Avanti Half Price Return tickets

[Elecman]

i have booked through our company travel bureau ( Capita) tickets to London and was given a half price (online only) off peak single ticket as the return portion of the journey. I now need to change my travel plans stop overnight and return the next day. I have been to an Avanti booking office who say they cannot help refer it to the 3rd party ticket issuer. I contacted then to be told it cannot be changed at all.
This is thus even more restrictive than buying an Advance Single, surely this cannot be right?
According to Avanti Customer Services the ticket office can change the date for a £10 fee But the Booking Office are refusing ?

Any suggestions?

 

[Bletchleyite]

They can be refunded less £10 admin fee then you rebook. However if there are no Advances for your intended train this can prove expensive as you can't buy one on its own.

 

[CompactDstrxion]

Your Off Peak single ticket for the journey back can be refunded (less admin fee). Ask Capita to refund the ticket and issue a new one.

 

[Elecman]

They can be refunded less £10 admin fee then you rebook. However if there are no Advances for your intended train this can prove expensive as you can't buy one on its own.

Your Off Peak single ticket for the journey back can be refunded (less admin fee). Ask Capita to refund the ticket and issue a new one.

Not quite the point as tgat would cost £70 more ! Surely it must be possible to get a ticket travel date anmended for the £10 fee. Indeed Avanti say if the tickets had been booked through them it is possible !

 

[gray1404]

Does this have to be a refund and rebook? Thus introducing the requirement for an advance to be booked at the same time.

Is it possible for just a date change to be done stand alone for £10?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Does this have to be a refund and rebook? Thus introducing the requirement for an advance to be booked at the same time.

Is it possible for just a date change to be done stand alone for £10?

No, unfortunately not. Date changes cannot be done on any walk-up ticket[1], it's refund and rebook, which has the unfortunate side effect noted on this ticket.

If you absolutely need flexibility on your return, there is a workaround - book a return trip with the outward being the SVH you want, and the return being a "throwaway" Advance as cheap as you can find (doesn't matter when, you're not actually going to use it, so go well into the future to find the cheapest). This will invariably be cheaper than a full price single purchased on its own.

[1] Possible exception: excessing a day return to a period return - but I don't think all booking offices will do that and it isn't one you're entitled to.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not quite the point as tgat would cost £70 more ! Surely it must be possible to get a ticket travel date anmended for the £10 fee. Indeed Avanti say if the tickets had been booked through them it is possible !

I'm not convinced they can or would. That said, they do sometimes use their discretion to refund and reissue tickets without admin fee if you made a mistake and booked incorrectly and phone them straight away, I've done this. But that wouldn't solve your exact problem in any case.

 

[sheff1]

Any suggestions?

Assuming the change of plan is for business, rather than personal reasons, I would just ask (tell) the company travel bureau to arrange new/revised tickets appropriate for your ammended plan. How they do that really should be of no concern to you as customer.

 

[Haywain]

Possible exception: excessing a day return to a period return - but I don't think all booking offices will do that and it isn't one you're entitled to.

Off topic here really, but that is a simple Change of Ticket Type excess which every office should be able to cope with. It is certainly an excess that one would be entitled to provided the day return is still valid.

 

[Hadders]

This was an issue even in VTWC days. I started a thread about a similar issue a few years back. I’ll see if I can find it and link to it.

EDIT: Here's the thread I created in 2015.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/amending-a-virgin-trains-booking-on-line.110569/

One other possibility, depending on where you’re travelling from is to see if a ‘half price’ LNER Super Off Peak single from Edinburgh to London can be used to start short.