No, but it's essentially only valid on Southern services, and as @Sonic1234 has just advised, it's not a walk up ticket and so has to be booked online several days in advance. Can also be bought in person from the following Tourist Information Centres:-
Not normally, unless the train you're booked on is cancelled, if your plans change, advances might be exchangeable, sometimes for a fee, sometimes not.
Off Peak day returns on the Southern network are quite a lot cheaper from stations outside the London Zone 6 boundary than they are from stations inside it.
GTR were wrong to reject your refund claim. All tickets other than season tickets are refundable if you abandon your journey in the event of disruption. I have had no difficulties obtaining such refunds for other rangers and rovers in the past.
And an East Croydon to Gatwick Airport off-peak day return costs just £7.20 (or £6.20 if you use Thameslink only).
I wonder what will happen if someone arrives at one of those Tourist centres and asks for one. Will the person behind the desk know what they are on about? Or will they get brushed off with a "sorry I haven't been shown" or "we haven't got any left" excuses.
They have been selling them for many years, so that would be rather surprising.
Did you claim delay repay?
Indeed. During the Monday to Friday period (BHX) the Southern Daysave product is not valid before 10:00, or on trains that leave the following principal stations between 16:15 and 19:15:
Possibly not, but that's a different (and much discussed elsewhere on here) can of worms. Can normally get to Brighton by instead travelling via Hove or Lewes.
I always buy the Southern Daysave at the Lewes Tourist Information Centre very regularly (at least once a month and often even more frequently) and everyone working there knows how to issue it and issues it without any issue. The staff at the Lewes Tourist Information Centre are very helpful there. They have been selling it there for over twenty years since the Connex South Central days so they are very familiar with it. You will have no issue buying it there. Eastbourne Tourist Information Centre and Hastings Tourist Information Centre and Seaford Tourist Information Centre have also had no trouble issuing them either on the very few occasions when i have bought them there.
They print them on the standard National Rail orange CCST magnetic strip RSP9599 ticket stock. The tourist information centres have the same normal printers that the railway station ticket offices have. So the tickets are the same as from any ticket office. Just standard card sized tickets.
Yes it is a bit of inconvenient ticket to get. If you live near one of these four tourist information centres then it is perfect but otherwise it is very inconvenient. There used to be a few more places that sold. Brighton One Stop Travel and Brighton Tourist Information Centre both used to sell it too but they stopped a few years ago. There was a couple other tourist information centres that sold it too throughout Sussex but most have now stopped leaving just these four remaining.
Yes indeed they have fully stopped selling rail tickets a couple years ago. The TVMs have been removed too. I am not sure why as it was a useful place right in the city centre to buy tickets. At one point they had two Southern Rail Shere TVMs in there and sold any rail tickets at the counter too. Also the nearby tourist information centre inside the gift shop next to the pavilion has now shut. The new one up the road no longer sells any rail tickets either. So getting a Southern Daysave in Brighton is impossible now both places have stopped dealing with rail tickets.
Impossible? Reckon you can still collect one from Brighton station.
Well yes if you order it online three days in advance you can collect it. But if you need one on the day the only way to get one is to take a short train ride to Lewes (or Eastbourne or Hastings or Seaford if you prefer) to buy one. There is nowhere in Brighton selling it on the day any more. I do wish more places sold them on the day.
Id suggest it was because Keygo replaced the majority of tickets sold there and it wasn't economic to maintain the equipment for the remaining niche tickets.
They might, on the face of it, be expensive to buy but they last for many years and every TOC is likely to have a surplus of them these days due to having fewer ticket office windows.
Yes I collected one, some years ago now, from a VTEC TVM at Darlington with no issue. I think the "it must be collected from a Southern station" is a bit of a myth.