Change of plans - Advance ticket

[Albion91]

Hi - I wondered if anyone could provide some help for my little problem!

I have an advance ticket from Edinburgh to Leighton Buzzard for the 20th April.

The itinery is as follows:
EDB 16.52 -> CRE 20.00
CRE 20.29 -> MKC 21.35
MKC 21.53 -> LBZ 22.04

However, I have had a change of plan and now wish to spend Friday at my parents in Hagley near Birmingham. I'm aware that an advance ticket does not allow you to 'stop short' - in the sense of alighting at a station at which you were not scheduled to do so.

It is too expensive to buy a new ticket from Edinburgh to Hagley at the same time, so one option would be for me to complete my journey to Leighton Buzzard, and immediately turn around and get a train back to Birmingham. But this would leave me too late to get a train to Hagley.

(Possible soluton A) But I wondered if I could alight at Crewe - given that I am to change there anyway - but then by a different onward ticket from there?

(Possble solution B) And if that were not allowed, suppose I was to 'miss' my connection at Crewe. Would I then be entitled to abandon my journey and buy a ticket onto Hagley from Crewe?

(Possible solution C) Finally, if neither of these were permissable, would it be possible to buy a ticket from Leighton Buzzard to Hagley - but turn around at MKC - that is to say, buy a ticket for the full journey to Leighton Buzzard and back, but for timing reasons, not physically complete the double back?

Any other suggestions would be most welcome!

 

[dave87016]

IF possible I would suggest buying a Crewe - Hagley ticket in advance then when you alight at Crewe you can use it to Hagley but you would also need to purchase a new Hagley - Leighton Buzzard for the date you travel, would it be cheaper I don't know , don't know exactly how excesses work but someone with the knowledge will probably post shortly

 

[gordonthemoron]

do option A but buy your onward ticket in advance, no one will be any the wiser

 

[Romilly]

Without answering the OP's question, there is a £10 Crewe-Hagley Advance on the 2029 changing at Stafford and Smethwick Galton Bridge.

On National Rail Enquiries' advanced options specify Virgin Trains as the preferred train operator when searching, then put the £10 ticket in the basket rather than clicking on "Buy now", then specify Virgin Trains East Coast as the preferred retailer, and click through to purchase.

 

[Bletchleyite]

None of them are officially permissible, but you aren't doing it to save money (as you didn't know at the time of purchase), and there is essentially no way to detect it if you obtain the Crewe-Hagley(-Leighton) ticket in advance of boarding at Edinburgh anyway. (Order it online and collect from a TVM). So I would do A.

For Hagley-Leighton you probably want to consider London Midland Only, it's much cheaper and often not much slower because the change at MKC is avoided. Advances are often available for next to nothing, and the walk-ups are also keenly priced.

However what I would do is remove the date and timings from your posting so nobody is looking out for it

 

[gordonthemoron]

I don't think we have the Stasi yet

 

[Merseysider]

What would the OP's position be if a delay caused him to miss the connection to Hagley, given that the tickets don't 'join up'?

 

[gordonthemoron]

he'd be stuffed if it meant that he couldn't complete the journey that day

 

[Bletchleyite]

I don't think we have the Stasi yet

No, but we do have rail staff that read stuff on here

 

[Bletchleyite]

What would the OP's position be if a delay caused him to miss the connection to Hagley, given that the tickets don't 'join up'?

He'd be forking out for a taxi as the combination of tickets is quite obviously not valid

Assuming he is not connecting to the last train of the day, though, this is unlikely to be too much of a concern.

Must admit I'd rather see a change to the way ticket changes are done, so they would simply allow cashing in of the value minus £10 of any ticket in return for any other ticket, with the difference paid. Then he could swap it for a ticket to Hagley and there'd be no problem.

 

[Clip]

No, but we do have rail staff that read stuff on here

Quite but theres a crew change at Preston anyway isnt there so Im sure they wont have much to worry about

 

[Haywain]

No, but we do have rail staff that read stuff on here

Who have bigger fish to fry...

 

[Haywain]

Must admit I'd rather see a change to the way ticket changes are done, so they would simply allow cashing in of the value minus £10 of any ticket in return for any other ticket, with the difference paid. Then he could swap it for a ticket to Hagley and there'd be no problem.

That option is available, by purchasing a refundable ticket.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That option is available, by purchasing a refundable ticket.

It is (or of course by just not buying your walk-up until the day of travel when you know what you're doing, which is cheaper still ), but if TOCs prefer people to use Advances a bit more flexibility is needed. After all, the low-cost airlines (at least easyJet) will offer that kind of facility - just cash your ticket in against the admin fee for whatever ticket you want.