Cross country trains advance tickets

mawallace · 4 Jul 2019

I noticed that Cross Country trains are advertising that you can change advance tickets for no fee

I've a few questions which I could nit find an answer to

1. Is it their entire range of Cross Country routes or just some of them

2. Does it apply to other operators advance tickets bought by them
3. Can you swap for a standard single. Say on the day before travel you wanted to change journey time, and all advance tickets had gone

RailUK Forums

Merseysider · 4 Jul 2019

Any advance ticket for any company bought whilst signed into their website or app can be changed for free.

Yes, it can be changed to a flexible fare.

There was a proviso at one point that certain fulfillment methods weren't eligible, but this appears to have been removed.

ForTheLoveOf · 4 Jul 2019

Merseysider said:
There was a proviso at one point that certain fulfillment methods weren't eligible, but this appears to have been removed.

Indeed - though if you intend to take advantage of the offer then I would, as a rare exception, advise using an e-ticket, since these can be remotely cancelled and therefore there is no need to send paper tickets back by post to receive a refund. Trainline booking engines, such as CrossCountry's, process changes of tickets and refunds and repurchases with a £0 admin fee, so if you hold a paper ticket that you're changing, you'll be out of pocket for the cost of the original fare until they receive your tickets back. If you have an e-ticket the refund and the charge for the new tickets are both usually processed simultaneously.

cactustwirly · 4 Jul 2019

ForTheLoveOf said:
Indeed - though if you intend to take advantage of the offer then I would, as a rare exception, advise using an e-ticket, since these can be remotely cancelled and therefore there is no need to send paper tickets back by post to receive a refund. Trainline booking engines, such as CrossCountry's, process changes of tickets and refunds and repurchases with a £0 admin fee, so if you hold a paper ticket that you're changing, you'll be out of pocket for the cost of the original fare until they receive your tickets back. If you have an e-ticket the refund and the charge for the new tickets are both usually processed simultaneously.

I assume this also applies for an uncollected ToD ticket as well?

ForTheLoveOf · 4 Jul 2019

cactustwirly said:
I assume this also applies for an uncollected ToD ticket as well?

If a ToD ticket has not been collected then I believe there is no need to collect it and send it back by post.

mawallace · 4 Jul 2019

ForTheLoveOf said:
Indeed - though if you intend to take advantage of the offer then I would, as a rare exception, advise using an e-ticket, since these can be remotely cancelled and therefore there is no need to send paper tickets back by post to receive a refund. Trainline booking engines, such as CrossCountry's, process changes of tickets and refunds and repurchases with a £0 admin fee, so if you hold a paper ticket that you're changing, you'll be out of pocket for the cost of the original fare until they receive your tickets back. If you have an e-ticket the refund and the charge for the new tickets are both usually processed simultaneously.

Interesting - I've had a quick look at the other company sites and it seems the ability to change differs.

I use Greater Anglia's app - which I thought was driven by Trainline. But there's no way that you can change the ticket - is the app driven by another company? I know that sometimes it gives different prices and routes to their website, so perhaps they use different companies!

Trainline allows changing, but there's a fee as follows:-

Ticket value / Change fee per ticket
Up to £1.99 / No fee
£2.00 to £4.99 / £1.00 fee
£5.00 to £9.99 / £3.00 fee
£10.00 to £14.99 / £7.50 fee
Over £15.00 / £10 fee

I can't see any other train company allowing FREE changes!

AnkleBoots · 4 Jul 2019

ForTheLoveOf said:
Indeed - though if you intend to take advantage of the offer then I would, as a rare exception, advise using an e-ticket, since these can be remotely cancelled and therefore there is no need to send paper tickets back by post to receive a refund. Trainline booking engines, such as CrossCountry's, process changes of tickets and refunds and repurchases with a £0 admin fee, so if you hold a paper ticket that you're changing, you'll be out of pocket for the cost of the original fare until they receive your tickets back. If you have an e-ticket the refund and the charge for the new tickets are both usually processed simultaneously.

Given that you can't cancel in the 24 hours before travelling, I think it's better to use traditional tickets with the intention of collecting just before travelling.

ForTheLoveOf · 4 Jul 2019

AnkleBoots said:
Given that you can't cancel in the 24 hours before travelling, I think it's better to use traditional tickets with the intention of collecting just before travelling.

That restriction is claimed but I have on several occasions changed tickets just minutes before the booked departure time.

Joe Paxton · 4 Jul 2019

ForTheLoveOf said:
If a ToD ticket has not been collected then I believe there is no need to collect it and send it back by post.

Correct.

jrh2254 · 4 Jul 2019

I only use crosscountry now, making sure I get paper tickets or e tickets. I have changed several tickets, some more than once and no admin fee.
Cross country does not work in connection with Cashback but the no admin fee is worth way more than Cashback.
What I have found is that there appears to be a problem with m tickets - does anyone know why this is ? An admin fee appears to be charged ?
Thanks.

_toommm_ · 4 Jul 2019

mawallace said:
I
I can't see any other train company allowing FREE changes!

TPE allow free changing of advance tickets (although I believe it's only on their services). Any changes are done as an excess, so if you chose to collect your tickets, you have to do the change 5 days at least before your new journey.

alistairlees · 4 Jul 2019

_toommm_ said:
TPE allow free changing of advance tickets (although I believe it's only on their services). Any changes are done as an excess, so if you chose to collect your tickets, you have to do the change 5 days at least before your new journey.

Caledonian Sleeper do free refunds / changes on flexible tickets.

AnkleBoots · 4 Jul 2019

ForTheLoveOf said:
That restriction is claimed but I have on several occasions changed tickets just minutes before the booked departure time.

That's very useful to know - hard to see why anyone would book elsewhere (other than long split tickets)

VT 390 · 5 Jul 2019

alistairlees said:
Caledonian Sleeper do free refunds / changes on flexible tickets.

Is it actually a free refund though as I thought that is what you are paying for compared to a fixed ticket.

paddington · 22 Sep 2019

I just discovered that XC will not let you change to another ticket that is cheaper than the price originally paid.

Instead it tries to upsell you to the next tier of advance prices.

Original ticket is £5 and lots of tickets later that day are £4.95, but if you go through the change process it will only sell £6.45 tickets for those trains which would require an extra payment of £1.45.

alistairlees · 22 Sep 2019

paddington said:
I just discovered that XC will not let you change to another ticket that is cheaper than the price originally paid.

Instead it tries to upsell you to the next tier of advance prices.

Original ticket is £5 and lots of tickets later that day are £4.95, but if you go through the change process it will only sell £6.45 tickets for those trains which would require an extra payment of £1.45.

It shouldn't be trying to sell the next tier up. It should be allowing you to use it on a cheaper tier, but without any money back.

Merseysider · 22 Sep 2019

paddington said:
I just discovered that XC will not let you change to another ticket that is cheaper than the price originally paid.

Instead it tries to upsell you to the next tier of advance prices.

Original ticket is £5 and lots of tickets later that day are £4.95, but if you go through the change process it will only sell £6.45 tickets for those trains which would require an extra payment of £1.45.

I had that happen to me the other week, changing a £36 Crosscountry Advance from Glasgow to Birmingham.

There were £35 advances available on Virgin but the website would only show the next tier up at £38.

In the past, I am certain the website allowed you to change to a cheaper ticket but with a zero refund.

Cross country trains advance tickets

mawallace

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Merseysider

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ForTheLoveOf

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cactustwirly

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mawallace

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