Delay Repay or Refund ?

[Devils Advocat]

I would like to turn to the wise heads of this forum for a little predicament.

Last Saturday (27th Sept.) I travelled from Leigh On Sea to Market Rasen for the races. My two sons and I had bought our race tickets in advance.

Son number 1 was supposed to join me at Basildon. I purchased a 'two together' railcard for him and I and wishing to meet my eldest son in Nottingham purchased (on the Wednesday evening)
2 Super Off Peak singles Basildon- Market Rasen. I bought a day return ticket Leigh OS to Basildon for myself. Whilst the routing was not on the ticket the seat reservation confirmed the 1035
EMR service St Pancras to Nottingham.

Son number 1 had a bad night and decided not to join us. Son number 2 still wanted to go so we met up at Nottingham. Fortunately I have a Senior Railcard and it was confirmed to me by Railway Staff
that as long as I had a Railcard my 'two together' ticket would still be valid.

The problem began at Nottingham when the 1239 service (Market Rasen arrival 1348) was cancelled. There was no alternative route so we had to sit it out until the 1440 (Market Rasen arrival 1549). We missed the 1st
race and would have missed the 2nd had we not spent £10 on a Taxi.

Here is my question(s). Should I (or am I entitled to) claim delay repay for both Basildon to MR tickets or should I just claim for one and seek a 'not used ' refund on the other?

Also as the delay was 120 minutes or more is their any further refund possible for the return journey which were 'Advance Singles' Market Rasen to Peterborough and Peterborough to Basildon (all LNER)? I mention this as
the EMR site refers to 100% compo 'the cost of your ticket whether single or return' for delays of 120 minutes or more.

All help appreciated.

 

[jfollows]

Bear in mind that if you travelled on your own on a ticket bought with a Two Together railcard then it was not valid for travel, except that someone gave you permission for this. Having a different railcard is no exception. So you were lucky here. I, too, have both railcards and I would never try to do this.

What I mean is that if you bring this to the attention of some bean counters they may raise objections.

 

[Watershed]

As @jfollows says, technically speaking you were not allowed to travel on your own with the Two Together discounted ticket. That being said, I simply wouldn't put in a claim for your son's ticket - leave it as it is. Most train companies force each person to submit their own Delay Repay claim, so it wouldn't raise eyebrows to receive a claim for only one of a pair of Two Together discounted tickets.

So I don't see any issue with you submitting a Delay Repay claim to EMR for the delay you incurred in reaching Market Rasen. What you can't get anything for is your Advance ticket on the way back - you can only claim Delay Repay based on the ticket you were actually using when you were delayed. You had not yet started using the return tickets when you were delayed, hence you can't claim anything for them. It's one of a number of disadvantages with the abolition of returns, as LNER have done.

The other issue you will have is that you can't refund just one of a pair of Two Together discounted tickets, unless I'm mistaken. Because they are only valid together, they can only be bought and refunded together. Obviously you cannot claim a refund on your 'half' either, since you did use it to get to Market Rasen and are claiming Delay Repay on it.

 

[Haywain]

Son number 1 had a bad night and decided not to join us. Son number 2 still wanted to go so we met up at Nottingham. Fortunately I have a Senior Railcard and it was confirmed to me by Railway Staff
that as long as I had a Railcard my 'two together' ticket would still be valid.

Unfortunately you were badly advised. You should have bought a new single ticket with a Senior Railcard discount and refunded the two unused tickets. You have now been disadvantaged by the poor advice you were given.

 

[Devils Advocat]

@ Haywain. Thanks for the reply. Yes I am starting to realise that now

@Watershed Yes don't really expect any compo for return journey that went fine but had the initial delay caused me to miss it it would have been interesting. Thank
You for the rest of your explanation as well.

@jfollows The advice given to me was that the D in the top right corner of the ticket indicated the use of a railcard and that would be what the train manager was looking for !
Thanks for your reply.