LNER 70 minute flex BoJ?

[diy_dude]

Do the LNER 70 minute flex tickets allow a break of journey?
For example, I booked a London to Edinburgh ticket on the 11:00 from Kings Cross. Could I travel on the 10:00, spend a couple of hours in York then catch the 13:50 to Edinburgh (the 12:00 from London)? The entire journey would be on LNER trains timed to depart London within 70 minutes of my booked departure time. Thoughts?

 

[Haywain]

Do the LNER 70 minute flex tickets allow a break of journey?

No, they are Advance tickets.

 

[diy_dude]

No, they are Advance tickets.

But unlike all other advance tickets I’ve ever seen, they are valid on more that one train. In the case of LNER out of London, it could be valid on 5 trains?

 

[A S Leib]

Customers can either travel as booked, or draw on the freedom to start the journey up to 70 minutes earlier or later than originally scheduled when they first purchased the ticket.

'Break of journey' is not permitted under the terms and conditions of your ticket.

Customers must travel such that their scheduled arrival time is within 180 minutes of the original booked arrival time.

https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=KGX&dest=EDB&rte=423&tkt=DME

 

[yorkie]

Do the LNER 70 minute flex tickets allow a break of journey?
For example, I booked a London to Edinburgh ticket on the 11:00 from Kings Cross. Could I travel on the 10:00, spend a couple of hours in York then catch the 13:50 to Edinburgh (the 12:00 from London)? The entire journey would be on LNER trains timed to depart London within 70 minutes of my booked departure time. Thoughts?

Break of journey (i.e. leaving York station) is not permitted.

However, you could perhaps argue that as long as you remained within the station, for example if you visited the café in the old signalbox, or the York Tap, then that would be permitted, if you had a change of trains or if a change of trains is permitted, such as an "& Connections" ticket. However, it's not clear that you can randomly change train once you have decided on an LNER service. It's certainly not intended to be valid that way.

I think the 70 min flex product only really exists as a rushed implementation because LNER knew they couldn't get away with leaving the offering at just Advance and Anytime and had to offer something with a little bit of flexibility.

For sure, LNER will only want you to break your journey on an Anytime.

LNER are not exactly a customer friendly company!

 

[diy_dude]

Break of journey (i.e. leaving York station) is not permitted.

However, you could perhaps argue that as long as you remained within the station, for example if you visited the café in the old signalbox, or the York Tap, then that would be permitted.

Maybe I was wrong to use the phrase break of journey as that has a specific definition. A ‘pause’ at the York Tap sounds tempting!

 

[yorkie]

LNER probably won't like it, but I don't think there is a rule against that. At least not yet...

 

[Bletchleyite]

Trouble is BoJ is no longer explicitly defined, so who bets LNER might decide to, in their infinite passenger-unfriendliness, consider it to include changing unnecessarily for a pint?

 

[diy_dude]

LNER probably won't like it, but I don't think there is a rule against that. At least not yet...

That’s basically what I was thinking. I would be on a train, my ticket would be valid on that train based on its departure time from London.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That’s basically what I was thinking. I would be on a train, my ticket would be valid on that train based on its departure time from London.

There's also a thing about not arriving later than a specified amount - just checked and it's 180 minutes. Does allow a bit of slack though.

 

[diy_dude]

There's also a thing about not arriving later than a specified amount - 300 minutes was it? Does allow a bit of slack though.

I saw that on brfares. It’s 180 minutes, but I can’t think how that would work in practice.

 

[A S Leib]

What happens if you buy a 70 Min Flex ticket for the 19:00 King's Cross – Edinburgh (I've checked and that is possible) and choose to travel after 19:00? Would LNER's position likely be that you should have checked when the last train of the day was and can, at best, get the first train the following morning and no later?

This is getting into the hypothetical and might be better off in the general LNER fare reform thread.

 

[Bletchleyite]

What happens if you buy a 70 Min Flex ticket for the 19:00 King's Cross – Edinburgh (I've checked and that is possible) and choose to travel after 19:00? Would LNER's position likely be that you should have checked when the last train of the day was and can, at best, get the first train the following morning and no later?

You can go earlier. I don't think you can go later in that case without paying admin fee plus fare difference - certainly nothing on the restriction code says you can.

 

[Wallsendmag]

It's only valid on one train , that train is flexible 70 mins either side of your booked train, when scanned on a second train it will show as a break of journey which isn't permitted.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's only valid on one train , that train is flexible 70 mins either side of your booked train, when scanned on a second train it will show as a break of journey which isn't permitted.

The restriction code says that if you do change you have to tell the guard where you boarded, so changing is permitted. Prolonging that change possibly not though. It also specifically allows for unnecessary changing.

"On-board validation equipment is programmed to assume you boarded the train at the origin of your ticket if the train serves that location. If you boarded the train later, you will need to inform onboard staff so that ticket validation returns the correct response."

e.g. https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=EDB&dest=KGX&rte=423&tkt=DNX

 

[sheff1]

It's only valid on one train , that train is flexible 70 mins either side of your booked train, when scanned on a second train it will show as a break of journey which isn't permitted.

Not all tickets can be scanned.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Not all tickets can be scanned.

85% plus of LNER tickets can be

 

[yorksrob]

It all sounds very complicated to me as a passenger.

 

[JonathanH]

It's only valid on one train , that train is flexible 70 mins either side of your booked train, when scanned on a second train it will show as a break of journey which isn't permitted.

A passenger can specify a change of trains at the time of booking, which then opens all sorts of questions about whether the second train has a separate 70 minutes of flexibility from the first one.