Launched: Free change of Advance tickets with Cross Country

[cuccir]

While they'd previously announced it as their intention, Cross Country have now launched the ability to change Advance tickets for free before a journey.

Details are here:

We’re the first and only UK train company to remove the £10 fee for changing the date and time of your Advance ticket. So not only can you get great value Advance tickets for any train operator via our website, but you have a little extra flexibility if your plans change.

• No more fees - Buy a new Advance ticket, and we’ll refund your original for FREE
• Enjoy flexibility - Update the date, time & ticket type (as long as the stations are the same)
• Peace of mind - Amend your ticket from 2 hours after purchase, until 24 hours before your journey

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are a few caveats:

• You must buy a replacement ticket for a journey between the same stations
• You must have purchased the ticket while logged-in to the XC website
• The tickets must be post/collect at station
• It must be no less than 24 hours before travel

Interestingly it doesn't state anywhere that this is for Cross Country only fares - in fact from reading the fuller FAQ I'd take from that that this could be used for all Advance fares. It seems that this is processed as an Admin-free refund on the old ticket, when you purchase a new one - which would presumably allow you to buy a cheaper ticket on a future date, for example.

So it's an amendment rather than a revolution in how the tickets are sold, but there will certainly be cases where this comes in useful for people.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That sounds like my proposal for abolishing Excesses - refund and reissue instead.

FWIW, it makes Advances more flexible than Anytime Singles if you need a change of day, as the fee remains for walk-ups!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I see there's more of this garbage for walk-ups like VTWC have:

**you can change the departing/arrival station by cancelling the ticket(s) online and buying new ones.

Or, you can avoid a £10 fee by excessing it!

 

[Joe Paxton]

...
Interestingly it doesn't state anywhere that this is for Cross Country only fares - in fact from reading the fuller FAQ I'd take from that that this could be used for all Advance fares.

It'd be good to know this for sure one way or the other... if it really does apply to any Advance fare on any TOC, then it'd make the Crosscountry booking site an attractive choice for buying tickets.

Worth highlighting that "Print your own tickets and m-tickets (via our Train tickets app) cannot be changed".

 

[AlterEgo]

That sounds like my proposal for abolishing Excesses - refund and reissue instead.

FWIW, it makes Advances more flexible than Anytime Singles if you need a change of day, as the fee remains for walk-ups!

In practice, amending of Advance tickets purchased via telesales and online has always been "refund and reissue".

 

[cuccir]

FWIW, it makes Advances more flexible than Anytime Singles if you need a change of day, as the fee remains for walk-ups!

I suspect that the reason for this to prevent the following process:

1. Buy an Advance
2. Switch it to an Anytime
3. Get a full refund

The system as XC have created it means that once you've purchased a ticket, you either have to travel at some point or pay the admin fee to get a refund.

I suppose what someone could do is switch to an Anyime/Off-Peak ticket, collect the ticket, and THEN excess that into another ticket that you will use.

 

[John @ home]

amending of Advance tickets purchased via telesales and online has always been "refund and reissue".

I don't agree. When I recently had to amend an Advance ticket I was instructed to print out the original booking, if I had not already done so, and then given a collection code for another ticket which was printed "VALID ONLY WITH CTR 76RG67BC", where the reference 76RG67BC appears on the original ticket.

 

[AlterEgo]

I don't agree. When I recently had to amend an Advance ticket I was instructed to print out the original booking, if I had not already done so, and then given a collection code for another ticket which was printed "VALID ONLY WITH CTR 76RG67BC", where the reference 76RG67BC appears on the original ticket.

Which retailer was this, out of interest?

Perhaps this is a Trainline engine-specific issue, as the two TOCs I worked for both used their back office.

 

[erk]

Which retailer was this, out of interest?.

In my experience amending an Advance ticket (already collected via TOD):

Virgin East Coast:new reference for excess ticket and reservation to be used with the original ticket.

Virgin West Coast: after booking the new ticket the old one can be cancelled and has to be posted in for a refund (less £10).

 

[John @ home]

When I ... had to amend an Advance ticket I was ... given a collection code for another ticket which was printed "VALID ONLY WITH CTR 76RG67BC", where the reference 76RG67BC appears on the original ticket.

Which retailer was this, out of interest?

On this occasion, I had used the TPE mixing deck. Checking my records, I find that I have also changed Advance ticket(s) with two holders of the East Coast franchise. They issued excess fare tickets similar to the one from TPE, except that the ticket number is quoted rather than the CTR reference.

Perhaps this is a Trainline engine-specific issue

That seems likely to me.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I don't agree. When I recently had to amend an Advance ticket I was instructed to print out the original booking, if I had not already done so, and then given a collection code for another ticket which was printed "VALID ONLY WITH CTR 76RG67BC", where the reference 76RG67BC appears on the original ticket.

The effect of that, of course, is that there would be little to stop you using the original booking on the original train.

 

[Joe Paxton]

The effect of that, of course, is that there would be little to stop you using the original booking on the original train.

Though if the original ticket was gripped, and the new ticket is properly checked (i.e. along with the accompanying original ticket), then the holder could be in hot water.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Trainline use Refund and reissue none of the East Coast Franchises have so far.

 

[cuccir]

Just an update on this - I decided to use the new system to book Advances from Newcastle-Berwick with a plan of heading out to hike a stretch of the Berwickshire Coast Path, something I've had a vague plan to do for a while but which is clearly weather-dependent and so Advances would not have previously been desirable.

We had booked for this Sunday (12th Feb) but with cold winds forecast coming off the North Sea I've cancelled them and rebooked for a weekend in early March at the same price. I had tickets booked on both Virgin East Coast and CrossCountry services and was able to book new ones and get an immediate confirmation of the refund for both - overall, I'm a happy customer and will be using CrossCountry for Advance tickets a lot more in the future if other TOCs don't bring this in!

 

[Joe Paxton]

cuccir, thanks for the update - and the confirmation that it is not just limited to XC's own Advances. Very handy.

P.S. The Berwickshire Coastal Path looks fantastic!

 

[cuccir]

cuccir, thanks for the update - and the confirmation that it is not just limited to XC's own Advances. Very handy.

Yes it makes a big difference in the usefulness of it.

P.S. The Berwickshire Coastal Path looks fantastic!

Yeah, we're planning for now to do the southern stretch from Eyemouth as part of a project to walk the North-East England coast from the border to Whitby - we've done pretty much all of it except for north of the Tweed and a short stretch around Hartlepool headland/docks.

 

[Joe Paxton]

OK, a query regarding XC's no-fee change for Advance tickets...

If I was to book say 6 Advance tickets for the same journey, and wanted to change just one of those tickets, would I be able to do so with XC's system?

I'd hope this is possible, though I fear it may not be.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I *think* not, to do that you would have to have booked them separately. They might do it by phone though.

 

[maniacmartin]

I can see their FAQ confusing some people. For example it says that Anytime tickets can be used for 5 days outbound - I can envisage some people thinking this also applies to an Anytime Day Return that has been purchased.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That's because of the non-simplification, really - they should have been called "Anytime Period" tickets.

 

[yorksrob]

Is there any likelihood of Arrive extending this enlightened policy to any of it's other TOC's do we think ?