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LNER mticket not activating
- Thread starter route101
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First time for me , and only done it as i have limited time before train . Will contact twitter , cant take screenshots of the app .
e-tickets are what I would recommend if you only have a limited time before the train.
Haywain
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Well, yes, why would you want to do otherwise? You activate the ticket when you are going to use it.
As I have noted elsewhere, LNER can’t currently offer e-tickets (‘self-print’ in their parlance).
I read this to mean the ticket was purchased shortly before taking the train!
But I think you now mean you won't have long at the station so don't want to be collecting or purchasing there.
Haywain
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LNER are not currently offering self-print tickets; e-tickets are a different thing that have not been offered thus far but will be coming very soon.
From a customer point of view, there’s precious little difference. I’m aware of the nuances, but industry preciousness is fairly irrelevant.
Self print and m-tickets are different concepts to the new style e-tickets.
However I agree with you that the (failed) experiments of print at home tickets, m-tickets and any other rubbish inventions, have caused a lot of confusion for passengers.
My advice is to avoid anything that is not either a traditional paper ticket or a genuine , actual e-ticket that does NOT have to be printed or activated.
Do not get anything that is restricted to an app, or has to be printed. They cause all sorts of problems.
Which is precisely my point; e-tickets and self-print tickets are barely distinguishable to the customer. m-tickets are entirely different.
To reinforce the point, LNER currently seems to appear fairly dismissive of the importance of their inability to offer self-print tickets.
Their business; their trainset (to use a coincidentally relevant phrase).
crosscity
Member
It's not unreasonable to want to jump through whatever hoops you need to have the comfort of knowing your ticket is ready for use. If I book tickets in advance I like to have them in my hands as soon as possible. This avoids complications that risk missing the train such as a ticket machine that doesn't work, an internet or phone connection that is down, or your computer/printer playing up just as you want to leave home.
From a customer point of view:
An m-ticket must be downloaded to a specific app on your smartphone, which has to be registered with the ticket issuer, and from there must be activated for use.
An e-ticket is sent to you as a .pdf file. You can email it to someone else and you may print it out and show it on paper. No app required.
A self-print ticket is also sent to you as a .pdf file, can be emailed on to the actual passenger, and then must be printed for use. No app required.
The principal difference between self-print and e-tickets from a customer point of view is that e-tickets offer the additional practicality of being valid when simply opened and shown on a smartphone or tablet screen. Printing them out is an option, but is not mandatory. Even on screen, no app is required.
e-tickets offer a further option, which is for them to be saved into Apple and Google’s proprietary ‘wallet’ applications and shown that way. Some folks like to do that, some don’t, and some won’t even know what a wallet app., is. The key thing is that e-tickets are the most usable, but they’re not yet universal.
If it’s any consolation, a lot of customer-facing people in the rail industry seem to be confused about the differences between the types of tickets and, crucially, don’t understand the different ways that customers can and do use them. Witness various twitter interactions where the customer tries with difficulty to get the ticket issuer’s representative to understand.
In the LNER case at the moment, the company appears to think that continuing to offer m-tickets means that the lack of self-print as an option shouldn’t be a problem. It is a problem to some and, again, Twitter allows us to actually see customers trying to explain that to the company.
Wallsendmag
Established Member
Just wait a few days and all will be revealed (hopefully , I’m currently sitting in the sun in Portugal so don’t have all the latest plans )
Thats why i selected that option , the advance has me having a 12 min connection onto an LNER at Edinburgh from a queen st service . Going to get earlier service from Queen St
To check if it works .
I'm confused. What journey are you making and what ticket(s) are you using?
Glasgow to Darlington with a change onto LNER at Edinburgh
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
I'm still confused, you need to activate the ticket in Glasgow before travel if it is a through ticket.
Didn't Virgin Trains start selling electronic tickets about 2 years ago? Many others have followed.
Why has it taken LNER such a very long time to get moving? Seems a little questionable to me, for all of the rhetoric about how well the industry is doing in adopting Smart technologies.
Virgin Trains moved on months ago to issuing Season tickets as electronic tickets, and issuing them to people's phone at ticket offices.
Why has it taken LNER such a very long time to get moving? Seems a little questionable to me, for all of the rhetoric about how well the industry is doing in adopting Smart technologies.
Virgin Trains moved on months ago to issuing Season tickets as electronic tickets, and issuing them to people's phone at ticket offices.
Wallsendmag
Established Member
Fixed that for you
See a lot more people using them on VT
Haywain
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The smart technology is in the barcode rather than the specific medium of delivering the barcode, and LNER has been using barcoded tickets for several years.
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