Changing advance ticket times

[Blitz]

I've got 2 advance single tickets booked for tomorrow/6th, and need to change the time on the first ticket. When I go to change the time on the east coast website it will let me choose which train to switch to, but when I try to purchase the ticket it tells me there are no delivery options available and to purchase at the station.

Because I'm trying to delay my journey by a few hours this means I won't be anywhere near the station until after my original train has left, but I need to change the train before this time. Is there any other way to switch the train times without having to go to the station? I have sent east coast an email, but I don't think I'll get a reply until the morning, and I'd at least like to know I'll be able to get this sorted.

Even though it tells me there are no delivery options for switching the ticket, it will still let me purchase a new ticket and collect at the machine. If there is no way to change without going to the station then I'll happily do this, I just wonder if because I have 2 tickets to collect under one confirmation code, and by the time I go to the machine it will be hours after the first train has left then will it still let me collect the tickets? The first one will be useless but I still need the 2nd one to get home again.

 

[lyesbkz]

Perhaps if you gave them a ring tomorrow morning on 08457 225 333 then they'd be able to do something for you, perhaps organise the change by telephone for you to collect the new tickets at the station?

 

[wintonian]

Advance purchase tickets are non-refundable, however if you had gone to a station (or phoned them?) before the day of travel they may have been able to change the time of travel subject to a £10 admin fee and the difference between the amount you have paid and the next cheapest available ticket (no refunds if the new ticket cost less) which at such short notice may well have been a walk on fare.

If purchasing tickets online within a certain amount of days before travel they will only offer ticket on departure as an option as you may not receive the tickets in time.

I think though not sure that you should be able to collect (at least the return ticket as it is before the time of travel) the tickets, but you I suspect will have to buy a new walk on single fare for your journey to your destination and use you advance return for the journey back.

What journey are you trying to make? We may be able to help you further.

 

[yorkie]

In theory any station can do such an excess although in reality you may be told it has to be an East Coast station. I do not believe that it has to be, but that is what some people report that they are told.

Providing you do so before the journey commences, at the worst case you can excess to a walk-on single, plus a £10 admin fee. If you had an expensive Advance this may not be a bad deal. If you have a very cheap Advance ticket it will be cheaper to bin it and get a fresh ticket!

As I do not know where your origin/destination or time of travel are, I am unable to advise further sorry.

However I would ring EC for sure in case they can help.

Once the train has departed the tickets have no value.

 

[wintonian]

In theory any station can do such an excess although in reality you may be told it has to be an East Coast station. I do not believe that it has to be, but that is what some people report that they are told.

Providing you do so before the journey commences, at the worst case you can excess to a walk-on single, plus a £10 admin fee. If you had an expensive Advance this may not be a bad deal. If you have a very cheap Advance ticket it will be cheaper to bin it and get a fresh ticket!

As I do not know where your origin/destination or time of travel are, I am unable to advise further sorry.

However I would ring EC for sure in case they can help.

Once the train has departed the tickets have no value.

I defer to the advice given by my learned friend here.

 

[Blitz]

The journey is Wakefield to High Brooms, then back again. I need to change the ticket there, but still want to use the one back. My current tickets are collect on departure anyway, and the website seemed like it would have let me change my current ticket for the fee... except the "no delivery options available" stopped the purchase going through.

Advance tickets for tomorrow are still showing up for a lot cheaper than a walk on fare, which means there's only £10 difference between me buying a brand new advance and changing my current ticket, so I don't mind doing that, aslong as I know I will still be able to pick up my first set of tickets from the machine (after the time of the first train leaving) so I can get the ticket for the journey home.

 

[yorkie]

You can excess an Advance up to departure

However bear in mind that between 1800 on the day before departure and the time of departure (potentially a 30 hour period!) if you do wish to change the time of departure you obviously cannot simply change the time of departure, and will have to excess it to a walk-on ticket.

Actually, I am unsure if the £10 admin fee will apply, as the admin fee generally does not apply to excesses. I will check...

However unless it was a very expensive Advance ticket, this is going to be a rather expensive excess!
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Advance tickets for tomorrow are still showing up for a lot cheaper than a walk on fare,

Which website are you using? In the past I was able to book tickets up to 2359 but in recent years the Advance tickets seem to disappear at 1800. The advertised deadline was always 1800 though.

which means there's only £10 difference between me buying a brand new advance and changing my current ticket, so I don't mind doing that, aslong as I know I will still be able to pick up my first set of tickets from the machine (after the time of the first train leaving) so I can get the ticket for the journey home.

But you would need to change the ticket before 1800 today (or before 2359 if the site lets you book after 1800).

 

[Blitz]

http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/

This sounds like booking a new ticket is going to be the easiest way.

 

[yorkie]

Ah, I see, you are travelling on the 6th. At the time of posting that wasn't tomorrow. But now, after midnight, today's date is the 5th. So it is now tomorrow, technically, so you can still get an Advance. I was confused!

Here are some examples.

If the original ticket was a £15 Advance, then changing the time of travel to a journey where the fare is £20, then there is an admin fee of £10 PLUS the difference of £5, so total payable would be £15.

However if your Advance ticket cost under £10, then it would be cheaper to buy a brand new Advance ticket than to change it!

If the original ticket was a £15 Advance, and you were excessing to a Super Off Peak (£98.60 single), I believe that the excess fare would be £83.60. (This is unconfirmed and what I believe to be the case, I can't confirm it though)
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a £10 admin fee and the difference between the amount you have paid and the next cheapest available ticket (no refunds if the new ticket cost less) which at such short notice may well have been a walk on fare.

The £10 admin fee does apply to changing the time of an Advance ticket.

However I do not think a £10 admin fee applies to excessing the ticket. There are different types of excess, admittedly, but when I excessed the railcard type on East Coast in 2007 from FAM to none, I was only charged the appropriate difference in fare. I asked the guard before departure, he said that is what I would pay if I asked at the ticket office, I asked there and was charged correctly.

This makes sense, as changing a time for an Advance ticket is not an excess, and it does seem sensible to charge an admin fee effectively as a penalty for changing the time.

Given that excessing to a walk-on fare makes the total sum paid equal to what you would have paid in the first place (and more in the case of where a single is hardly any less than a return) it would seem daft to further penalise the customer. I am not aware of any circumstances where an admin fee applies to an excess fare.

 

[Blitz]

Ah, I see, you are travelling on the 6th. At the time of posting that wasn't tomorrow. But now, after midnight, today's date is the 5th. So it is now tomorrow, technically, so you can still get an Advance. I was confused!

No, I'm travelling on the 5th (well and the 6th, but the ticket that's bothering me is the 5th one). On the website this doesn't show the cheapest £10 advance, but it's still almost a third of the walk on fare.

It seems you can buy these advance tickets up to the time of travel (or at least 2 hours before to give the ticket machine time).

Thanks for your help though.

 

[yorkie]

You can't buy Advance tickets after 1800 the day before travel (as I said earlier in the past you could up to 2359 and maybe on some websites you still can...) however today is now the 5th and so only walk-on fares are available.

The cheapest through fare now available from Wakefield to High Brooms on 5th January is £98.60 for a single, or £1 more for a Return. This is a "Super Off Peak".

If you found a website that would let you get an AP ticket for around £30 or so yesterday then I would have got that, as you will now be paying a lot more.

Grand Central do singles from Wakefield to London for £49 (payable on board the train) http://grandcentralrail.co.uk

 

[wintonian]

Thanks Yorkie I wasn't aware that you could excise an advance ticket - I am now aware of the possibility!

As I said in my earlier post as ever; "I defer to the advice given by my learned friend"

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Excesses on Advance tickets ARE subject to a £10 admin fee.

 

[yorkie]

I reckon it's one of those things that may depend on the person issuing it. As I said before, I am unsure what should be the case, and just making a statement without actually providing a quote or references isn't particularly helpful when someone isn't sure.

I know that excesses have been made without an admin fee being charged. Perhaps that was incorrect, but it has happened.

It would seem absurd, with walk-on fares of around £90 single/return, with an Advance fare of around £14 or so, to charge only slightly less than £90 for a single excess. You may as well simply throw both Advance tickets (for your outward and return journeys) in the bin and buy a new walk-on return and be flexible on both outward and return journeys, and maybe give the tickets to a friend (although officially a ticket can only be used for who it was originally intended for. Mind-reading machines are not in use, however!).

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I realise what happens out in the real world is often different to what the rules say, I don't mean to say that you are wrong about peoples experiences as I probably wasn't there (and if I was, I probably don't even know it!)

According to the FRPP (excess fares)...

Where there was opportunity to buy a ticket before travelling, 'advance' fares should not be excessed in any circumstances, new tickets should be sold.

Where there was no opportunity to buy a ticket before travelling (or at the ticket office before travelling), 'advance fares' should be excessed, with a £10 admin fee on top, for all circumstances except 'over-distance' and 'overnight break of journey' when new tickets should be sold for the onward journey.

This does not take account of any Penalty Fares Scheme rules that may apply to the journey.