Advance ticket on cancelled Avanti service

[tarq]

A friend of mine had an Advance ticket for an Avanti service that was cancelled. They travelled on a later service and the guard insisted they purchase a brand new ticket as Avanti only permit passengers booked onto cancelled services to travel on the service immediately before or after. This seems unduly harsh. I thought the one before / after thing was more advisory than a hard and fast rule. Just wanted to check if this was correctly handled.

 

[W-on-Sea]

The National Rail Conditions of Travel (Section 9.4) state:

"Where you are using a Ticket valid on a specific train service or train services (such as an “advance” Ticket) and you miss a service because a previous connecting train service was delayed, you will be able to travel on the next train service provided by the Train Company with whom you were booked without penalty"

https://assets.nationalrail.co.uk/e8xgegruud3g/3Y9UXuFziljwsGFCUAwKAA/0aa50a101febffda28c070aae2572570/National_Rail_Conditions_of_Travel.pdf

I note this refers to a missed connection rather than a cancelled train.

The "Advance Tickets Terms and Conditions" (Section 8.4), at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tick...tickets/advance-tickets-terms-and-conditions/) say: "If the train you purchased a ticket for is cancelled or is delayed and you still decide to travel, special arrangements will be made to accommodate you on another train (although a seat cannot be guaranteed)."

In practice this would most commonly mean the next train on the same route of the same company. I have experienced more flexibility than that being granted (by LNER) when there has been a more general disruption to the service, rather than just one cancellation, but it would appear to be discretionary.

I think it would be reasonable for your friend to complain, but my understanding is that Avanti are within their rights here.

 

[ValleyLines142]

A friend of mine had an Advance ticket for an Avanti service that was cancelled. They travelled on a later service and the guard insisted they purchase a brand new ticket as Avanti only permit passengers booked onto cancelled services to travel on the service immediately before or after. This seems unduly harsh. I thought the one before / after thing was more advisory than a hard and fast rule. Just wanted to check if this was correctly handled.

How later was the service they travelled on? I suppose that answers everything here.

If the service was cancelled, surely they'd get the next available service? E.g. if I'm booked on the 1700 train and it was cancelled, I'd get the 1730 or 1800 not say 2100 or 2200.

 

[voyagerdude220]

A friend of mine had an Advance ticket for an Avanti service that was cancelled. They travelled on a later service and the guard insisted they purchase a brand new ticket as Avanti only permit passengers booked onto cancelled services to travel on the service immediately before or after. This seems unduly harsh. I thought the one before / after thing was more advisory than a hard and fast rule. Just wanted to check if this was correctly handled.

I guess from an Avanti point of view, if your friend seemingly was travelling later than the next available train after the cancelled one they were booked on, how do they know they weren't simply travelling later than planned and ignoring the booked time on their ticket?

As W-On-Sea has already mentioned, Avanti would have happily accommodated the passenger either on the train before or the train after the one they were booked on. From what I can see, I don't feel Avanti have been unfair by charging for the new ticket.

 

[twowheelspete]

I guess from an Avanti point of view, if your friend seemingly was travelling later than the next available train after the cancelled one they were booked on, how do they know they weren't simply travelling later than planned and ignoring the booked time on their ticket?

As W-On-Sea has already mentioned, Avanti would have happily accommodated the passenger either on the train before or the train after the one they were booked on. From what I can see, I don't feel Avanti have been unfair by charging for the new ticket.

Well... I was due to travel late this evening (19:40) from Euston. Got the "we're so sorry" email last night. OK... I alter my plans to take the service before that. Oh, but that was cancelled too (this afternoon). I can't imagine many people wanting to roll the dice on a later service so the earlier^2 one (around 7pm I think) would be rammed. I'm not convinced even Avanti would "happily" accommodate an extra 2 trains worth of people on such a normally busy service.

[I went for the 17:40. Late disorderly boarding with no ticket inspection. There were enough seats though. Even if it was 2 hours before my scheduled departure and at that point I was happy to get home earlier, I would have pretty annoyed if I'd been forced to buy a new ticket because I genuinely planned to get dinner. The earlier train wouldn't really have allowed that, would have been rammed and the later train just felt like a gamble. Basically I don't think the rule is fair for multi/chained cancellations in the evening. Rant over ]

 

[Starmill]

A friend of mine had an Advance ticket for an Avanti service that was cancelled. They travelled on a later service and the guard insisted they purchase a brand new ticket as Avanti only permit passengers booked onto cancelled services to travel on the service immediately before or after. This seems unduly harsh. I thought the one before / after thing was more advisory than a hard and fast rule. Just wanted to check if this was correctly handled.

Was there any reason for not boarding the following service?

 

[gray1404]

At the very least your friend is entitled to a refund of their original advance ticket given they were forced to purchase a new ticket.

 

[tarq]

Was there any reason for not boarding the following service?

I think when they had assumed from previous experiences of trains being cancelled (which involved more wider disruption) that they didn’t need to rush to the station, could stay for dinner, and had the flexibility to take any later service.

Thanks to everyone that took the time to reply and especially to clarify the situation with the NRCOC, most helpful.