Delay repay for train delayed by almost 7 hours (LNER)?

[girlinabox]

Hello, good morning. I hope that this is the right place to post this (please advise if not!).

I'm hoping I can just get some advice about my rights to refunds for a nightmare journey I had with LNER this week.

I purchased a return trip to London, and due to needing flexibility I chose the anytime tickets, and they were two anytime singles rather than one anytime return however the email confirmation states 'return journey' on it.

My journey back from London left KGX at 17:00 and initially was held near York for over 3 hours due to a train in front of us hitting something (cattle?) - we didn't move at all for hours. Communication from LNER was virtually non-existent (they even lied on their SM and said that rail replacement coaches were being provided - they were not provided). In the end, as we were stuck for so long the train driver was unable to take us beyond Newcastle (they'd worked beyond their hours I was told) but were told that the train behind us would take us the rest of the way to Edinburgh.

So we all got off the train at Newcastle at 2am to scenes of pure chaos as you can imagine. Thankfully we did eventually get on the train that was behind us, and we finally got into Edinburgh at 04.15am - so over 11 hours stuck on an LNER train. Thankfully we were put into taxis once in Edinburgh, as I was panicking I would have to wait for the first trains to begin at 6.30am to get home.

I have submitted the delay repay claim via LNER's website, and today they have confirmed that I will be refunded to the amount of my single from KGX to Edinburgh. I am wondering if I have recourse to any of the rest of my ticketing costs, namely:

• An upgrade I had purchased from standard class to first class prior to the journey of approx £30 - purchased via Seatfrog. I do feel a bit annoyed about this, because whilst it was certainly a bit more comfortable in first class, they stopped providing refreshments as they had run out, and there wasn't even any loo roll in the toilets - this did make an already dire situation all the more stressful and difficult.
• The ticket I had purchased prior to the journey from Edinburgh to my local station of £30 for a return
• I presume that my outbound journey from Edinburgh to London cannot be claimed as they were two single tickets...? (I also upgraded to first class on the outbound journey)

I am not usually so bothered about money and claiming for things (I have also never been in this situation before), but this whole thing has had such a knock-on effect and I am just wishing to ensure I do get what I am entitled to - nothing more or less.

Thank you very much for any advice or support that you can provide!

 

[Bletchleyite]

An upgrade I had purchased from standard class to first class prior to the journey of approx £30 - purchased via Seatfrog. I do feel a bit annoyed about this, because whilst it was certainly a bit more comfortable in first class, they stopped providing refreshments as they had run out, and there wasn't even any loo roll in the toilets - this did make an already dire situation all the more stressful and difficult.

Yes, this should absolutely be included.

• The ticket I had purchased prior to the journey from Edinburgh to my local station of £30 for a return

And 100% of this as it was a return ticket.

• I presume that my outbound journey from Edinburgh to London cannot be claimed as they were two single tickets...? (I also upgraded to first class on the outbound journey)

Unfortunately not.

You may need to go via Customer Services to get this done properly - you can certainly do a claim like this on the system used by the FirstGroup TOCs, but I don't know the LNER one to comment.

 

[Haywain]

today they have confirmed that I will be refunded to the amount of my single from KGX to Edinburgh.

You really should have put all the bits together in a single Delay Repay claim for simplicity (or was it automated Delay Repay for that ticket?). I think you will need to call up customer services now, as submitting a new claim will complicate matters and lead to it being refused.