Ticketing online unusual fares

[Halsebee]

I was discussing the proposed closure of ticket offices recently at a meeting I was at with someone who seemed to know a lot about online ticket sales. I've been using split ticketing for many, many years, but was bemoaning the fact that whilst there are a number of, in my view, very good sites that offer split tickets, there are none that could replace a ticket office for issuing things like change of route excesses, or overdistance excesses for example. The person I was speaking to told me that some sites had upped their game in the last few months and now do offer the facility to buy the more unusual types of ticket. Unfortunately I didn't ask him which sites they were. i can't find any of the more common split ticket sites that offer this sort of thing, or at least I don't know how to access it if they do.
Can anyone advise on whether sites do, and if so which ones might be worth looking at?

 

[Deafdoggie]

Seatfrog do it...up to a point. Certain operators for now. You enter your booking details (original booking must be with seatfrog) and it will tell you if your ticket can be swapped and how much it costs you.
Trainline also offer the same service but for every operator. Essentially both are refunding the existing ticket and issuing a new one, which is arguably the same, or indeed even better, than excessing. As you can do this with all ticket types (subject to a few restrictions) Of course, neither site can do it with paper tickets that have already been printed.
If you're likely to need to excess, or a refund, then Trainline e-tickets are probably the way to go.

 

[Adam Williams]

issuing things like change of route excesses, or overdistance excesses for example

I might be wrong, but I don't believe excesses can be fulfilled via ToD, so it's difficult to implement these in a universal way.

They're also really quite niche, and probably too complicated for a lot of the public to gain a good understanding of, so it's difficult to justify spending much engineering time on this sort of thing.

 

[Haywain]

I might be wrong, but I don't believe excesses can be fulfilled via ToD, so it's difficult to implement these in a universal way.

You are not wrong.

 

[Hadders]

Excesses (eg change of route, over distance, change of class) are very unusual and you struggle to get them issued at ticket offices.

I suspect these will end up being only available onboard, or from the roving staff we’re promised will be available (although I suspect roving staff won’t have the training or equipment to sell them).

Change of travel time in Advance tickets (which is probably the most common type of change) will end up being refund and re-purchase.

 

[MrJeeves]

but I don't believe excesses can be fulfilled via ToD

Time for e-Ticketed excess fares?

 

[MotCO]

I suspect these will end up being only available onboard, or from the roving staff we’re promised will be available (although I suspect roving staff won’t have the training or equipment to sell them).

But if there is no guard, and you are challenged by an RPI on board, who cannot sell you an excess ( I think), what happens? Do you get penalised?

 

[BluePenguin]

Change of travel time in Advance tickets (which is probably the most common type of change) will end up being refund and re-purchase.

So non-refundable and exchangeable for a fee before travel will become fully refundable?

 

[Adam Williams]

Time for e-Ticketed excess fares?

I believe the E-Ticket format does support excesses (they're green), but it's unclear to me if you would be reasonably able to issue an E-Ticket fulfilled Excess for a product that was originally fulfilled to CCST. I suspect not, and in any case, it seems like an unwise thing to do if the original purchase wasn't fulfillable to E-Ticket!

RDG says:

The Excess Process is to be followed when the use of a product has commenced, normally when the journey has started, and the customer wishes to travel outside the validity of the product. For the journey to continue as the customer now wishes, elements of the product are now required to change.

and pushes for the "Change" (cancel/re-issue) procedure instead under most other circumstances.

I think TPE is the only retailer I am aware of that will do excesses for bookings made online, and it causes problems (postal fulfilment).

 

[Mainline421]

Excesses (eg change of route, over distance, change of class) are very unusual and you struggle to get them issued at ticket offices.

Never been a problem the many times I've done it. Getting change of route at half the difference can take some polite prompting but always settled in the end (although better to buy those onboard admittedly)

 

[Hadders]

Never been a problem the many times I've done it. Getting change of route at half the distance can take some polite prompting but always settled in the end (although better to buy those onboard admittedly)

I suspect you’ve been very lucky!

There are some fantastic ticket office clerks but in my personal experience there are also a significant number that don’t know how to issue excesses. To be fair excesses are hardly ever sold, a couple of weeks ago I did manage to successfully obtain an over distance excess at Peterborough travel centre, the member of staff said he’d not sold an excess for years!

 

[crablab]

Seatfrog do it...up to a point. Certain operators for now. You enter your booking details (original booking must be with seatfrog) and it will tell you if your ticket can be swapped and how much it costs you.

That's not strictly an excess though. It's more of an add-on or supplement.

 

[Deafdoggie]

That's not strictly an excess though. It's more of an add-on or supplement.

Not always that. You can go to a cheaper fare and get refunded rather than zero excessed.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I suspect you’ve been very lucky!

There are some fantastic ticket office clerks but in my personal experience there are also a significant number that don’t know how to issue excesses. To be fair excesses are hardly ever sold, a couple of weeks ago I did manage to successfully obtain an over distance excess at Peterborough travel centre, the member of staff said he’d not sold an excess for years!

I don't think I've ever got a route excess without having to argue about them wanting to charge me the full difference, though when they have been totally insistent the TOC customer services has refunded it.