LNER change of advance ticket refund advice

[eaet]

I think I know what I've done wrong here, but I just want to check in case there's any way I can rectify my mistake.

I booked an advance single on an Avanti service, through the LNER website. I was subsequently forced to change the date and time of the journey (to the day before), but otherwise the origin, destination, and operator were the same.
On checking the LNER site for change/refund, it advised buying a new ticket and then refunding the old one. Here I made my mistake, as I purchased the new Advance single through the Avanti website.

I then tried claiming the refund on the original (LNER-purchased) ticket through the LNER website, giving all the required details. This has been rejected for a couple of times, initially incorrectly (stating the origin and destination were different, they weren't), however now they've said "You've not done a change of journey of your account as there is not a new booking matching the journey you are requesting a refund"


Am I right in thinking there's no hope of getting the original ticket refunded, as I re-booked on Avanti rather than LNER? Apologies if this is obvious, I just wanted to double check before giving up as it doesn't seem to be explicitly stated on the LNER site but the later stages of the refund form do imply the new ticket should be on LNER too.

 

[30907]

Am I right in thinking there's no hope of getting the original ticket refunded, as I re-booked on Avanti rather than LNER? Apologies if this is obvious, I just wanted to double check before giving up as it doesn't seem to be explicitly stated on the LNER site but the later stages of the refund form do imply the new ticket should be on LNER too.

I would be inclined to contact customer services, enclosing a copy of your Avanti ticket, in the hope of a goodwill payment.

I presume the "forced" change of plan was not down to "the railway," as you wouldn't have needed a new ticket then?

 

[eaet]

Thanks, I've been in touch with customer services (as the automatic email just says rejected without a reason), I just don't get the impression they're reading my emails or looking at what was uploaded to the online form too closely (which would have shown the new ticket was booked through Avanti), so not sure how much to continue pursuing it.

Yeah unfortunately change of plans thanks to Sky Sports and fixture changes

 

[MrJeeves]

I would be inclined to contact customer services, enclosing a copy of your Avanti ticket, in the hope of a goodwill payment.

There's no need for any "goodwill" payment.

OP is entitled to their money, minus the change of journey fee up to £10 (this wasn't decreased to £5 like other fees at the start of April), even if they bought their replacement ticket from another retailer.

Sending a copy of your replacement tickets, explaining you bought them from another retailer, and that you'd like a refund minus the admin fee for a change of journey should be sufficient.

They'd obviously prefer you to do it through their site so they can earn even more money through their commission.

 

[eaet]

There's no need for any "goodwill" payment.

OP is entitled to their money, minus the change of journey fee up to £10 (this wasn't decreased to £5 like other fees at the start of April), even if they bought their replacement ticket from another retailer.

Is this definitely the case? LNER have said

As you did not purchase the tickets through LNER and went through Avanti West Coast, we would not be able to issue a refund as this process has to be done through the same account you made the original booking through

but I'm not sure whether my position is supported by any terms and conditions

 

[Gaelan]

As you did not purchase the tickets through LNER and went through Avanti West Coast, we would not be able to issue a refund as this process has to be done through the same account you made the original booking through

They appear to have misunderstood you: they seem to think you purchased tickets for LNER from Avanti, when in fact you purchased tickets for Avanti from LNER.

 

[yorkie]

Yes LNER need to issue the refund.

Next time you may want to consider a retailer that is a bit more customer focused (such as ours )

 

[island]

They appear to have misunderstood you: they seem to think you purchased tickets for LNER from Avanti, when in fact you purchased tickets for Avanti from LNER.

They purchased tickets from Avanti for Avanti.