Request for advice & help about Trainline and travel in London

[alexl92]

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.

 

[mikeg]

I do feel it could be made clearer that transfers aren't included. However, what is on your ticket? If you can cancel it's presumably not an advance and therefore you can use it on any valid service along any permitted route?

Also why use the trainline? Always more expensive. Also I believe some rail company websites allow you to amend advances free of charge now.

 

[Romilly]

There is a night-tube service on Friday and Saturday nights, and lots of night and 24-hour bus routes. Try the TfL journey planner. If you use Oyster or contactless for the buses, you can get 2 bus journeys for the price of one (i.e. for £1.50 for each of you) if you touch in on the second bus within 69 minutes of touching-in on the first (e.g. N44 from the coach station to Trafalgar Square, and then N89 to Blackfriars). Or a single on the tube with oyster or contactless will be £2.40 each. In other words, there are public-transport transfers at that time of night.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I'm guessing you've bought tickets from London Blackfriars to Gatwick Airport. You may be able to excess these into tickets from London Terminals to Gatwick Airport, which would allow you to use the Southern service from Victoria. For an excess you just pay the difference in price and there is no change fee. Try asking at a friendly ticket office.