Cancelling a ticket without incurring admin

[Pumperkin]

Hi,

I was due to travel fairly long distance today on a business trip, with expenses paid.

I booked my tickets last night through Trainsplit (there was actually no split, it turned out as two standard singles. They are just my preferred booking engine).

This morning, I have woken up to the news that the day isn't going ahead due to illness.

I have been on to Trainsplit, and to cancel they want £10 admin fee (the tickets were set as TOD rather than E-Tickets).

I don't really understand where the admin fee comes in. I booked the tickets online, and will be cancelling before collection. I can't see that a human is actually involved at the other end.

Is there any way to get around this?

 

[Haywain]

Is there a way to get around it? No. However, these would appear to be tickets you could have purchased on the day of travel so in future perhaps consider whether you need to buy in advance. As for the admin fee, it's simply a flat figure and while no human has been involved so far, Trainsplit will have incurred costs and if you contact them about it will incur further costs which won't be reclaimed from you.

 

[Pumperkin]

Yeh fair enough.

I bought online just for ease of collection (unsure if station is manned early morning, and in a tired state could mess up on the TOD machine).

On a side note, it seems strange that there is no return ticket available from Worcestershire Parkway to Croydon - it has to be purchased as two singles.

 

[Watershed]

Yeh fair enough.

I bought online just for ease of collection (unsure if station is manned early morning, and in a tired state could mess up on the TOD machine).

On a side note, it seems strange that there is no return ticket available from Worcestershire Parkway to Croydon - it has to be purchased as two singles.

There are return tickets available, so I'm not sure why you think this is the case? Are you buying two equivalent singles (e.g. Off-Peak & Off-Peak), issued via the same route?

 

[Pumperkin]

Sorry my mistake - it was an Anytime return. I was confused by the NR site as it was trying to force an advance ticket (saving about 50p on a £100.60 ticket seemed hardly worth it!).

 

[Haywain]

Sorry my mistake - it was an Anytime return. I was confused by the NR site as it was trying to force an advance ticket (saving about 50p on a £100.60 ticket seemed hardly worth it!).

Definitely not worth it as you’d have been getting nothing back from an Advance ticket.

 

[gray1404]

There are some websites that would not charge you an admin fee for this. The Southern website for example will not charge an admin fee if a walk up tickets is cancelled and it has not been collected from the machine yet.

 

[Watershed]

There are some websites that would not charge you an admin fee for this. The Southern website for example will not charge an admin fee if a walk up tickets is cancelled and it has not been collected from the machine yet.

And Railsmartr doesn't charge an admin fee at all.

 

[Pumperkin]

Ahh worth bearing in mind.

I have now actually ended up going after all - happily it was super off peak this time (about £30 cheaper).

I did think of one reason to pre-purchase tickets... seat reservations. Unless there is some way to reserve a seat you don't hold a ticket for?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I did think of one reason to pre-purchase tickets... seat reservations. Unless there is some way to reserve a seat you don't hold a ticket for?

It's hard enough getting reservations for travel on some TOCs' services, never mind their having been taken up by intending passengers who haven't even booked any accompanying tickets yet!

 

[ServerHoster]

Unless there is some way to reserve a seat you don't hold a ticket for?

You can use the TPE website. Log in to your account, press my bookings, press reserve a seat. It lets you reserve for all train companies, not just TPE, and no proof of ticket needed. I think this also works on the GWR website but not 100% sure

 

[yorkie]

You can use the TPE website. Log in to your account, press my bookings, press reserve a seat. It lets you reserve for all train companies, not just TPE, and no proof of ticket needed. I think this also works on the GWR website but not 100% sure

I doubt you are supposed to do this when you don't hold a ticket; if that sort of thing goes on, the facility is likely to be withdrawn.

Is there any way to get around this?

You can book with a retailer that allows fee-free refunds (but with TOD this will probably require that you have not yet collected the tickets) but you would lose the ability to select your choice of seat (where available) and not all websites will offer the range of itineraries / fares that Trainsplit offers.

There is no 'perfect' booking system that ticks all boxes! (If there was, it would probably be uneconomical to run, but that's a whole topic in itself)

 

[Adam Williams]

I can't see that a human is actually involved at the other end.

There's definitely a human at the other end who wrote the automated self-service refunds frontend from the ground up, investigates reported bugs and maintains the code on a day-to-day basis.

In addition, there are humans who implement the latest changes to rail refund policy on the backend side and have built a system that makes such a frontend possible in the first place. This work isn't free and these systems don't get magicked up out of thin air.

Last I checked, Railsmartr et al have a "frontend" of "send an email to a support team somewhere and then wait an indeterminate amount of time" so there's an immediate reduction in terms of required work there (in exchange for greater customer support staff workload).

 

[mangyiscute]

Often you can reserve seats on trains by just messaging the relevant toc's twitter. On a side note, you can also easily do collection while travelling to the station - while some booking engines day say leave like 2 hours, the least ive seen any say is 15 mins, and I have before bought a ticket and immediately (within 30 secs) collected it and it worked

 

[Birmingham]

Worcestershire Parkway ticket office is staffed from 05:00 Monday to Friday so I’d just buy your ticket there on day of travel if that’s the station from which you’re beginning your journey.

 

[js517]

In addition, there are humans who implement the latest changes to rail refund policy on the backend side and have built a system that makes such a frontend possible in the first place. This work isn't free and these systems don't get magicked up out of thin air.

"My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M."

In all seriousness, there are all sorts of costs that can be incurred even if no-human is involved at the point of refund. Some of those analysis and development costs might be reduced if the powers that be produced clearer messaging in a more timely manner.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Often you can reserve seats on trains by just messaging the relevant toc's twitter. On a side note, you can also easily do collection while travelling to the station - while some booking engines day say leave like 2 hours, the least ive seen any say is 15 mins, and I have before bought a ticket and immediately (within 30 secs) collected it and it worked

You can reserve a seat on a LNER train on the LNER App or web up to 5 minutes before departure

 

[Haywain]

You can reserve a seat on a LNER train on the LNER App or web up to 5 minutes before departure

Subject to availability.