Dad made mistake with southern ticket

[pethadine82]

My dad is travelling with 3 other freedom pass holders, from Northolt to Gatwick airport.

He bought 3 x open single from clapham junction which was £9.xx.

I think he made a mistake as from what I understand he can travel until East croydon. The saving is £3 / person / leg. Will Southern change it? He is travelling on a Sat in mid Jan. Can this me amended for free?

Also the eticket the southern have issued is in PDF format. I don't think he is tech savvy enough to add it to a wallet, so advised him to print it.

He will forward the email to the 2 others travelling, but if person A, B and C all scan the top barcode the gate will not open for the other 2 people.

Also does the Southern ticket require activation, like get off at Clapham junction and find a barcode scanner on the platform or exit the gateline and re-enter?

The routes they could use are:

• X140 bus to Harrow and Wealdstone Station and I am pretty sure that there is a Southern Service that runs to Brighton that calls at LGW
• x140 bus to St Pancras and Thameslink to LGW

Many thanks for any help and advice.

 

[Hadders]

Your dad only needed a ticket from the Boundary of Zone 6 to Gatwick airport, these can be difficult to obtain online so a ticket from East Croydon is appropriate. The ticket from Clapham Junction is valid, although as you note more expensive.

I doubt Southern will change the ticket without an admin fee, which will be more than the value of the ticket. They do operate a ‘rainy day guarantee’ but I think this is only for tickets issued on paper. As a matter of interest, there is nothing to be gained by purchasing these tickets in advance of travel. It is the same price buying on the day of travel at the station, I wouldn’t normally recommend purchasing a ticket like this in advance in case plans change.

There’s no need to activate the PDF ticket before travel. It’s probably best for your dad to print all 4 tickets off and give one to each person travelling. You should only need to scan the tickets when you exit at Gatwick, so I assume they will all be together at this point so the risk of the same ticket being scanned more than once is minimised.

 

[AlbertBeale]

My dad is travelling with 3 other freedom pass holders, from Northolt to Gatwick airport.
He bought 3 x open single from clapham junction which was £9.xx.
I think he made a mistake as from what I understand he can travel until East croydon.
The saving is £3 / person / leg. Will Southern change it? He is travelling on a Sat in mid Jan. Can this me amended for free?
Also the eticket the southern have issued is in PDF format.
I don't think he is tech savvy enough to add it to a wallet, so advised him to print it.
He will forward the email to the 2 others travelling, but if person A, B and C all scan the top barcode the gate will not open for the other 2 people.
Also does the Southern ticket require activation, like get off at Clapham junction and find a barcode scanner on the platform or exit the gateline and re-enter?
The routes they could use are
X140 bus to Harrow and Wealdstone Station and I am pretty sure that there is a Southern Service that runs to Brighton that calls at LGW
x140 bus to St Pancras and Thameslink to LGW
Many thanks for any help and advice.

I don't think you'll get an X140 to St Pancras!

 

[talldave]

For future reference, Groupsave provides best value for 3+ people travelling together (including children travelling on adult tickets). It makes it cheaper for 3 people than 2!

 

[yorkie]

My dad is travelling with 3 other freedom pass holders, from Northolt to Gatwick airport.
He bought 3 x open single from clapham junction which was £9.xx.
I think he made a mistake as from what I understand he can travel until East croydon.
The saving is £3 / person / leg. Will Southern change it? He is travelling on a Sat in mid Jan. Can this me amended for free?

GTR will probably charge a £10 admin fee per ticket to change it, so given the small sums involved, I'd leave it be

Also the eticket the southern have issued is in PDF format.
I don't think he is tech savvy enough to add it to a wallet, so advised him to print it.
He will forward the email to the 2 others travelling, but if person A, B and C all scan the top barcode the gate will not open for the other 2 people.

Each person has their own (Aztec) barcode; each person can scan their own barcode.

Alternatively, one person could scan the whole group, by scanning the first ticket and one companion enters, then scan the second ticket and the other companion enters, and finally scanning their own ticket.

Also does the Southern ticket require activation, like get off at Clapham junction and find a QR scanner on the platform or exit the gateline and re-enter?

PDF e-tickets with barcodes do not require "activating"

The routes they could use are
X140 bus to Harrow and Wealdstone Station and I am pretty sure that there is a Southern Service that runs to Brighton that calls at LGW
x140 bus to St Pancras and Thameslink to LGW
Many thanks for any help and advice.

X140 goes to Harrow-on-the-Hill and you could either take Chiltern or LU from there, or you could get another bus to Harrow & Wealdstone if you prefer.
X140 does not go to St Pancras.

I don't understand why you wouldn't just take the train from Northolt (changing at either Oxford Circus or Notting Hill Gate); the TfL planner or Google Maps could advise accordingly.

Please note, LGW is Langwathby; you'll be wanting GTW (Gatwick Airport)!