Changing Advance tickets (and is the admin fee payable per ticket?)

[Par]

Looking for a bit of advice please.

Got Advance tickets to travel from Manchester to London with Avanti on Friday, but probably now need to travel Thursday.

These tickets were booked through the LNER website not with Avanti. How do I go about changing these tickets? Is it even possible on an Advance?

Any help appreciated.

 

[Watershed]

You'll need to use the LNER site to change your ticket, as they're the retailer you used to buy your ticket.

Advance tickets can be changed to a different date or time, or indeed to a walk-up ticket, for the fare difference plus an admin fee of up to £10.

 

[Par]

You'll need to use the LNER site to change your ticket, as they're the retailer you used to buy your ticket.

Advance tickets can be changed to a different date or time, or indeed to a walk-up ticket, for the fare difference plus an admin fee of up to £10.

I was hoping I could do that on the LNER website, but when I log on to my account I’m presented with a message that says i can’t change the booking - see below.

 

[Watershed]

I was hoping I could do that on the LNER website, but when I log on to my account I’m presented with a message that says i can’t change the booking - see below.

That message is rather misleading - if you go to the form I linked, it says the way LNER do it is that you have to buy your new ticket and then claim a refund on the old one.

 

[Par]

That message is rather misleading - if you go to the form I linked, it says the way LNER do it is that you have to buy your new ticket and then claim a refund on the old one.

Thank you very much.

I know that there is a £10 admin fee, presumably that is per ticket and not booking?

 

[Watershed]

Thank you very much.

I know that there is a £10 admin fee, presumably that is per ticket and not booking?

That would be something for LNER to clarify - it would be particularly unreasonable to apply it per ticket, but some retailers do have that policy.

 

[yorkie]

Thank you very much.

I know that there is a £10 admin fee, presumably that is per ticket and not booking?

It's £10 per ticket:

https://twitter.com/bikesandbabies/status/1689028793007067136

Need to move some train tickets by 24 hours and
@LNER
want a FIFTY POUND "admin fee"?! Almost 100% of the cost of the tickets. How on earth is this justifiable? There isn't even any admin, I'm doing it myself in the app.

Hello Ruth, how many tickets are you changing? There is an industry wide admin fee of £10 per ticket. ^Molly

If you switch to our site, we only charge £10 per booking (and you retain the ability to use a seat selector).

Alternatively, you could use XC or Railsmartr, both of which do not charge admin fees (but if you book with XC and choose a paper ticket, you would be paying TOD collection fee of £1 per booking).

 

[Par]

It's £10 per ticket:

https://twitter.com/bikesandbabies/status/1689028793007067136

If you switch to our site, we only charge £10 per booking (and you retain the ability to use a seat selector).

Alternatively, you could use XC or Railsmartr, both of which do not charge admin fees (but if you book with XC and choose a paper ticket, you would be paying TOD collection fee of £1 per booking).

Thanks for the advice, I will bear this in mind, but I do like like the LNER website interface, plus I regularly get a 10% cash back offer from Lloyds when I book through the LNER website using my Debit Card (not through the app though oddly).

I‘ve now bought the new tickets and submitted the claim for the now redundant tickets using the form Watershed linked up.

Thanks both.

 

[yorkie]

Another relevant thread, relating to admin fees being charged per ticket, can be found at:

Trainline are charging us a £10 admin fee for EACH TICKET to change the time of 3 Advance fares in one booking

Hello everyone! So my parents and I are going up to London on Monday the 18th and returning on Wednesday the 20th. Now as I was booking the tickets they booked the cheapest, of course, but didn't see that they were advance tickets. Now the inbound is okay, but the outbound has now become a...

www.railforums.co.uk

Thanks for the advice, I will bear this in mind, but I do like like the LNER website interface, plus I regularly get a 10% cash back offer from Lloyds when I book through the LNER website using my Debit Card (not through the app though oddly).

I‘ve now bought the new tickets and submitted the claim for the now redundant tickets using the form Watershed linked up.

Thanks both.

In your case, perhaps you are better paying for what may be more expensive fares, and paying more in admin fees, in order to get the cashback.

However, if you are ever booking for many people and may need to change the times, then that may tip the balance.

I believe the cashback will effectively be subsidised by taxpayers (it's surely anticompetitive, but it would cost too much for a legal case) so we can't compete with that; however if you do book with us, we will do our best to provide enhanced customer service, whenever possible, and we are grateful for these bookings as it helps with the running costs of the forum (including hosting free fares workshops; our income has taken a hit lately which is partly why I've not run any recently).

It's not easy to compete with TOCs, and indeed most people are probably quite happy to pay a bit extra to book with LNER and be stuck with higher fees. I am pretty sure the likes of LNER see us an annoyance, as we do undercut their high fares on numerous occasions, and things like cashback are perhaps their way of trying to deter people from booking with us.

Anyway, it is good - in my opinion - that the choice is there; some people want to see us banned from selling tickets, which would leave no option.

Another difference between the sites, is that if the trains are cancelled, and the tickets are unused, then you can request a full refund and we won't apply an admin fee.

However with LNER it seems a lot of people do get charged the admin fee and are told to send an email if they want the fee to be refunded:

https://twitter.com/search?q=admin%20fee%20lner&src=typed_query&f=live

I was booked on 6.40am from Leeds to London Kings Cross. Too many trains cancelled and delayed to make it worthwhile to travel for my meeting. Unbelievable that you charge 10 pound admin fee for my refund when you cancelled the trains!! #notgoodenough

Unfortunately if your service is cancelled, your existing ticket would only be valid on the LNER before or after. You can alter and change your ticket if this is preferred but there may be an admin fee and price difference charge ^Libby

He was on 09.22 from Leuchers to York. Then I booked him on 10.00 from Edinburgh to York. Now I’ve moved him to 09.30 Edinburgh to York and I’ve been charged an admin fee

Morning! I was charged a £10 admin fee for requesting a refund on a journey which had been cancelled due to bad weather, are we meant to be charged fees on journeys where the train never runs?

Appreciate you had a busy weekend, but think how your customers felt with NO support whatsoever that day. Out of pocket, both in fuel and now in a ridiculous admin fee and all you can say is "thanks for your patience"? No apology?

so after a horrific day travelling on Sunday, two cancelled trains and my daf having to drive from Retford to Peterborough, I have only received one refund, with an admin fee of £10 applied! Sorry, but I didn't cancel my journey, you did! No reply to my email either...

my train on sunday from newark to king’s cross was cancelled and my refund has had a £10 admin fee deducted, how can this be fair??

Hi, I had a ticket booked for a train during the strike (TPE) but did not travel. Requested refund but minus £10 booking fee meaning I was only left with £4, I thought if a ticket was booked for a strike due this admin fee was waived?

Please email the team at [email protected], they will refund the admin fee. ^Sam

Hiya, my train from Leeds to Hemel (via London) was cancelled yesterday. I have been charged a £10 admin fee on my refund - how do I claim this fee back please?

Both trains we booked from Peterb to KX return today were cancelled. I claimed a refund and a £10 admin fee has been charged. Seriously? Having been a victim of last Friday when we didn't get home until 2.15am and now this, it should be a full refund and compensation!

you just let me book a train from KX to Newcastle despite LNER advice not to travel on their trains today -something I only saw after I’d booked. On cancelling, you’ve charged me £10 admin fee.
Surely LNER are at fault, not the disrupted passengers?

I guess charging these fees by default helps them to offer cashback, as most passengers who are charged a fee wouldn't bother to claim a refund of the fee.

 

[Par]

Well, LNER have refunded the original booking (2 tickets) for a fee of £10, ie £5 per ticket.

Given that the replacement tickets fell foul of Storm Pia and so were also 100% refunded, it has actually turned out that I am in credit to the tune of £1.08 on this trip due to my cashback payments (£4.88 + £6.20).

There is a potential moral argument here about this, but as far as I’m concerned I’ve played it completely within the rules, rules which I don’t make.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Well, LNER have refunded the original booking (2 tickets) for a fee of £10, ie £5 per ticket.

Given that the replacement tickets fell foul of Storm Pia and so were also 100% refunded, it has actually turned out that I am in credit to the tune of £1.08 on this trip due to my cashback payments (£4.88 + £6.20).

There is a potential moral argument here about this, but as far as I’m concerned I’ve played it completely within the rules, rules which I don’t make.

You'll probably lose the cashback at somepoint, I do with Delay Repay claims

 

[yorkie]

You'll probably lose the cashback at somepoint, I do with Delay Repay claims

Interesting; this applies if you book with LNER?

Perhaps this is another reason not to book direct*?

(* Yes, except if using the family & friends half price discount, of course!)

 

[Par]

You'll probably lose the cashback at somepoint, I do with Delay Repay claims

I’ve already had the £4.88, so how will I be losing that?

The £62 Delay Repay was claimed from Avanti, as it was their train that was booked through LNER. It remains to be seen if I get the £6.20 cashback from LNER, but don’t see why I wouldn’t?

 

[Wallsendmag]

Interesting; this applies if you book with LNER?

Perhaps this is another reason not to book direct*?

(* Yes, except if using the family & friends half price discount, of course!)

The answer is to not get the credit back to your card, choose a bank transfer. The banking system seems to get confused with card account credits.

 

[Haywain]

You'll probably lose the cashback at somepoint, I do with Delay Repay claims

I can’t see how you would lose cashback when claiming Delay Repay. Maybe the answer is not to use auto-DR.

Interesting; this applies if you book with LNER?

Perhaps this is another reason not to book direct*?

(* Yes, except if using the family & friends half price discount, of course!)

Forgoing cashback because it might be lost if you claim DR is a very poor line of thinking.