LNER cancellation advice

[williamn]

I’m booked on the 09.52 Aberdeen to Kings Cross tomorrow 30th October, which has been cancelled and is now starting from Edinburgh.

LNER aren’t offering ticket acceptance on the preceding Scotrail service, which seems unreasonable to me, and only offer the 14.52 departure instead, which gets me to London too late.

What are my options?! Just fork out the £40 extra for the Scotrail train?

 

[Bletchleyite]

You could ask LNER to reroute you due to the delay being more than 60
minutes. Though they will probably refuse.

 

[williamn]

It seems nuts that the only option is to take the 14.52 in which case I’d get my entire £138 ticket refunded for being 5 hours late.

If they’d do ticket acceptance on the earlier Scotrail train I’d get to London on time and they’d be no delay repay!

 

[Merseysider]

LNER should have arranged for Scotrail to accept your ticket.

Personally I'd take the preceeding Scotrail anyway, as Scotrail's guards are very helpful, and in any case private prosecutions over ticketing matters are pretty much unheard of (though please don't treat this as advice )

If you don't fancy being out of pocket by £40 whilst chasing a refund from LNER, the Megabus is £19.40.

 

[williamn]

I'll check with gateline staff tomorrow but will pay the £40 if need be. I can understand that they haven't done acceptance the last few days as there has been severe disruption to all trains on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen line, but speed restrictions have now been lifted and it's only LNER cancelling trains. Their Twitter team have been unusually unhelpful, they've been very good in the past.

 

[Watershed]

If they refuse to arrange ticket acceptance, then given its Scotland (so no PFs or private prosecutions) there is little risk in "trying it on" and asking the ScotRail guard if you're OK to use their train.

The worst they can do is to charge you, in which case you contact LNER afterwards to claim this back.

It's outrageous for LNER to be suggesting people should wait 5 hours, but sadly I can't say I'm surprised. This sort of nonsense is endemic in the rail industry, as complained with customer-facing obligations (let alone customer service) is treated as optional.

 

[williamn]

If they refuse to arrange ticket acceptance, then given its Scotland (so no PFs or private prosecutions) there is little risk in "trying it on" and asking the ScotRail guard if you're OK to use their train.

The worst they can do is to charge you, in which case you contact LNER afterwards to claim this back.

It's outrageous for LNER to be suggesting people should wait 5 hours, but sadly I can't say I'm surprised. This sort of nonsense is endemic in the rail industry, as complained with customer-facing obligations (let alone customer service) is treated as optional.

Particularly outrageous as they're suggesting the same to passengers on the 07.52, a mere 7 hour wait and then a service with three trains worth of passengers on it.

If LNER have said they haven't arranged ticket acceptance and had this on their website I presume they wont accept a claim for the £40?

 

[yorkie]

If LNER won't co-operate, and here to the PRU legislation, your options are:

1) Obtain a full refund from the retailer and obtain new tickets (do this if new tickets are cheaper or the price is similar); or
2) Take the next available services and if this results in additional charges, put in a claim for the cost of these to LNER, along with Delay Repay (if applicable). Include evidence that you attempted to be re-routed in your claim.

 

[williamn]

If LNER won't co-operate, and here to the PRU legislation, your options are:

1) Obtain a full refund from the retailer and obtain new tickets (do this if new tickets are cheaper or the price is similar); or
2) Take the next available services and if this results in additional charges, put in a claim for the cost of these to LNER, along with Delay Repay (if applicable). Include evidence that you attempted to be re-routed in your claim.

Sorry to ask a million questions. I already asked them about catching the earlier 09.04 Scotrail train to allow myself to catch the LNER service I am booked on at Edinburgh and they have said this would be at my expense, so I guess given that I wouldn't be able to claim?

 

[yorkie]

Sorry to ask a million questions. I already asked them about catching the earlier 09.04 Scotrail train to allow myself to catch the LNER service I am booked on at Edinburgh and they have said this would be at my expense...

LNER say all sorts of nonsense.

so I guess given that I wouldn't be able to claim?

LNER's refusal to adhere to relevant legislation does not in any way mean you do not have the appropriate rights under the relevant legislation, even though they might want you to think that.

Have you reminded them that, as the expected delay would be over 60 minutes, you have the right to be re-routed at the earliest opportunity under the Passenger Rights and Obligations Regulation (PRO)?

If you are asking them on Twitter, feel free to link to the Tweet and I will back you up.

 

[williamn]

LNER say all sorts of nonsense.

LNER's refusal to adhere to relevant legislation does not in any way mean you do not have the appropriate rights under the relevant legislation, even though they might want you to think that.

Have you reminded them that, as the expected delay would be over 60 minutes, you have the right to be re-routed at the earliest opportunity under the Passenger Rights and Obligations Regulation (PRO)?

If you are asking them on Twitter, feel free to link to the Tweet and I will back you up.

Thank you for this info, I didn't know this. I've now tweeted them back.
LNER have always been exemplary before so this is very disappointing.

https://twitter.com/will_norris/status/1718719731165802983?s=46&t=BWxDjM3E4yhHoJeJD6xwlQ

 

[Watershed]

Sorry to ask a million questions. I already asked them about catching the earlier 09.04 Scotrail train to allow myself to catch the LNER service I am booked on at Edinburgh and they have said this would be at my expense, so I guess given that I wouldn't be able to claim?

Their refusal to arrange ticket acceptance (and false claim that re-routing would be at your cost) doesn't reduce your rights.

If anything, it's has the opposite effect - you now have clear evidence of their refusal to re-route you (as they are legally required to do), which establishes a right to recover your reasonable costs in taking an earlier ScotRail service.

 

[williamn]

Thank you all! This forum has been so helpful so many times. Their Twitter has gone very quiet now!

Well no word from LNER on Twitter but they have now deleted all their replies to me… ‍

 

[Class800]

Thank you all! This forum has been so helpful so many times. Their Twitter has gone very quiet now!

Well no word from LNER on Twitter but they have now deleted all their replies to me… ‍

If you didn't screen shot each one as it arrives you could probably retrieve their messages from your email if it sends a notification with each social reply you get. Maybe not be in main tab

 

[williamn]

If you didn't screen shot each one as it arrives you could probably retrieve their messages from your email if it sends a notification with each social reply you get. Maybe not be in main tab

Sadly I turned off email notifications. I think its extraordinarily bad form on their part.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Thank you all! This forum has been so helpful so many times. Their Twitter has gone very quiet now!

Well no word from LNER on Twitter but they have now deleted all their replies to me… ‍

Sounds like the typical actions of a company that knows it is about to get sued.

 

[Class800]

Would there be any way to recover messages from the cache?

 

[williamn]

Scotrail accepted the ticket with zero problem and said lots of people are in the same position on this train.

 

[Class800]

Scotrail accepted the ticket with zero problem and said lots of people are in the same position on this train.

Great. In future suggest screen shot any twitter messages

 

[yorkie]

Great. In future suggest screen shot any twitter messages

Indeed; I re-tweeted them but on this occasion didn't include a screenshot. I will try to remember to do so next time if possible!

It's just a shame LNER couldn't say sorry for their mistake and didn't make any acknowledgement, however this behaviour is absolutely consistent with what I expect from LNER, based on previous form.

 

[telstarbox]

Fyi in case you are looking at RTT etc, your train was supposed to become the 1229 starting at Edinburgh. Lner "cancelled" this due to a fatality near Edinburgh but the set ran in the path of the 1420 instead (I'm still on it now!)

Sorry, just saw your other thread.

 

[williamn]

Indeed; I re-tweeted them but on this occasion didn't include a screenshot. I will try to remember to do so next time if possible!

It's just a shame LNER couldn't say sorry for their mistake and didn't make any acknowledgement, however this behaviour is absolutely consistent with what I expect from LNER, based on previous form.

Thank you. I got back in touch with them but by the time I saw their reply (which asked me what the problem was clearly without looking at earlier messages) I was already happily on the Scotrail train.

Has their Twitter team changed? It used to be so good.

I got to Edinburgh all fine, and it seems in the end they put coaches on for passengers, not that this was communicated anywhere! I find it odd that they'd rather do this than arrange ticket acceptance.

All would have been fine and I would have reached London on time apart from a fatality on the line so am reaching London 2 hours late now.

@telstarbox I'm on that train too!!

 

[gray1404]

Thank you. I got back in touch with them but by the time I saw their reply (which asked me what the problem was clearly without looking at earlier messages) I was already happily on the Scotrail train.

Has their Twitter team changed? It used to be so good.

I got to Edinburgh all fine, and it seems in the end they put coaches on for passengers, not that this was communicated anywhere! I find it odd that they'd rather do this than arrange ticket acceptance.

All would have been fine and I would have reached London on time apart from a fatality on the line so am reaching London 2 hours late now.

@telstarbox I'm on that train too!!

Definitely claim delay repay from LNER.

 

[trainstrainstr]

Thank you. I got back in touch with them but by the time I saw their reply (which asked me what the problem was clearly without looking at earlier messages) I was already happily on the Scotrail train.

Has their Twitter team changed? It used to be so good.

I got to Edinburgh all fine, and it seems in the end they put coaches on for passengers, not that this was communicated anywhere! I find it odd that they'd rather do this than arrange ticket acceptance.

All would have been fine and I would have reached London on time apart from a fatality on the line so am reaching London 2 hours late now.

@telstarbox I'm on that train too!!

Nope, twitter team hasn’t changed but the past few weeks have put the team under intense pressure.

 

[The North Briton]

Nope, twitter team hasn’t changed but the past few weeks have put the team under intense pressure.

And there are a lot of inexperienced staff working on the Customer Information function.

 

[800001]

And there are a lot of inexperienced staff working on the Customer Information function.

Where are these inexperienced customer information people?