Change of Journey. Help!!

[Ahmed Mettioui]

Hi

I recently purchased advanced tickets through an online selling agent. The delivery method was for Ticket on Departure.

However I needed to change my travel arrangements two days before the scheduled departure date of my outward journey. However I was informed that I could not collect the ticket from the ToD machine at the station as planned as this is not possible for some reason? I was working away on business so the option of next day special delivery was no use to me either.

I was advised by the selling agent representative to carry out the change of journey at a station with a manned ticket office.

I attended the nearest large scale station to where I was located and was told that I could only amend the ticket with the agency that sold me the ticket. I explained the situation but I was told there was nothing they could do.

So I was back to square one.

I have tried to seek clarification by emailing National Rail Enquiries who have been no help either.

In short;

-can anybody confirm that changes of journey cannot be implemented for ToD, if so why not?

-can anybody confirm whether a station ticket clerk has the power to carry out a change of journey regardless of who the ticket was sold with.

-any suggestions for a course of action should this ever happen again would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[Mojo]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

First of all; are your tickets actually Advance tickets where you are booked on, and must travel on a specific train for at least one leg of your journey, or are they normal price-walk on tickets which you have chosen to purchase in advance? If you are not sure, if you can advise what the journey is and what price you paid (along with any Railcard discounts) then one of us can look this up.

If you are on an Advance ticket, you may change the date and time by taking the reservation slip and your ticket to a staffed booking office and they will change it to the next cheapest fare for the train you wish to travel on, subject to a £10 admin. fee per ticket.

It sounds to me like you may not actually have the tickets yet; with regards to ToD, you can collect your ticket from any ticket machine anywhere in Britain which is connected to the system, not just the station you specified. Not all stations and not all ticket machines within stations have this feature.

 

[Ahmed Mettioui]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. You have already provided me with more clarification then i was able to prise from National Rail Enquiries.

The tickets I originaly bought were 'advanced' (non refundable) tickets whereby I had to get a specific train at a specific time. I even had seat reservations.

So if i have this right, the best cause of action in the likely event that this occurs again would be to collect or print the unwanted tickets first (from either the machine or ticket office) and carry out a change of journey with the ticket clerk.

Finally is there any documentation where these rules are clearly spelt out. May be handy to have with me in case the ticket office do not want to play ball with me in the future.

Again many thanks.

 

[wintonian]

The terms and conditions for advance fares can be found on National Rails website at:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/advance_conditions.html

Who did you buy the tickets from and which train operating company were you planning to travel with?

 

[Ahmed Mettioui]

I brought them through Raileasy and it sounds like the advice they gave me was right so its the station that has caused the issue here by the looks of things.

My journey was from Leeds to Kings Lynn involving threee changes so I assume it will be with multiple train operators.

Thanks for the link to the T&C's. Most helpful and I will know where to look in future.

 

[yorkie]

If you are trying to get it changed before the tickets are printed, to avoid the £10 admin fee, this is not possible.

However if you take the (collected) tickets to any station they should change the journey time for you, if the same pricing is available for the train you wish to catch you should only pay £10. If only higher price seats are available then it will be the difference plus £10.

They cannot change the origin / destination station. The company / route on the ticket must remain the same. You can change the date or time.

Some stations will claim you can't make any changes. They are wrong. If you encounter this, you could try asking for a manager, but you may be better off going elsewhere (if you are based in a city with lots of stations, e.g. London)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

My journey was from Leeds to Kings Lynn involving threee changes so I assume it will be with multiple train operators

It will almost certainly be EC & Connections, with a reservation probably from Leeds to Peterborough (or at the very least Doncaster to Peterborough) and possibly a reservation from Peterborough to Ely, and then any suitable connecting train from Ely to Kings Lynn, or alternatively you may be reserved through to Stevenage, with any suitable connecting trains to Cambridge and on to Kings Lynn. If the train is non-reservable, which at least one will be in your case, you won't have to worry about changing that part of it!

 

[Mojo]

Also, in future I would avoid buying tickets through Raileasy as they charge a booking fee, a debit/credit card fee and a fee for First class postage. If you buy your tickets through the East Coast Trains wesbite you will not pay any fees (other than the cost of your ticket) and in some cases you get a 10% discount off a select few Advance fares.

 

[Ahmed Mettioui]

Excellent guys.

Thanks very much for all your help.

 

[yorkie]

Choosing a random date, say you were travelling on 10 August on the 1805 from Leeds and had paid £13.35 on the EC site. If you now wanted to change it to the 1405, this is showing as £18.25 on the EC site, but you'd have to do it at a station so would pay about 10% more, the difference would be about £5.50 and you have to pay £10 admin fee, so it would cost you around £15.50. A new ticket would be £18.25.


Alternatively if you wanted the 1140 this is £26.50 so the difference would then have been be £13.15 and you also have to pay the £10 admin fee so this would then cost you £23.15.

If you already had the £18.25 ticket, and wanted to get a train where the £13.35 ticket is available, you still pay the £10 admin fee, but don't pay any more (or get any back!) so it would only cost £10 in that case.

 

[caughtonatrain]

Also, in future I would avoid buying tickets through Raileasy as they charge a booking fee, a debit/credit card fee and a fee for First class postage. If you buy your tickets through the East Coast Trains wesbite you will not pay any fees (other than the cost of your ticket) and in some cases you get a 10% discount off a select few Advance fares.

While I think that the RailEasy website is not the most user friendly, nor the cheapest, it has the distinct advantage of being able to sell online tickets to London International CIV (LNE). Does anybody else know of other online vendors that can do this?

many thanks

 

[rail-britain]

Some stations will claim you can't make any changes. They are wrong. If you encounter this, you could try asking for a manager, but you may be better off going elsewhere

Advance tickets are clearly marked "NON-REFUNDABLE"
A change can be made, but you pay the excess (if applicable) PLUS the relevant admin fee (between £5 and £20)

As above
Raileasy should have advised you to collect the tickets ASAP, then take them to a manned station for amendment, but you would liable to the excess (if applicable) and the relevant admin fee

 

[janb]

Advance tickets are clearly marked "NON-REFUNDABLE"
A change can be made, but you pay the excess (if applicable) PLUS the relevant admin fee (between £5 and £20)

The Admin Fee is a standard £10 per ticket, nothing more or less - the conditions are consistent across TOCs.

 

[wibble]

While I think that the RailEasy website is not the most user friendly, nor the cheapest, it has the distinct advantage of being able to sell online tickets to London International CIV (LNE). Does anybody else know of other online vendors that can do this?

many thanks

If you're travelling on Eurostar, there are through fares from many UK stations to a Eurostar destination. The cost of the through ticket is likely to cost less than buying a London CIV fare.

e.g.: if a London - Paris fares is £59 return

Bournemouth - London CIV + Eurostar: £46.30 + £59.00 = £105.3
Bournemouth - Paris: £18.00 + £59.00 = £77.00

Some through tickets can be booked through the Eurostar website. Most SWT stations are missing for through journeys (despite fares existing) so you might have to call Eurostar telesales to book a ticket from some SWT stations.

 

[yorkie]

Advance tickets are clearly marked "NON-REFUNDABLE"
A change can be made, but you pay the excess (if applicable) PLUS the relevant admin fee (between £5 and £20)

As above
Raileasy should have advised you to collect the tickets ASAP, then take them to a manned station for amendment, but you would liable to the excess (if applicable) and the relevant admin fee

Yes, they probably didn't make it clear to the OP.

Yes, we agree a change can be made.

However I disagree that the admin fee is between £5 and £20. The admin fee is £10 for all Advance tickets that I am aware of, and has been since "Simplification" in 2008.

 

[Ahmed Mettioui]

sorry to bump this thread however I thought you would be interested to read what national rail enquiries has to say for itself.

'Thank you for your response. I am sorry to learn that you feel that we have not answered your questions in the earlier emails sent to you.

In reply to the first email that you sent to us, we have answered both of your queries. With regards to the Ticket on Departure option, we did confirm that if you made changes to your ticket online, you can still collect the ticket at the station before travelling.

With regards to the second query about the ticket clerk at the station making the changes to the tickets, we have stated that the staff at the station will not be able to change the ticket for you, as you did not purchase it with them.

As National Rail Enquiries do not sell tickets, if you any further queries regarding the issues you faced, I would advise you to contact the Train Operating Company with whom you purchased tickets online.

Thank you again for contacting National Rail Enquiries.

Regards'

But thats the thing I wasnt able to select ToD as a delivery option once I had ammended my tickets, the only option was by post which was no use to me.

The advice given with respect the ticket clerk seems to contradict advice I have received both on here and when I spoke to a national rail represantive on the phone.

Blimey this is all very confusing.

 

[142094]

National Rail Enquiries has gone down hill recently, the new website is slow and more style over substance, and it seems that when you talk to someone on the phone they are only looking from their website. I called once late at night and got put through to a call centre in India, although they were very polite, they could not find the timetable for Northern's services from Hartlepool.

 

[yorkie]

Yes it is confusing.

They try to patronise us claiming it's "Simple" but that claim is absolutely laughable and far from the truth. They produce "simple" leaflets that are so unbelievable they could actually be a parody / mickey take.

National Rail is just the public face for ATOC - a trade association representing all Train Operating Companies (TOCs). They cannot be relied upon to act in the interests of passengers, they aren't particularly keen on telling their members what to do (they can only "advise" and only if you take your matter high up). The people you actually speak to are far less knowledgeable than the experts here.

If you go to another station and make it clear you only want to change the day/time of the ticket they should do it.

 

[cuccir]

This one has come up for me today - can I clarify, is it possible to change to ANY other ticket on the same route with advances?

I have two advance purchase returns (well, two sets of two singles!) Durham to Edinburgh, out on 09/08, back 10/08. I no longer needs to stay over night, so could I swap these for two Super Off Peak Returns? Or alternatively change the return legs to leg to advance purchases on 09/08?

Is it just a single admin fee for the whole transaction, or for each ticket?

 

[janb]

This one has come up for me today - can I clarify, is it possible to change to ANY other ticket on the same route with advances?

I have two advance purchase returns (well, two sets of two singles!) Durham to Edinburgh, out on 09/08, back 10/08. I no longer needs to stay over night, so could I swap these for two Super Off Peak Returns? Or alternatively change the return legs to leg to advance purchases on 09/08?

Is it just a single admin fee for the whole transaction, or for each ticket?

a) No, the new ticket must be a single.

b) You can change the return leg tickets to the 9th. Cheapest available at time you wish to travel so could be Advance, Off Peak, Anytime...

c) £10 admin fee per ticket

 

[cuccir]

Cheers; think my cheapest option is to buy new fresh advance purchase for the return legs without altering the originals. I can do that for a total of £19 splitting in Berwick (albeit with a little stopover there). Still a total cost of £40 return for two people including the unused tickets, so not a bad deal!

 

[janb]

Cheers; think my cheapest option is to buy new fresh advance purchase for the return legs without altering the originals. I can do that for a total of £19 splitting in Berwick (albeit with a little stopover there). Still a total cost of £40 return for two people including the unused tickets, so not a bad deal!

Yes, simple rule of thumb with this is if your original ticket cost £10 or less then you are better off buying a new ticket.