• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Online booking for two people with Senior and Disabled Person Railcards

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Brian Dale

New Member
Joined
8 Jan 2019
Messages
2
From what I can see, there appears to be an anomily with LNER's online ticket booking system.

I booked tickets for a friend and I. I have a Senior Railcard and he has a Disabled Persons Railcard - both giving a third off the fare. In the online booking enquiry, I specified the two railcards. When the tickets came through, they showed BOTH tickets as being linked to a Disabled Persons Railcard.

I guess this may be because a person with a Disabled Persons Railcard can also have a helper travelling with them with the same discount and the booking system says I am that person so it ignores my Senior Railcard and applies the Disabled Persons Railcard.

If for any reason my disabled friend cannot travel, I assume my ticket will then become invalid. This seems to me to be a fault with the booking system.

Would I have had the same issue if I had booked tickets through a company other than LNER?
Who can I tell to highlight this issue with the system so they can fix it?
Can I change my ticket to show a Senior Raicard without any cost?

Thanks,

Brian
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

ForTheLoveOf

ForTheLoveOf

Established Member
Joined
7 Oct 2017
Messages
6,416
Brian Dale said:
From what I can see, there appears to be an anomily with LNER's online ticket booking system.

I booked tickets for a friend and I. I have a Senior Railcard and he has a Disabled Persons Railcard - both giving a third off the fare. In the online booking enquiry, I specified the two railcards. When the tickets came through, they showed BOTH tickets as being linked to a Disabled Persons Railcard.

I guess this may be because a person with a Disabled Persons Railcard can also have a helper travelling with them with the same discount and the booking system says I am that person so it ignores my Senior Railcard and applies the Disabled Persons Railcard.

If for any reason my disabled friend cannot travel, I assume my ticket will then become invalid. This seems to me to be a fault with the booking system.

Would I have had the same issue if I had booked tickets through a company other than LNER?
Who can I tell to highlight this issue with the system so they can fix it?
Can I change my ticket to show a Senior Raicard without any cost?

Thanks,

Brian
Click to expand...
I think the easiest way to resolve your case is to contact LNER's customer services. Their booking engine is known to have a number of problems, so I am not surprised that it changed what you had entered to a different query (perhaps thinking that it is advantageous to the passenger to do this, in case they forget their Senior Railcard).

I am sure @Wallsendmag will be able to comment on if this is "a feature, not a bug" :lol:
 
R

Romilly

Established Member
Joined
5 Nov 2013
Messages
1,712
I don't think that this is unique to LNER. For example, trainsplit requires any railcard listed to apply to all passengers covered by the booking. On the other hand, the mixing deck on the C2C site seems to cope with 2 adults each with different railcards.
 
Wallsendmag

Wallsendmag

Established Member
Joined
11 Dec 2014
Messages
5,202
Location
Wallsend or somewhere in GB
It’s a know “feature” I’m sure one of our Travel Centres would be able to assist if you companion couldn’t travel. If I ever get a moment I’ll did into where we got to with a fix.
 
B

Brian Dale

New Member
Joined
8 Jan 2019
Messages
2
Thanks for your help on this. I'll call into Kings Cross and see if they can update my ticket to show a Senior Railcard. Interesting Romilly that the C2C site copes with 2 different cards as I don't want this hassle every time we have a day out - but I guess they won't have LNER's occasional special offers.

Maybe another way round it is to make two bookings and try to fiddle the seat reservations so we are together. Computers eh!!!
 
R

Romilly

Established Member
Joined
5 Nov 2013
Messages
1,712
Maybe another way round it is to make two bookings and try to fiddle the seat reservations so we are together. Computers eh!!!
Click to expand...
If you are booking LNER journeys on the LNER website, this would be a good option in view of their Seat Selector tool. NB do note that if you are buying the last two Advance tickets at a particular price level as two separate bookings within the same transaction, you will be able to choose the seat of your dreams for the first booking but will be stuck with whatever seat the journey-planner gives you for the second booking (and won't then be able to change the seat for the first booking).
 
Blinkbonny

Blinkbonny

Member
Joined
16 Mar 2018
Messages
350
This happened to me two years ago with Virgin West Coast. Wife couldn't travel and I was faced with having to buy a brand new ticket despite already having one.

If I was to detail what I had to go through to sort it out I'd be here all day.

Three phone calls, two "chat sessions" before I finally got to speak to somebody who knew what I meant and more importantly was able to do something about it!
 
Y

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,830
Location
Yorkshire
Blinkbonny said:
This happened to me two years ago with Virgin West Coast. Wife couldn't travel and I was faced with having to buy a brand new ticket despite already having one.

If I was to detail what I had to go through to sort it out I'd be here all day.

Three phone calls, two "chat sessions" before I finally got to speak to somebody who knew what I meant and more importantly was able to do something about it!
Click to expand...
You can get an excess fare up to the non-discounted fare.

In theory, some issuing systems might be able to offer a zero excess to change Railcard type, but I wouldn't expect that.

It shouldn't be a new ticket though.
Intermodal said:
Just explain the situation to the relevant inspector and I am sure common sense will prevail. If you are really sceptical of this then just take a printout of your receipt.
Click to expand...
Agreed. There are one or two exceptions though ;)
 
AlterEgo

AlterEgo

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Dec 2008
Messages
20,244
Location
No longer here
yorkie said:
You can get an excess fare up to the non-discounted fare.

In theory, some issuing systems might be able to offer a zero excess to change Railcard type, but I wouldn't expect that.
Click to expand...

If all else fails, the ticket office should use the Authority to Travel proforma, if one still exists.
 
SickyNicky

SickyNicky

Verified Rep - FastJP
Joined
8 Sep 2010
Messages
2,772
Location
Ledbury
Although it probably doesn't relate to this particular journey, it's worth pointing out that in some circumstances (for example, early morning in London and the South East) the Disabled Persons Railcard offers a better discount than the Senior Railcard, so some systems might automatically do this on that basis.
 
S

sheff1

Established Member
Joined
24 Dec 2009
Messages
5,496
Location
Sheffield
SickyNicky said:
Although it probably doesn't relate to this particular journey, it's worth pointing out that in some circumstances (for example, early morning in London and the South East) the Disabled Persons Railcard offers a better discount than the Senior Railcard, so some systems might automatically do this on that basis.
Click to expand...

Systems selling tickets which have specific validity requirements should never change things automatically, they should always give the purchaser the choice to accept, or reject, the change. If I ever encountered such a system I would never use it again (I already avoid LNER & VTWC for different reasons). My currently preferred booking system (TPE) correctly handles the 'two different railcard' situation from the OP without any issue at all.
 
D

DaveN

Member
Joined
28 Feb 2009
Messages
131
There's a similar issue with the system that GoVia Thameslink use : if you select 2 people with 1 senior and 1 network railcard, it will give you both tickets with network railcard if the fares are the same. Of course, this is fine if you are both travelling the whole journey together.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top