My girlfriend and I are going on a budget weekend break next month flying out from Gatwick early on Saturday 10th. Having booked coach travel to arrive at London Vic at 2am, TheTrainline offered us a cheap journey from Victoria to Gatwick - 03:11 Victoria - Blackfriars and then change for the 03:35 Blackfriars - Gatwick, which we booked.
When the tickets arrived there were none for the first leg, and on investigation it turns out that the 03:11 Victoria - Blackfriars doesn’t actually exist. If you open the Trainline app, it calls it a ‘Transfer’. This appears to mean ‘sort yourself out’.
So we’re left with 4 options:
- A 48-minute walk through London in the early hours (No thanks)
- Taxi (Presumabmly very expensive)
- Book on the newly-appeared 03:00 Victoria - Gatwick which wasn’t offered to us on TheTrainline when we originally looked, and pay £10 for the privilege of cancelling the other tickets. Probably the best but also most expensive option.
- Apparently its possible to get a tube to St Paul’s and then walk for 10 minutes - assuming that runs at that time.
I really feel like TheTrainline have sold us a journey on the basis of a train that never existed, and on that basis I’m really quite annoyed. If we book the 0300 train, it’ll end up costing us 3x what we originally paid by the time we’ve added in the cancellation fee. Do I have grounds for a complaint?
And is the third option - cancelling and booking a different train - the best, or have I missed a better plan? I don’t know London all that well and would not fancy walking around in the early hours.
Thanks in advance.
When the tickets arrived there were none for the first leg, and on investigation it turns out that the 03:11 Victoria - Blackfriars doesn’t actually exist. If you open the Trainline app, it calls it a ‘Transfer’. This appears to mean ‘sort yourself out’.
So we’re left with 4 options:
- A 48-minute walk through London in the early hours (No thanks)
- Taxi (Presumabmly very expensive)
- Book on the newly-appeared 03:00 Victoria - Gatwick which wasn’t offered to us on TheTrainline when we originally looked, and pay £10 for the privilege of cancelling the other tickets. Probably the best but also most expensive option.
- Apparently its possible to get a tube to St Paul’s and then walk for 10 minutes - assuming that runs at that time.
I really feel like TheTrainline have sold us a journey on the basis of a train that never existed, and on that basis I’m really quite annoyed. If we book the 0300 train, it’ll end up costing us 3x what we originally paid by the time we’ve added in the cancellation fee. Do I have grounds for a complaint?
And is the third option - cancelling and booking a different train - the best, or have I missed a better plan? I don’t know London all that well and would not fancy walking around in the early hours.
Thanks in advance.