Can you Excess Off-Peak to First Advance?

[snail]

My employer has a strict Standard only policy, using a travel agency. I have a SVH Off-Peak Single to Euston from Preston next month at £41.10. There are First Advance tickets available at £65.50 for the service I'm booked on. Would I be able to go to a station and pay £24.40 to excess the SVH to the AP ticket?

I can't do it via my employer or the agency but they are ok with me paying any supplements out of my own pocket.

 

[yorkie]

I'm not too sure, but with excesses it's often the case that if you "shop around" you may be able to get it, but you may have to allow a lot of time until you find someone willing & able to do it.

 

[bb21]

I've had a look in The Manual and can't see anything that specifically forbids this excess to be done, so like yorkie said, you might just have to shop around and get a willing clerk to do it.

 

[barrykas]

I've had a look in The Manual and can't see anything that specifically forbids this excess to be done, so like yorkie said, you might just have to shop around and get a willing clerk to do it.

The "obvious" Excess in this case would be a change of class, for which The Manual says the following:

The Excess fare to charge is the difference between the price of the ticket held and the price of the cheapest ticket(s) available for immediate travel on the chosen service.

The cheapest available ticket(s) suitable for the journey being made may vary, depending on the specific train, time of day or day of week on which customers wish to travel. The cheapest ticket could be an Anytime, Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak ticket. It will never be an Advance ticket.

Seems fairly conclusive to me...In which case the Excess would probably be calculated as £224 (Anytime First Single) - £41.10 (price already paid) = £182.90.

Cheers,

Barry

 

[bb21]

True, but then again Standard Class Advance fares can be changed into a First Class Advance fare, provided that the booking deadline has not passed.

I think the instructions were probably written with excesses being done just prior to boarding in mind.

 

[Death]

True, but then again Standard Class Advance fares can be changed into a First Class Advance fare, provided that the booking deadline has not passed.

Just to double-check on that and make a sub-query; Does that mean I can excess a VT Std Advance to a First Adv provided I do it within three days of travel? If so, that'd be handy to know for the future! (I've been wanting to try out FC on the Pendos for ages now! )
I assume the applicable difference between Advance fares in question (And thus the excess payable) is determined by the cheapest 1st Advance available at the time of my requesting the excess?

Of course, I assume that the standard "Once produced, non-changable" rule relating to VT e-tickets still applies in this regard, which kind of renders that plan unworkable on my next Preston run. Still, always handy to know for another time!

 

[bb21]

I'm not sure how it works with e-tickets, but for tickets printed on common stock, you can definitely pay the difference between the price of the original Standard Advance ticket and the cheapest First Advance available at the time you change your ticket, plus £10 admin fee, to change your ticket into a First Class one.

 

[barrykas]

Subject to availabiliy (and doing so before departure of the first reserved train), an Advance ticket can be changed to another Advance ticket (either class) or a walk-up ticket on payment of the difference in fares plus the £10 Admin Fee.

Thinking on the matter again, I suspect the reason The Manual is worded in the way it is is due to Excesses being intended to make a ticket less restrictive, whereas changing from an Off-Peak Single to a First Advance would be more restrictive.

Having said that, FasTIS (and presumably other Ticket Issuing Systems) will quite happily let you do such a change, as it doesn't care about the original ticket beyond how much you paid for it. I'd be inclined to err on the side of caution and double check with Virgin as to whether they'd honour it before issuing same, however.

As for Print@Home tickets, I'd suggest paying a visit to a Ticket Office run by the relevant TOC and asking there, as they should have more leeway as to what they can and can't do when it comes to their own TOC's tickets.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

It's definitely possible to issue it, but I'm not sure as to what reason the excess would be done. Normally a change of Advance fare is because the train intended to be used is different from the one allowed by the ticket held.

So I don't think, officially, you could change a SVH into a First Advance, but I know that knowledge of excess fares varies by person, so you might get one if you ask around.

 

[snail]

Thanks for all the advice. Sounds unlikely but I'm going to the station to pick up my tickets today so no harm asking at the booking office!