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Advance fare Railcard mistake - kicking myself

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eljajo95

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29 Dec 2018
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I have a silly situation entirely of my own making and am wondering how best to solve it.

My other half and I have a trip planned for the Easter weekend. A couple of weeks ago we purchased, but haven't yet collected, Advance singles London Kings Cross–York for Friday 3rd, and the return on Monday 6th, discounted with our 26-30 Railcards. My Railcard is valid until November, so no issue there. My other half's was valid at the time we booked it, but expired earlier this week. We were aware of that when we booked the tickets, so made a note to renew earlier this week. Stupidly, we forgot to do that. But now... today is her 31st birthday. We're too late to renew! You can imagine my frustration when the penny dropped this morning.

What can I do? I'm prepared to buy a Two Together Railcard instead, but obviously that wouldn't be valid with our existing tickets. Is it just a question of contacting the retailer (in this case the Forum site!) and asking to change the Railcard type associated with the existing tickets from one to another? Is that possible, and if so, is my idiocy going to cost us a fee to do that? Or do I have to rebook completely? Or indeed just throw myself on the mercy of the train manager when I get to KGX?
 
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Bletchleyite

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You may find a booking office would do this by means of an excess up to the adult fare. They aren't really supposed to but some will do it. Less likely with an Advance than a walk up fare though.

Otherwise approach the retailer and ask, some will be more reasonable than others. You may find that yours will refund it if you repurchase an undiscounted ticket for the same journey, or will refund both if you repurchase with a Two Together selected. If it's one that does changes of Advance by way of refund and repurchase it's fairly likely they will do it, in that case they may not even notice you have gone from discounted to undiscounted but it is probably best to ask first to be sure or you risk losing the money if they refuse it.

I note having read your post again it is the Forum site. They are more helpful than most so definitely contact Customer Services in the first instance. They have probably already read this thread and know about it already :)

Definitely don't try it on on the day. You could end up with a new ticket at full price, Penalty Fare or even prosecution. It's silly that the railway considers this a problem when the discount would be the same with a different Railcard you do have, but sadly it does.
 
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OscarH

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As others have said, send an email to customer support - I can't make any promises, it's a right pain, but I have managed to get this done in the past
 
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eljajo95

Member
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29 Dec 2018
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Thanks all. I spoke to the retailer, and have refunded & rebooked. It cost me a bit in the fact that the Advance fares available have gone up in the meantime, but not disastrously so.

Bletchleyite said:
It's silly that the railway considers this a problem when the discount would be the same with a different Railcard you do have, but sadly it does.
Click to expand...
Quite. The railway wouldn't have lost any revenue compared to if I had declared a Two Together Railcard initially anyway. Well, it was our mistake, so, there it is, I suppose.
 
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