Is there a way to request an itinerary that is more likely to result in a successful Delay Repay claim?

[Egg Centric]

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I've mentioned previously the idea of "most likely to get delay repay" - while I appreciate that's technically difficult, is there a way atm that I can just do "prefer trans pennine express for some of the journey"? For my use case that's basically the same thing

(Getting some luck by forcing a change at Northallerton atm. It's no joke btw - it's a very valuable option to me since I travel first class on expenses but usually on days when I'm "off" - if I can engineer a delay due to TOC incompetence then I'm quids in with little meaningful issue)

 

[yorkie]

I've mentioned previously the idea of "most likely to get delay repay" - while I appreciate that's technically difficult, is there a way atm that I can just do "prefer trans pennine express for some of the journey"? For my use case that's basically the same thing

There isn't an option to prefer routes served by one TOC over another; you can choose to include or exclude TOCs and we also offer up to 3 via points and up to 3 avoid points.

TPE are not a good company to claim from; they have no concept of valuing custom and they have cost me a lot of time in having to communicate with them and I am absolutely sick of dealing with them, but that's another story, for a different thread.

Note that constructing an obscure itinerary doesn't necessarily increase your liklihood of delay entitlement, but if you have a particular journey in mind, feel free to create a thread and we'll discuss it further elsewhere.

 

[Egg Centric]

Guess I could also set a via at Thirsk, couldn't I

 

[yorkie]

Guess I could also set a via at Thirsk, couldn't I

Call at Thirsk would reduce your options on the stretch between Northallerton and York to TPE / GC only (and eliminate LNER / XC as well as the TPEs which do not call).

If you want to play around with itineraries excluding fares, you can do so at www.fastjp.com

 

[Egg Centric]

There isn't an option to prefer routes served by one TOC over another; you can choose to include or exclude TOCs and we also offer up to 3 via points and up to 3 avoid points.

TPE are not a good company to claim from; they have no concept of valuing custom and they have cost me a lot of time in having to communicate with them and I am absolutely sick of dealing with them, but that's another story, for a different thread.

Note that constructing an obscure itinerary doesn't necessarily increase your liklihood of delay entitlement, but if you have a particular journey in mind, feel free to create a thread and we'll discuss it further elsewhere.

Roughly monthly I do a return from Durham - Watford. The usual plan is book this on the forum whitelabel site as far as Kings Cross and do the rest contactless. It is generally travelling down on Sunday and coming back on Saturday.

None of the above is constant; for example I was down in Watford for ten days last time and one of the journey legs was to Birmingham. The time before that I went via Cambridge. Sometimes I drive and it's not precisely monthly. Nevertheless it's usually that sort of thing.

Happily for me I can expense first class travel, but also of course am fully entitled to any delay repay. And usually on the days I travel I'm not bothered by an hour or two of inconvenience. So it's very much in my interest to be delayed by that sort of time frame as I get free money.

There's a sort of gentleman's agreement I don't squander money hence why I'm not buying a first open return but instead using a split ticketing site, but it's still eminently acceptable for me to try to engineer a journey likely to get delay repay. My basic strategy at the moment is not much more complicated than "use trans pennine express for a bit of it". However if a particular journey, or set of journeys, could be found which makes getting delay repay substantially more likely I'd be all ears!

Also - for a "real" example - my latest journey is going to be this Sunday to unusually returning on a Friday. I will be extremely hungover on that Friday so don't want to leave Watford before lunchtime. The Sunday I would probably also not be leaving Durham before around 2 or 3, but not for hangover reasons

 

[yorkie]

OK; switching to contactless makes Delay Repay harder so I'd be booking it as a through journey.

You could look at specifying via Manchester Piccadilly, or via Tamworth.

For example there are some cheap options if changing at Manchester, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes; this involves TPE, Avanti and WMT, none of whom are the most reliable of operators.

Alternatively there are itineraries with just 7 minutes at Tamworth, which if missed would leave you waiting an hour (unless the ticket was accepted via Birmingham; it should be if the XC is delayed, but this would still result in a qualifying delay) and I found some for next week for only £60 in standard (1st class was silly because XC 1st is insanely overpriced and WMT do not offer it).

Producing a convoluted itinerary on slow trains on less reliable operators does not mean you will necessarily be entitled to more Delay Repay; the onus is on you to enquire about alternatives and the slower the itinerary, the more chance there is of the railway directing you to alternative options which may result in recovering the delay.

Sometimes the rail industry does want to increase it's delay repay liabilities. I've had a couple of missed connections at Tamworth; on one occasion I was told I must wait an hour or pay an excess while on another occasion I was authorised to travel via Brum without additional charge. This is because the staff on XC trains vary from excellent to very poor.

There is no way you can automate any of this. Even if you identified trains which are more likely to be delayed or cancelled, you would struggle to then identify what alternative trains would be offered as an alternative. It's not unknown for alternatives to get you to your final destination quicker.

If your destination is accessible from Watford North, that could increase your eligibility, but only if you actually genuinely do travel to that station, and only if your itinerary is a tight connection (if the connection was 35 minutes it would be a pointless excercise, as you could actually be reducing your entitlement!)

 

[Watershed]

Well, ensuring your itinerary has a tight connection onto an infrequent service would be one option. You need to watch out for hourly services that aren't quite clockface though, or have a bit of "padding" (allowances or differential between the working and public timetable) - as those could mean getting only the 30-59 minute level of Delay Repay rather than the much more generous 60-119 minute level.

 

[yorkie]

How about this:

Walk up returns Durham to York (TPE only) and York to Watford Jn (via Manchester)

Obtain an itinerary departing xx18, which puts you on TPE to Manchester (including a change onto the Piccadilly service) then Avanti changing at MKC.

The connections are robust but if TPE is up the spout and you miss the Avanti, you will get a bare minimum of delay repay 30-59 mins.

XC are unlikely to let such a fare holder travel via Tamworth, without paying the excess, as each company is keen to act in a manner that is detrimental to the industry as a whole.

In general TOCs would rather cost the wider industry more money than reduce the extent of delay. But not always.

 

[Egg Centric]

There's a sort of gentleman's agreement I don't squander money hence why I'm not buying a first open return but instead using a split ticketing site

Just to emphasise this again. Firstly with regard to fares - I agree that walk up returns are a beautiful idea for maximising delay repay for this route in principle but not with this caveat. Basically it needs to be a fare (or set of them) that would credibly be chosen for an itinerary if booking it oneself. I know that this is a wooly and possibly even contradictory sounding criteria but I'm not sure how else to express it.

Another thing which may aid routing - that I'm travelling first is fairly important to me as well albeit this is so that I have plenty of space not so much about using any of the actual first class facilities if that makes sense - so trains which would in all probability be quiet would be acceptable in standard (whether on a first class ticket or not) - although to be clear I'm not saying I would voluntarily downgrade to a standard class ticket, just that if I needed a northern service for a bit of the itinerary it's not the end of the world.

IE I am fine to "suffer" time wise, facilities wise, but not "being squeezed" wise.

<snipped some specifics no longer relevant>

 

[miklcct]

In contrast, is there a way to request an itinerary that is least likely to result in a Delay Repay claim? Most of my journeys are time critical, and I would like journeys on geographical routes where a missed connection will not result in a long wait, and with plenty of opportunities of catching up delays without going off-route?

It would be helpful if journey planners can show me the frequencies of each segment of the journey such that I can anticipate the possibility of delays. In such case I can avoid a journey where a particular segment only has a half-hourly service against another journey plan where the whole route has trains running every 10 minutes or less, despite the latter takes sightly longer on average.

 

[Egg Centric]

In contrast, is there a way to request an itinerary that is least likely to result in a Delay Repay claim? Most of my journeys are time critical, and I would like journeys on geographical routes where a missed connection will not result in a long wait, and with plenty of opportunities of catching up delays without going off-route?

It would be helpful if journey planners can show me the frequencies of each segment of the journey such that I can anticipate the possibility of delays. In such case I can avoid a journey where a particular segment only has a half-hourly service against another journey plan where the whole route has trains running every 10 minutes or less, despite the latter takes sightly longer on average.

Is that not, in practice, going to be as simple most of the time as just setting a longer minimum connection time when you're searching for tickets? If it's a frequent service you'll come up with the next train. If it's an infrequent one then you've given yourself padding. Am I missing something? If it's the need to give yourself a specific itinerary because of travelling on obscure tickets then you can always do both if you see what I mean?

Also don't you tend to confine yourself to the south east? Everything's frequent there

As for the question I posed about these specific tickets I've waited till just now to book and changing at Northallerton both ways, coming to "£231.67, saving you £44.03" through the forum site, which is ideal for both not taking the wee wee and a nice bit of wedge should something "go wrong" (right).