would get a Change of Route Excess on the return portion to Any Permitted.
However, I tried to get this excess at the ticket office at Marylebone (at the same time as I bought the tickets) but she said the button "was greyed out" and it wouldn't let here sell it. I tried again at Sutton Coldfield, and the ticket office staff after trying his best for a couple of minutes told me exactly the same thing that the Marylebone person had.
In the end I got on the train, knowing I was entitled to an excess on the train, but bought a weekend first without mentioning anything about needing an excess (having had poor experiences with CrossCountry guards knowing this rule in the past). The guard either didn't notice or didn't care that the route was wrong, so no problems there.
But I'm curious as to why the ticket office staff might not have been able to sell this excess.
However, I tried to get this excess at the ticket office at Marylebone (at the same time as I bought the tickets) but she said the button "was greyed out" and it wouldn't let here sell it. I tried again at Sutton Coldfield, and the ticket office staff after trying his best for a couple of minutes told me exactly the same thing that the Marylebone person had.
In the end I got on the train, knowing I was entitled to an excess on the train, but bought a weekend first without mentioning anything about needing an excess (having had poor experiences with CrossCountry guards knowing this rule in the past). The guard either didn't notice or didn't care that the route was wrong, so no problems there.
But I'm curious as to why the ticket office staff might not have been able to sell this excess.