Altering an advance journey

[Class377]

Hi again,

As some of you may be aware, the football fixture list has been announced today. We've been drawn away at Blackpool in August (on the 24th to be precise).

I am aware that Blackpool South (BPS) is the nearest station to the ground and I have been able to find fares from Watford Junction (WFJ) there and back at £10.55 each way with a 16-25 railcard (albeit leaving at 6:51 AM and getting back at 9:15 PM, not that this is a concern to me as I'm happy to kill 4 and a half hours in Blackpool pre-match and another hour post-match on a summer Saturday!)

I would happily book this ticket now, but I'm aware that Sky Sports announce what they're putting on TV on the 8th of July, less than 6 weeks before the match. Obviously prices will have increased by then as the cheaper advances sell out, but if I book now at £21.50 for the journey I run the risk of the match being moved and my tickets being useless.

Obviously I'm aware that advance tickets are more restrictive than most (logically due to their lower prices) but, if a game is moved and I have to change my plans, am I able to alter my tickets for a different journey or get them refunded whilst I book another set of tickets? I'll probably be booking through East Coast or Chiltern as I'm registered on these websites but will the booking website alter my rights? If a new set of tickets is similarly cheap I wouldn't mind too much but I fear that, with only about 6 weeks before travel on a summer Saturday to Blackpool, the fares will get much higher.

On a side note, any football fans here willing to guess whether it even would be put on TV or if I'm worrying about nothing?

For those interested, my current plan would be as follows (as given to me by East Coast's computer)

06:51 Watford Junction - 08:36 Stockport
08:41 Stockport - 09:50 Preston (Lancs)
10:02 Preston (Lancs) - 10:39 Blackpool South (total £10.55 with 16-25 railcard)

17:44 Blackpool South - 18:22 Preston (Lancs)
19:01 Preston (Lancs) - 21:15 Watford Junction (total £10.55 with 16-25 railcard)

Is there a cheaper way to get from Hertfordshire to Blackpool south anyway?

 

[crispy1978]

Hi again,

As some of you may be aware, the football fixture list has been announced today. We've been drawn away at Blackpool in August (on the 24th to be precise).

I am aware that Blackpool South (BPS) is the nearest station to the ground and I have been able to find fares from Watford Junction (WFJ) there and back at £10.55 each way with a 16-25 railcard (albeit leaving at 6:51 AM and getting back at 9:15 PM, not that this is a concern to me as I'm happy to kill 4 and a half hours in Blackpool pre-match and another hour post-match on a summer Saturday!)

I would happily book this ticket now, but I'm aware that Sky Sports announce what they're putting on TV on the 8th of July, less than 6 weeks before the match. Obviously prices will have increased by then as the cheaper advances sell out, but if I book now at £21.50 for the journey I run the risk of the match being moved and my tickets being useless.

Obviously I'm aware that advance tickets are more restrictive than most (logically due to their lower prices) but, if a game is moved and I have to change my plans, am I able to alter my tickets for a different journey or get them refunded whilst I book another set of tickets? I'll probably be booking through East Coast or Chiltern as I'm registered on these websites but will the booking website alter my rights? If a new set of tickets is similarly cheap I wouldn't mind too much but I fear that, with only about 6 weeks before travel on a summer Saturday to Blackpool, the fares will get much higher.

On a side note, any football fans here willing to guess whether it even would be put on TV or if I'm worrying about nothing?

For those interested, my current plan would be as follows (as given to me by East Coast's computer)

06:51 Watford Junction - 08:36 Stockport
08:41 Stockport - 09:50 Preston (Lancs)
10:02 Preston (Lancs) - 10:39 Blackpool South (total £10.55 with 16-25 railcard)

17:44 Blackpool South - 18:22 Preston (Lancs)
19:01 Preston (Lancs) - 21:15 Watford Junction (total £10.55 with 16-25 railcard)

Is there a cheaper way to get from Hertfordshire to Blackpool south anyway?

So - you're a Reading fan then looking at the fixtures - either I'm a bit blind or I didn't see that!

They don't tend to play them on Sunday in that division - my gut feeling is you'll be OK.

Changing advance tickets, if I am not mistaken is £10 admin fee (per ticket) plus the difference between the tickets.

 

[Class377]

So - you're a Reading fan then looking at the fixtures - either I'm a bit blind or I didn't see that!

They don't tend to play them on Sunday in that division - my gut feeling is you'll be OK.

Changing advance tickets, if I am not mistaken is £10 admin fee (per ticket) plus the difference between the tickets.

You have it spot on there - I must have done something wrong in a past life or something

Cheers - main worry was Sky putting it on to a 5:45 or something which would have really screwed me over (and meant I couldn't get back!) but if it's just the difference between the 2 tickets plus £10 I'm not too worried. If the worst comes to the worst the off-peak return not via London is £54.50 so I'd be paying an extra £40 or so, but I guess there will inevitably be advances cheaper than that available?

 

[button_boxer]

if it's just the difference between the 2 tickets plus £10 I'm not too worried.

Remember it's £10 per ticket admin fee. If you want to change both directions it'd be £20, if you're split-ticketing and you have 3 separate advances forming the one journey then it'd cost £30 to change them all, etc.

 

[Class377]

Each way would be booked as one journey (I typed in WFJ to BPS on the engine and it threw it up as a £10.55 fare, I presume that's one ticket?). On the outbound leg I wouldn't change it most likely, as it gets me in at 10:39 (in time for an early 12:15 kick-off and leaving me time to spend in Blackpool if it's a 17:15 late KO).

It'd just be the later one I'd change and again would probably keep it down to one ticket?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

It might be worth considering an Off-Peak Day Single (SVH) for the return journey (£27.25).

These can only be purchased online and are only available with an Advance ticket for travel in the opposite direction, so you may not be able to change to this ticket type as a change of journey plans.

Alternatives.....

Changing the return Advance into a Off-Peak Single would save a small difference in cost between an Off-Peak Single and Off-Peak Return. (£53.85 - £10.55 + £10 = £53.30)

Changing both Advance tickets to an Off-Peak Return would cost you less than turning one into an Off-Peak Return and it would allow you a choice of trains to travel on in both directions. (£54.50 - £21.10 + £20 = £53.40)

Note: Any changes to Advance tickets would have to be made before the first booked train is scheduled to depart.

 

[Class377]

Thank you very much for the suggestion

Does that mean that if I choose the advance fare for the outbound it will allow me to choose, in the right hand side column (For the return journey) an off-peak for £25.75?

Only thing I'd still be slightly worried about would be if it was moved to a later kick-off - as far as I'm aware I'm already getting the last train south from Preston so not sure whether a more flexible ticket would give me much benefit?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I don't use online sales sites (they don't do PRIV tickets) so I'm unsure how they appear on them, but the SVH is £27.25. It might not give you any benefit in terms of returning later, but it would give you the option of returning earlier.

 

[30907]

You can certainly combine Advance and SVH on Virgin's site so I assume you can on others, and the SVH is valid any operator.

That's important because there are several later connections back that night, but I suspect they involve LM which is why no Advances are shown.

 

[CyrusWuff]

In this case, the "Web Only" Off-Peak Singles are only available through the Virgin site, and were introduced to allow passengers to get an Advance ticket in one direction but not be "penalised" for having to buy an Off-Peak Single if there were no Advance tickets left for the other journey.

Note that the origin, destination and route/TOC have to remain the same when changing an Advance ticket. So you couldn't, for example, changing a Watford Junction - Blackpool South Advance to a Stevenage - Newcastle one.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

In this case, the "Web Only" Off-Peak Singles are only available through the Virgin site....

AFAIK, it can be bought at any online retailer.

 

[maniacmartin]

Unless it has changed recently, CyrusWuff is correct. SVH tickets certainly didn't show on all TOCs' sites in the past.

 

[bb21]

AFAIK, it can be bought at any online retailer.

Unless it has changed recently, CyrusWuff is correct. SVH tickets certainly didn't show on all TOCs' sites in the past.

The truth is actually somewhere in between.

Available from TTL-powered booking engines only.

 

[All Line Rover]

Including TTL-based mobile apps, such as CrossCountry.

 

[Class377]

Sorry if this is a bump, but just to close the thread I'd like to confirm that the match has not been selected for TV and thus was not moved. Nonetheless I'd like to thank everyone who posted on here for their helpful advice.