Advance ticket change question

[churo]

Let's say you buy 2 x outward and homeward advance single tickets, purchased together from the Avanti West Coast website.

It later turns out the person you were going to be travelling with isn't able to make the journey, so you'll now be going/returning by yourself.

Would it be possible to change the dates of the other two tickets so that you could make the same journey (again by yourself) at some future date? Or is it only possible to change the dates of all the tickets together?

Thanks.

 

[Mike395]

Yes - you should have no issues asking a retailer to do that in theory - subject to a change fee of no more than £10 though some retailers charge less - even if you can’t self serve it, so long as the route is the same (in practice your experience might differ dependent on which one you use - for example TrainSplit, who power the forum site, has dedicated UK based support staff where as at least one larger retailer has their support offshore).

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

But I would always book these kind of journeys with separate tickets. Whatever the theory promoted in their apps/websites etc. etc., the reality doesn't always quite work with Advance fares (stilll recovering from a complete inability to change an LNER Advance fare on their app within 30 mins of departure last Jan where the customer service response was 'Advance Fares are non-refundable' ... which I guess I knew!)

 

[Wallsendmag]

But I would always book these kind of journeys with separate tickets. Whatever the theory promoted in their apps/websites etc. etc., the reality doesn't always quite work with Advance fares (stilll recovering from a complete inability to change an LNER Advance fare on their app within 30 mins of departure last Jan where the customer service response was 'Advance Fares are non-refundable' ... which I guess I knew!)

On the LNER Web/App you have a 2 hour window after booking where you can change or refund your bookingfor free as long as it isn't for the same day.

 

[churo]

Thanks for the replies. On the Avanti website it says they don't charge an admin fee for advance ticket date changes (same route) if the changes are made before 6pm on the day before travel. Does anyone know if it's possible to make the changes I mentioned via the website, or would you have to do it by phone? At the moment it's only a possible scenario, but may be something I'll have to do next month.

 

[Deerfold]

On the LNER Web/App you have a 2 hour window after booking where you can change or refund your bookingfor free as long as it isn't for the same day.

That doesn't look to be relevant to Gerald's problem.

 

[yorkie]

But I would always book these kind of journeys with separate tickets.

Some retailers would charge an admin fee per ticket, while others charge based on the whole booking.

(The forum's site will only charge one fee for the whole booking; TOCs tend to charge on a per ticket basis, which can be costly)

Whatever the theory promoted in their apps/websites etc. etc., the reality doesn't always quite work with Advance fares (stilll recovering from a complete inability to change an LNER Advance fare on their app within 30 mins of departure last Jan where the customer service response was 'Advance Fares are non-refundable' ... which I guess I knew!)

It really depends on the retailer you use.

With the forum's site, you would simply book the new journey, and refund the originals. You would get the cost of the originals back, minus a refund fee.

I don't know how the Avanti website works.

 

[Haywain]

With the forum's site, you would simply book the new journey, and refund the originals. You would get the cost of the originals back, minus a refund fee.

This is the process with most sites, I believe.

 

[mb]

I only ever buy from CrossCountry or Railsmartr because both don't charge a fee to change an Advance fare. CrossCountry's is a very slick operation, Railsmartr is a more manual process.