Refund of Advance tickets due to strike

[joncombe]

I recently booked tickets for the 3rd June but now a strike has been called for this day. The tickets are Advance on LNER. Can I cancel them and get a refund as I would now prefer to make alternative arrangements due to the uncertainly as to whether the trains I am booked on will run (they have already been marked as not bookable on the LNER website). I did tweet LNER who seemed to think so and sent me a link to the refunds part of the website but this seems to suggest you can only get a refund if the trains are cancelled and given this might potentially not be known until 10pm the night before I would rather make plans earlier than that.

 

[ThameslinkUser]

It has been standard over the last 12 months for tickets on strike days to be refunded fee-free or have validity either side.

 

[Watershed]

LNER will still be running a limited service on the ASLEF strike days. If you can tell us what the train is that you're booked on, we can look up whether it ran on the last strike day (the timetable on 3 June is likely to be much the same).

Industry policy for previous strike days has been that you can use your ticket the day before, or up to several days after, each strike day - or get a full refund if you don't want to travel at all anymore. I don't expect this will be any different.

 

[joncombe]

Thanks sounds like I should be OK for a refund then. The trains are

06:33 London Kings Cross to Leeds (LNER)
19:45 Leeds to London Kings Cross (LNER)

I also have advance tickets for Northern on some trains on the same date also bought via LNER website. I assume I would be able to refund those too (though they are lower value).

 

[Watershed]

Thanks sounds like I should be OK for a refund then. The trains are

06:33 London Kings Cross to Leeds (LNER)
19:45 Leeds to London Kings Cross (LNER)

I also have advance tickets for Northern on some trains on the same date also bought via LNER website. I assume I would be able to refund those too (though they are lower value).

Ok, so there wouldn't be any brilliant alternatives for that, but on the last ASLEF strike there was an 07:30 Kings Cross to Edinburgh which you could take to Doncaster, changing for the 09:44 to Leeds, arriving 10:15.

For the way back there was an 18:45 Leeds to Doncaster, where you could change for the 19:39 to Kings Cross.

So clearly not ideal - you'd get in about an hour later than booked and have to leave an hour earlier - but still possible to make the journey.

Of course if you're going further afield than Leeds, it's likely to be a fruitless endeavour as Northern won't be running any trains at all. That being the case, your tickets for Northern will be fully refundable too.

You might have to wait a little while until strike timetables and industry arrangements are confirmed before you can claim the refund. I'd have another look in a week.

 

[joncombe]

I have contacted LNER through live chat and they are flat out refusing to refund the tickets until a timetable for the strike dates has been announced and they cannot tell me when that is either. I note that other operators, like Avanti already have a statement on their website that anyone holding tickets for any of the strike days which were booked before the strike was announced can claim a full fee-free refund.

Is there nothing I can do but wait? I cannot even find a telephone number for LNER.

 

[Haywain]

I cannot even find a telephone number for LNER.

08457 225 225

 

[joncombe]

Thanks I have telephoned but still told I cannot get a refund until the timetable is know, which in past experience is typically only a week before hand. When I pointed out other TOCs like EMR and Avanti are already refunding I was told "We're not EMR, or Avanti, we are LNER and every company has their own policy". So it seems all I could do was raise a complaint, which I have done but told that will still take 2 weeks.

 

[Haywain]

Thanks I have telephoned but still told I cannot get a refund until the timetable is know, which in past experience is typically only a week before hand. When I pointed out other TOCs like EMR and Avanti are already refunding I was told "We're not EMR, or Avanti, we are LNER and every company has their own policy". So it seems all I could do was raise a complaint, which I have done but told that will still take 2 weeks.

Just to be clear, have you booked these tickets through LNER? If you have, a full refund is already offered - just go to this page (LNER refunds) and click on 'Strike action', and it details your options. If you have purchased the tickets from another retailer you will need to go to that retailer for a refund.

Whilst there doesn't seem to be a blanket full refund for strike days as on previous occasions, it seems likely that you will get a full refund once timetables have been issued.

 

[Watershed]

08457 225 225

LNER shouldn't be putting out premium-rate numbers like that. They are liable to repay any charges that customers incur by calling them that way, rather than on a standard-rate or freephone number.

 

[Wallsendmag]

LNER shouldn't be putting out premium-rate numbers like that. They are liable to repay any charges that customers incur by calling them that way, rather than on a standard-rate or freephone number.

Memory slip by Haywain I think . its 03457225225

 

[Haywain]

LNER shouldn't be putting out premium-rate numbers like that. They are liable to repay any charges that customers incur by calling them that way, rather than on a standard-rate or freephone number.

They may not be, it's just the number I know off the top of my head.

 

[island]

LNER shouldn't be putting out premium-rate numbers like that. They are liable to repay any charges that customers incur by calling them that way, rather than on a standard-rate or freephone number.

This does not seem to me to be correct.

Section 41 (1) of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2014 states:

Where a trader operates a telephone line for the purpose of consumers contacting the trader by telephone in relation to contracts entered into with the trader, a consumer contacting the trader must not be bound to pay more than the basic rate.

(emphasis mine)

LNER offers a basic rate phone number and publishes it widely on its website and stations. As such, consumers are not bound to pay more than the basic rate. They may have chosen to use a more expensive number, but they were not bound to do so.

(LNER does not in any event appear to publish that number anywhere on its website, preferring the 0345 number mentioned in post 11. It may be that it continues to accept calls to it – which must be a VTEC-era number.)

 

[Haywain]

This does not seem to me to be correct.

Section 41 (1) of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2014 states:

(emphasis mine)

LNER offers a basic rate phone number and publishes it widely on its website and stations. As such, consumers are not bound to pay more than the basic rate. They may have chosen to use a more expensive number, but they were not bound to do so.

(LNER does not in any event appear to publish that number anywhere on its website, preferring the 0345 number mentioned in post 11. It may be that it continues to accept calls to it – which must be a VTEC-era number.)

As I said, I just gave the number I remembered which is clearly too firmly embedded in my memory. As far as I can tell, LNER do not advertise the 08457 number anywhere and, in future, I'll try and remember that it has changed.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Maybe the number should be changed to 03457800801

 

[joncombe]

Just to be clear, have you booked these tickets through LNER? If you have, a full refund is already offered - just go to this page (LNER refunds) and click on 'Strike action', and it details your options. If you have purchased the tickets from another retailer you will need to go to that retailer for a refund.

Whilst there doesn't seem to be a blanket full refund for strike days as on previous occasions, it seems likely that you will get a full refund once timetables have been issued.

Yes all were booked via LNER. The form you point to suggests you can only apply for a fee-free refund if the train is actually cancelled, not because a strike has been scheduled. So I don't want to fill it in and be charged a £10 admin fee (which I assume they would also apply per ticket). LNER don't want to allow you to cancel it seems until they have produced a timetable and confirmed the specific trains you are booked on aren't running, but also say that is likely to only be 1 week before hand, giving little time to plan alternatives (which are only going to up in price). Indeed if you phone their telephone number before you even get the list of options they play a record message making it very clear that the normal terms and conditions of your ticket apply until such time as they confirm what timetable they will be running, which looks to be weeks away.

I think that is very poor and I am kicking myself for risking booking the train thinking all the disruption had ended, sadly it hasn't.