OK continuing from my post above, it has just been confirmed by my company that we will be working from home from tomorrow for the forseeable future, so I just want to work out what is best value for me (apologies if this is a thread hijack, but it seems a similar enough topic to warrant not opening a new thread).
My ticket is Basingstoke to London Zones 1-6 (Starting 31st December 2019); cost £5432
OPTION 1: Refund
SWR says they calculate it thus: "To calculate the refund value we’ll work out the total cost of the tickets you’d have needed to buy to make one return journey a day up to the date you returned your Season ticket. The refund will be the difference, if any, between this total cost and the price you paid for the Season ticket, less a reasonable administration fee (no more than £10). "
So would this be peak returns or off peak returns? The peak is £44.20, and off peak £26.30. Then does this mean every day, or just working days? If I work on the assumption it is working days only, then I'm looking at a 'cost' of 55 days, so that's either 55x44.20 (£2431) or 55x26.30 (£1446.50). Thus a refund of either £3001 or £3985.50 - could someone clarify which is correct? (or if I'm completely wrong!).
OPTION 2: Changeover to cheap season ticket.
As far as I'm aware using the helpful info posted above, this is divided by 365 and split pro rata. So if I went for an Exeter St Davids - Exeter Central season, which still gets me gold card access in case I need to make the odd trip into London, that would be:
5432/365 = £14.88
152/365 = £0.42
From 31st Dec to 17th Mar that's 78 days, so (78*14.88) + (287x0.42) = £1281.18, thus a refund of £4150.82.
Then, whichever option I go for, I'll just do odd period tickets until the end of the year when commuting starts again, as I'm away a lot (supposedly) in Q3/Q4.
So it looks like the changeover route is clearly the way to go, but can someone more learned than me clarify my maths? Basically I just want to know exactly what I'm expecting when I go to the ticket office tomorrow.
Many thanks!