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Bought advance ticket but used wrong railcard

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sarnd

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I bought tickets a month ago for 2 separate weekend trips to london with my daughter, so an adult advance and child advance. Unfortunately instead of selecting that I had a family and friends railcard I selected a Young Persons railcard. I've literally only just realised this tonight whilst I was showing the tickets to my daughter. We travel next weekend.
Neither of us have a YP card or indeed qualify for one, but I do have the f&f card which I should have selected.
Is there anything I can do to change the tickets or will I just need to cancel both trips as can't afford to buy replacement tickets :(
Any suggestions very gratefully received.
 
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yorkie

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Welcome to the forum :) This question does crop up from time to time, these threads may assist:


Without knowing details of your journey, it is not possible to give advice that would be applicable to you specifically. However if you are able to give details (the date is not important so it does not have to identify when you are travelling) of the origin, destination, and all trains you will be catching, then specific advice could be given.
 

MikeWh

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I think you've overpaid. Assuming you entered 1 adult and 1 child and then selected the 16-25 railcard then you will have received a correctly discounted adult ticket and a full price child ticket. I would suggest contacting the company who provides the main train you will be travelling on (or only train if it's a simple journey) and ask them for advice. If indeed you have overpaid then I woulld hope that something can be done to allow you to travel. They could possibly send you a letter to show with the tickets.
 

moonrakerz

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A point to watch out for on this subject.

My wife has a Disabled Railcard, I have a Senior. If we intend traveling together we get DSB & SNR tickets respectively - so that I can travel on my own if my wife is not able to.
You have to be very careful when buying tickets on-line - if you ask for two tickets to the same destination, and one of them is a DSB, and the other is another type of card - which you have specified, the system issues 2 DSB tickets.
I can understand why this happens but it meant that the first time I was aware of this I ended up traveling (alone) on a DSB ticket with a SNR railcard.
Luckily, on the journey no one even asked to see my card !

I did point this quirk of the system out to FGW, whether they have done anything - I know not......................
 

Failed Unit

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Get in contact with who you got the tickets from, my parents selected YP instead of senior once. GNER (as was then) just reissued. I know in that case the discount would be the same, but it is the best course of action.
 

sarnd

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thanks everyone.
The tickets are
std adv adult YP single worle to paddington
and
std adv child single worle to paddington

No changes and the same journey in reverse coming home. Obv the child ticket is fine, the problem is the adult one which has been bought with YP card

And yes I did over pay, I think the complete journey would have been nearly £10 cheaper if I'd selected the right railcard , makes it even more annoying.

I bought them through redspottedhanky and have emailed them now.
 

34D

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Neither of us have a YP card or indeed qualify for one

If the worst comes to the worst, your daughter (under 16 I presume) can in fact buy a YP railcard - though hopefully there's a better solution.
 

34D

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But that wouldn't strictly help with the adult ticket which has the wrong discount (albeit the right amount of discount) applied.

I was thinking damage limitation - as we've no idea on the journey I've no idea how much replacement ticket(s) might cost.
 

clagmonster

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If the worst comes to the worst, your daughter (under 16 I presume) can in fact buy a YP railcard - though hopefully there's a better solution.
Yes, but she is travelling on the child ticket. If she travelled on the YP discounted ticket, that option would leave Sarnd travelling on a child ticket - so nothing gained.
 

LexyBoy

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Agreed that contacting RSH (link) is the way forward. If that fails (though I hear RSH are usually quite good), then it may be possible to excess the YP ticket to a full adult fare for 50% of the ticket price - you'll likely have to shop around to find somewhere that can do this.

I'd not advise trying on the day, as although many TMs would accept the ticket with the wrong railcard (especially if approached at the earliest opportunity), if they don't then you're stuffed.

If the worst comes to the worst, your daughter (under 16 I presume) can in fact buy a YP railcard - though hopefully there's a better solution.

Actually she couldn't, as you must be aged 16-25 or a mature student to obtain a YP Railcard. And it would be of no use as her ticket is valid anyway - it is OP's which has the wrong discount.
 

PaxVobiscum

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I bought tickets a month ago for 2 separate weekend trips to london with my daughter, so an adult advance and child advance. Unfortunately instead of selecting that I had a family and friends railcard I selected a Young Persons railcard.

I have done exactly that with East Coast tickets. I phoned the East Coast Web Customer Support Team and they advised me to post in the tickets with a covering letter and I would (almost certainly) be reimbursed. I had to rebook with the Family and Friends selected.

I did get the cost of the original tickets refunded but it probably helped that I had rebooked on the same trains, thereby confirming the situation. They are always quick to remind customers of the conditions re Advance tickets and refunds.

Sorry if that's not very helpful.
 
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sarnd

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Thanks for all your suggestions. I emailed RSH at the weekend and they still hadnt got back to me, so I just called them.
Not good news, aparently there is nothing I can do and I have to repurchase tickets :( not possible to change or refund at all.
 

GadgetMan

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Thanks for all your suggestions. I emailed RSH at the weekend and they still hadnt got back to me, so I just called them.
Not good news, aparently there is nothing I can do and I have to repurchase tickets :( not possible to change or refund at all.

Have you collected the tickets? If so try popping down to a ticket office. Some ticket offices will excess an Advance to get rid of the railcard discount but it must be 24 hours before travel (minimum). You'd have to be willing to pay a £10 admin charge plus 50% of the cost of the ticket you currently have to excess it to the non-railcard fare.
 

hairyhandedfool

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It might not be that simple, it depends on the ticket machine being able to excess without checking for quota availability, otherwise the excess might cost more.
 

WCML

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This is where the railways really are silly. Wouldn't it be great if you could go down to your local ticket office with the tickets and correct railcard in hand and they print you a set of replacement tickets with the correct railcard for no charge and they bin the incorrect tickets?

Or better still, given that the correct discount has been applied, then the Train Manager accepts the tickets for travel?
 

RJ

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This is where the railways really are silly. Wouldn't it be great if you could go down to your local ticket office with the tickets and correct railcard in hand and they print you a set of replacement tickets with the correct railcard for no charge and they bin the incorrect tickets?

Fantastic idea - the railway should start printing out free tickets and handing them out like confetti! Never mind problems with fraud and a huge potential for revenue loss! Every single ticket has to be accounted for! I had been known to print out free excesses for wrong railcard tickets in the past before scribbling all over the original ticket (save for the serial number) but I can't assume that all clerks would go to the lengths I did to help customers.

The advice about contacting the original issuers is the best for this circumstance.
 

island

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The TM may well accept the tickets if approached before departure.
 

hairyhandedfool

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This is where the railways really are silly. Wouldn't it be great if you could go down to your local ticket office with the tickets and correct railcard in hand and they print you a set of replacement tickets with the correct railcard for no charge and they bin the incorrect tickets?....

Because the railway should sort out the errors a passenger makes?

....Or better still, given that the correct discount has been applied, then the Train Manager accepts the tickets for travel?

Actually, in this case, the fare paid for the two people isn't the same and so the correct discount has not been applied. Granted, in this case, it means the op has overpaid and I suspect many guards would turn a blind eye, but the rules are quite specific.
 
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