Seatfrog upgrade on train that terminates short

[swaldman]

Hi experts,
Couldn't decide if this is on-topic here - does a Seatfrog upgrade count as a "fare"? But hopefully you'll be tolerant.

Today I bought an Anytime Single for Hull -> Man Pic -> Lancaster -> Carnforth, and then got a Seatfrog upgrade to 1st for the first section, operated by TPE.

Unfortunately the first section terminated at Leeds, and my best remaining route is on Northern - so I only got about half the time in 1st class that was anticipated.

Do you reckon I could reasonably ask for a refund of part of the upgrade from anybody?

(I'm asking this question mostly out of curiosity, rather than a determination to claim money back. In this case the upgrade wasn't much money, but in future it could be...)

 

[Watershed]

Hi experts,
Couldn't decide if this is on-topic here - does a Seatfrog upgrade count as a "fare"? But hopefully you'll be tolerant.

Today I bought an Anytime Single for Hull -> Man Pic -> Lancaster -> Carnforth, and then got a Seatfrog upgrade to 1st for the first section, operated by TPE.

Unfortunately the first section terminated at Leeds, and my best remaining route is on Northern - so I only got about half the time in 1st class that was anticipated.

Do you reckon I could reasonably ask for a refund of part of the upgrade from anybody?

(I'm asking this question mostly out of curiosity, rather than a determination to claim money back. In this case the upgrade wasn't much money, but in future it could be...)

Yes, it absolutely counts as a ticket, and you're entitled to a partial refund as a result of the cancellation. As Leeds is (distance and time-wise) pretty much half-way between Hull and Manchester, I'd say it's reasonable to expect a refund of half of the upgrade.

For future reference, you could have saved a fair bit by buying a combination of tickets - e.g. for your itinerary (I'm guessing something like 06:04-09:51?), you could have bought Hull-Selby, Selby-Garforth, Garforth-Huddersfield and Huddersfield-Carnforth walk-up tickets. These would have set you back £54.50 in total.

Had you decided to go via Skipton (e.g. 07:05-09:56) you could have paid £40.50 for Hull-Selby, Selby-Garforth and Garforth-Carnforth singles. With Advances it may have been even cheaper. It's always worth checking, even on the day.

 

[swaldman]

Thanks. I've now found something on the Seatfrog site saying that for TPE, their upgrades can be claimed as part of Delay Repay. As DR should give a 100% refund for this journey, I will see if I can include the upgrade in that...

Thanks for the point about split tickets. I did consider this, but made a choice to have a single ticket because of TPE's reliability problems - I decided it was worth paying a bit more to not be tied into having to travel through certain intermediate stops. (I'm not sure if that requirement would persist in disruption(?), but either way it could cause hassle)

 

[Watershed]

Thanks. I've now found something on the Seatfrog site saying that for TPE, their upgrades can be claimed as part of Delay Repay. As DR should give a 100% refund for this journey, I will see if I can include the upgrade in that...

Thanks for the point about split tickets. I did consider this, but made a choice to have a single ticket because of TPE's reliability problems - I decided it was worth paying a bit more to not be tied into having to travel through certain intermediate stops. (I'm not sure if that requirement would persist in disruption(?), but either way it could cause hassle)

Ah, I thought you had only incurred around 5 minutes' delay as above. If it was an hour or more than obviously DR means you would get the full fare back anyway.

 

[Solent&Wessex]

I was recently travelling with LNER and was significantly delayed.

I claimed delay repay for the full cost of my ticket plus my seat frog upgrade and had the total amount authorised in 24 hours.

It then took a further 14 days before the money landed in my bank account however.