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Etiquette of informing fellow passengers

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I am on the 16.19 Carlisle - Leeds. Sat opposite me at a table is a woman who is travelling on an Anytime Single from Glasgow to Shipley, Route Any Permitted. It has cost her £117. I am quite sure she could have bought a ticket well under half the price (Route via Appleby). I suspect she may have bought it from a TVM.

Would forum members offer some help on this one? Note we have not spoken to each other.
 
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transportphoto

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It may well be that she is travelling on expenses so it doesn't matter to her anyway... I would leave it unless you really wish to help her. In which case maybe joke about it, "£117, seriously is that how much you've paid for this journey?!" That will gauge her opinion on the matter... you can then take it from there, suggesting an off peak ticket etc...

TP
 

4SRKT

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I am on the 16.19 Carlisle - Leeds. Sat opposite me at a table is a woman who is travelling on an Anytime Single from Glasgow to Shipley, Route Any Permitted. It has cost her £117. I am quite sure she could have bought a ticket well under half the price (Route via Appleby). I suspect she may have bought it from a TVM.

Would forum members offer some help on this one? Note we have not spoken to each other.
Is she attractive? I ALWAYS give fares advice to arractive ladies when I get the chance. If she is attractive and lives in Shipley then maybe I can help. <smooths dark hair down>.

OTOH telling her an anytime single from Glasgow to Shipley via Appleby is £40.30 may not endear her to you....


 
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Yeah I was thinking of leaving it, some people would rather be left in blissful ignorance. The only reason I think she bought it from a TVM is because a clerk would have surely either sold her the Appleby ticket or an Off Peak instead.

There is a generational gap between us and besides I am not unattached!
 

4SRKT

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Yeah I was thinking of leaving it, some people would rather be left in blissful ignorance. The only reason I think she bought it from a TVM is because a clerk would have surely either sold her the Appleby ticket or an Off Peak instead.

There is a generational gap between us and besides I am not unattached!

I'm not unattached either, but it's nice to pass the time on a long journey.....

 

rdwarr

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I am a rather attractive lady travelling on the Carlisle to Leeds train. Ever since the ticket inspector came round the man sitting opposite me has been giving me strange looks and occasionally typing stuff into his laptop with a confused look on his face.
I feel a bit worried about him - would etiquette permit me asking what's wrong?

...Well, it might happen ;)
 

yorkie

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£40.30 via Appleby
£117.00 via Any Permitted

About a third of the price!
 

calc7

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She's probably one of those who swears blind they got a bargain with a walk-up ticket on Thetrainline.
 

4SRKT

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£40.30 via Appleby
£117.00 via Any Permitted

About a third of the price!
Why would anyone travelling from Glasgow to Shipley up until 16:40 go via any other route anyway?


 
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Maybe to break journey somewhere on another route, or for the better facilities on intercity routes.

We are now stuck at Garsdale, apparently behind two freight trains.
 

4SRKT

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Maybe to break journey somewhere on another route, or for the better facilities on intercity routes.

We are now stuck at Garsdale, apparently behind two freight trains.

Expensive facilities though. For £76.70 you could buy up half the stock of Waitrose before you boarded if it's posh grub en route that you want! Anyway, there are IC facilities between Glasgow and Carlisle.

 

LexyBoy

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£40.30 via Appleby
£117.00 via Any Permitted

About a third of the price!

"You can't be too careful though, wouldn't want to get the cheaper one and get fined for going the wrong way!"

A little advertising on the perils of fare evasion goes a long way...
 
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Change of route excess is always available on board isn't it? So you couldn't be penalised for making that mistake.
 

bb21

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Change of route excess is always available on board isn't it? So you couldn't be penalised for making that mistake.

Very few people know about them though.

On the issue of advising fellow passengers, I would step in and offer advice if they get charged incorrectly onboard, and always after the guard has left. I don't bother otherwise, unless they ask or if it comes up in a conversation.
 

4SRKT

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Can you get a negative change of route excess? I don't really see why this shouldn't be possible.
 

Robinson

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"You can't be too careful though, wouldn't want to get the cheaper one and get fined for going the wrong way!"

A little advertising on the perils of fare evasion goes a long way...

A friend of mine keeps giving me that one when we try to arrange to meet up in London; she keeps saying to me "Why don't you just get an Anytime?" even though we're talking about travelling at the weekend... :roll:
 

bb21

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Can you get a negative change of route excess? I don't really see why this shouldn't be possible.

You can, although you will not get a refund. It will just be a zero-excess.

This is usually not done as fares for more expensive routes are valid on cheaper routes, however it can be useful sometimes, such as excessing a Route Not Via London ticket to Route +Via London for use on London Underground. You are much less likely to run into problems at LU gatelines this way.
 

transportphoto

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Can you get a negative change of route excess? I don't really see why this shouldn't be possible.

As far as I am aware, you don't need one, any ticket of greater value is valid through other all routes where the fare is the same or lower - with exception of TOC specific tickets where you can not remove this restriction.

For example, if I held a Slough to Staines ticket routed +LONDON, I could use all routes of a lower value, so I could travel completely avoiding London if I wished, via Windsor. As the fares for this journey is lower.

TP
 

4SRKT

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As far as I am aware, you don't need one, any ticket of greater value is valid through other all routes where the fare is the same or lower - with exception of TOC specific tickets where you can not remove this restriction.

For example, if I held a Slough to Staines ticket routed +LONDON, I could use all routes of a lower value, so I could travel completely avoiding London if I wished, via Windsor. As the fares for this journey is lower.

TP

What I mean is, having discovered that the route on which you are travelling has a lower price anytime fare than the one you have bought, very possibly without knowing this, then why should it not be possible to 'downgrade'? I mean it's not as though you've actually used any of East Coast's precious capacity which I suppose is driving the larcenously high £117 any permitted ticket in this particular example.
 

island

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You cannot get a refund on board, although I suppose you could get the more expensive ticket refunded if unused and buy the cheaper one.
 

4SRKT

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You cannot get a refund on board, although I suppose you could get the more expensive ticket refunded if unused and buy the cheaper one.

I know you can't, but that's not the same as saying you shouldn't be able to.
 

34D

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Is she attractive? I ALWAYS give fares advice to arractive ladies when I get the chance. If she is attractive and lives in Shipley then maybe I can help. <smooths dark hair down>.

OTOH telling her an anytime single from Glasgow to Shipley via Appleby is £40.30 may not endear her to you....



Very good advice.
 

cuccir

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I know you can't, but that's not the same as saying you shouldn't be able to.

I think it's fair to say that you can't refund a product once you've bought it and started using it - I can think of few (well none, but this being the internet I'm sure someone will have an example!) industries where that would be the case.

With regards to the original question - I'd help someone in the process of buying if I overheard them, but once they have the ticket I'd let them be: they may have their reasons.
 

4SRKT

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I think it's fair to say that you can't refund a product once you've bought it and started using it - I can think of few (well none, but this being the internet I'm sure someone will have an example!) industries where that would be the case.

With regards to the original question - I'd help someone in the process of buying if I overheard them, but once they have the ticket I'd let them be: they may have their reasons.

A ticket is not like a physical good though.
 

bb21

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A ticket is not like a physical good though.

I'm not sure what you really want other people to say. As has been mentioned, if the difference is large then a refund on the original ticket (subject to the admin charge) and then purchasing the cheaper ticket would be a good option.

We might want to think that it is fairer that such a mechanism for refunding the difference exists however it is not the case at the moment.
 

lyndhurst25

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This one falls in between this and the other "etiquette" thread. Maybe it should be "Etiquette when booking clerk sells fellow passenger the wrong thing".

Recently I was stood behind a woman in the queue at a Northern ticket office. She wanted to travel to London early the following morning to connect with a Eurostar departure and told the booking clerk this. She was sold an eye-wateringly expensive Anytime ticket to London instead of a much cheaper and more flexible London International CIV fare. On this occasion I didn't say anything. Maybe I should have?
 

island

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I do wonder if this doesn't all come down to passengers terrified they will get "fined" for buying the wrong ticket (possibly recalling a Daily Fail article where a family of four was charged £237 for travelling on the train before they one they'd booked from Brum to London) and therefore choosing to pay for more validity than they need.

There is a case for blocking SDR tickets at TVMs on weekends where a CDR exists, except perhaps in Virgin land...
 

4SRKT

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I'm not sure what you really want other people to say. As has been mentioned, if the difference is large then a refund on the original ticket (subject to the admin charge) and then purchasing the cheaper ticket would be a good option.

We might want to think that it is fairer that such a mechanism for refunding the difference exists however it is not the case at the moment.

But once you've actually used the ticket a refund wouldn't be appropriate because it'd be difficult to prove which route you'd actually been on.

The only case I'm trying to make is like the one in this thread, where if you'd been sold a very expensive ticket, but were told by a Forum member on board the train or at the origin station that you could have got one for half the price, then whilst still en route, it would not be unreasonable to be able to ask for a negative change of route excess.

It's not so much that I want to think that this would be fair, but simply that it is fair by any definition I've ever heard of that word.
 
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