I think the point is they are returning before 0930. So at present they are buying one railcard discounted SVH, and one full price SVH. If they buy a SVR instead, they won't get any railcard discount.
Exactly. I get a Two Together railcard discount on the outbound. (Sorry if that wasn't clear. Thought it was.)
Virgin were well aware of the fact that one of the advantages of SVH was the ability to book two SVH with railcard discount only in one direction. [I had a dispute with them, many years ago, over Delay Repay when they tried to argue that an SVH ticket was a single, not half of a return. After intervention from Passenger Focus (as they were called then), Virgin accepted that it was not a single, despite being badged on their website as "Off-peak Single (Online Only)", and must be treated as part of a return ticket for the purposes of Delay Repay. They commented at the time that it was a consequence of the fact that two SVH tickets would only be sold automatically as an SVR if the same railcard application was in effect in each direction.]
If it was unintentional, Virgin had many years to fix it, and chose not to. And why would they? It was a huge product differentiator.
Because it was offered on Virgin's booking engine and also Avanti's, anyone wanting to travel with a railcard that is valid only after 09:30, and where one direction is before this time, and where they can't/don't want to use an Advance, would be shown 2 x SVH as the cheapest option. This change by Avanti will not just hit me. It will hit lots of passengers. (As this forum knows, there are plenty of routes where "off-peak" tickets are available before 09:30.)
This represents over a 20% increase in journey costs for many people.