Delay Repay Declined for finishing short

[LittleRedTrain]

Hi all,
I travel regularly on an A-B day return ticket valid via London, which is cheaper than an A-London ticket. The A-London leg is on Chiltern Railways.
There are no Break of Journey restrictions. Ticket purchased as a TOD paper ticket via the forum site.
I'm not going to give full details to avoid it being 're-priced'.

In the past, when I've been delayed on a train between A and London, I've just claimed delay repay for that leg from Chiltern and had it refunded without issue.

However when claiming for a delay a couple of weeks ago, I had it declined with the following e-mail:

Thank you for your delay repay claim for your journey between A and LONDON MARYLEBONE on [Date] .

We have been unable to approve your claim as the journey details you have provided are incorrect.

Please update your journey details by logging on to your journey history

Please check that:

1. The journey details you have provided are for the train you intended to travel on;
2. The time you have provided is correct. Please note we use the 24 hour clock.
3. Please ensure you include details of all planned connections in your original itinerary, including your connection to B

When we have received this information we will review your claim within 10 working days.

I contacted Chiltern Customer Services to appeal this, and they were adamant that I could only claim Delay Repay for the full journey as stated on my ticket.

I won't provide the full correspondence, but a few excerpts:

Customer Services

Within Condition 32.1 of The National Rail Conditions of Travel, you will find the following: "If you are delayed in reaching your destination as a result of a delay or cancellation of a train service, you may be entitled to claim compensation from the Train Company that is responsible for the delay in completing your journey."
Therefore, please note that, in accordance with this condition, delay compensation is based on your arrival time at the station where your journey, as indicated on your ticket, is completed.
Unfortunately, we cannot assess your claim without your original/intended itinerary, as compensation is determined based on your arrival time at the station where your journey ends.

Me:

Condition 16.2 states:
"You may also end your journey (in either direction in the case of a return Ticket) before the destination shown on the Ticket"
Therefore there is no requirement for the journey for which Delay Repay is claimed to end at the destination on the ticket.
In this case, I ended my 'journey' at London Marylebone and therefore Delay Repay is due on the A-London leg.

Customer Services:

Condition 16.2 is included in Part D of The National Rail Conditions of Travel, which explains how your ticket can be used and does not have any bearing on delay compensation. It outlines the permitted uses of a ticket during a journey and the associated restrictions.
Refund and Compensation Rights are outlined from Part F (Condition 29 - Condition 35.3).
You can view the full document here: National_Rail_Conditions_of_Travel_2026.pdf
I regret to inform you that as advised, delay compensation is based on your arrival time at the station where your journey, as indicated on your ticket, is completed and in order to assess your claim we require details of your original/intended itinerary for your full journey to B.

Customer Services Manager (after I asked for it to be escalated):

The information my colleague has provided you with is correct. The ticket journey is detailed and is from A to B this is the destination station where the delay repay scheme would assess the claim based on arrival times as per the initial departure schedule. Therefore, if you chose to break the journey and stop en route, this would not be covered under the delay repayment provision.

I am sorry that this may not be what you desired to hear on this occasion. However, as advised, delay repay compensation is not applicable on this occasion.

From previous discussion on this forum, my understanding was that you could nominate your 'journey' to be any start and end within the validity of a ticket, and if you break your journey, start short or end short, you were entitled to claim delay repay on the legs for which you were delayed.
However, Chiltern seem completely adamant that this isn't the case.

Is there chapter or verse anywhere online that could be used to challenge Chiltern's position, since they seem to be ignoring Condition 16.2?

Did anything get snuck into the recent NRCOT changes that means that Chiltern are now denying these request which they've previously approved them without issue? Or did I just get unlucky?

Part of me is tempted to request a Deadlock letter and escalate this to the Ombudsman just on a point of principle. On the other hand, it's only a few pounds involved, and I don't want anyone looking too closely and closing down this loophole.

Failing that, in future am I just going to have to claim that I was planning to travel from London-B, put the whole itinerary in my claim, and tell them that I missed my connection?

 

[Watershed]

You are entirely correct; Chiltern are making things up. Condition 16.2 is absolutely relevant to Delay Repay because it defines what you are allowed to do with your ticket. It allows you to "end your journey" before the station shown on your ticket; the station you choose to end your journey at then becomes your destination. The NRCoT do not say that your journey claimed for must exactly match the ticket you hold. The recent changes haven't had any effect on the position here.

I would ask for a deadlock letter. That alone may get them to take another look at the situation. If they refuse to change their mind, I'm not sure there is much point going to the Ombudsman - our experience is that they are a complete waste of time as they don't seem to have anyone capable of independent/critical thinking, and they tend to just accept whatever the TOC says at face value rather than probing it themselves.

Ultimately you would have recourse in the Courts if you wanted, but I suspect that because you are travelling on a loophole ticket you will not want to draw more attention to it...

 

[Kilopylae]

"Your journey, as indicated on your ticket" from the monkey, and "the ticket journey" from the manager (organ-grinder), is an interesting new coinage.

Their "argument", such as it is, appears to be that the word journey in the NRCoT means ticket-journey, and that your right to finish short does not change this meaning of the word journey. Hence the claim that "Part D ... does not have any bearing on delay compensation". I'm quite confident in agreeing with Watershed that this is arrant nonsense.

 

[LittleRedTrain]

Thanks for the confirmation that Chiltern are talking rubbish here.

Having given it some thought, for the sake a few quid and the risk of the ticket being 're-priced' if it attracts too much attention (which would leave me worse off in the long run), I'm probably just going to have to leave it for now.

 

[bb21]

Thanks for the confirmation that Chiltern are talking rubbish here.

Having given it some thought, for the sake a few quid and the risk of the ticket being 're-priced' if it attracts too much attention (which would leave me worse off in the long run), I'm probably just going to have to leave it for now.

That's the right decision. When I was still commuting daily to work a few years back, I let go of approx £200-£300 worth of Delay Repay each year, simply because the loophole annual season saves me over £1200 a year. You always have to weigh up the potential downside of losing that benefit.