Can I delay my return on an Advance ticket if my outbound train is cancelled/late?

My 07:18 train in the morning from Preston to Birmingham New Street has been cancelled and the next train is an hour later. My return train is at 15:06 both on Advance Singles booked together on Trainsplit (with no splits). I know I can catch the next train out on my Advance ticket but can I take a later train coming back as otherwise I won’t have sufficient time in Birmingham to do what I’m going there for.

Unfortunately there isn't a clear right to this.

Is the solution not to buy a new ticket for the return leg, and fund it from the Delay Repay for the outward journey?

tumbledown said:

Is the solution not to buy a new ticket for the return leg, and fund it from the Delay Repay for the outward journey?

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I think to make it financially worthwhile I think you would need to somehow refund the original ticket. Is it possible to “not travel due to disruption” on the return leg only (but instead use a new ticket), whilst still using the outbound leg with delay repay?

The way WCML fares are priced refunding it all and purchasing a new walk up may be worth looking at.

TonyR said:

My 07:18 train in the morning from Preston to Birmingham New Street has been cancelled and the next train is an hour later. My return train is at 15:06 both on Advance Singles booked together on Trainsplit (with no splits). I know I can catch the next train out on my Advance ticket but can I take a later train coming back as otherwise I won’t have sufficient time in Birmingham to do what I’m going there for.

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I would ask Avanti for permission to do this e.g. via Twitter (may be too late now to get a response in time) and failing that, get a full refund for the entire journey and replace it with an Off Peak Return.

Or, if cheaper, fund a new Advance single back from the Delay Repay compensation you will receive for the outward leg

I think it would fall under consequential loss and you might be able to put together a legal argument for liability if they fail to allow you to delay the return journey equivalently. I think it's an easier argument to make if you bought the tickets through a search for a return and the sort of case where you'd hope the Ombudsman would agree with you if it got that far.

Imagine the extreme case where you are just collecting something (at a location away from the station) and over an hour's delay means your booked return service an hour after your scheduled arrival has already left - or must be boarded immediately leaving you no time to do anything at your destination!

Thanks for all the replies. The suggestion of getting a refund and buying a new ticket doesn’t really work though as the replacement ticket is more expensive than the one I would be handing in. £50.25 today vs £22 when I bought it. I’ll ask at Preston station if I can find anyone to ask.

It is all a racket. We pay for a specific length of time at our destination. All they offer is a little compensation for "stealing" some of our time there. Big deal! We should have the choice between Delay Repay or suitably postponed return journey, but obviously not both.

Any idea that this is too complicated flies in the face of suitable customer care.