Excessing an advance ticket

[welshpax]

Hope someone here can help me.

A client has booked me an advanced ticket from Cardiff to London and back tomorrow (2 singles).

I have to pick up the tickets from the fast ticket machine today sometime for travel tomorrow morning.

The thing is I am a little afraid the meeting will over run and was wondering how do I excess this ticket before travel to anytime singles.

I have had a look at the National Rail website and it says you can either do it at the station or the ticketing agent. In the past I have had problems doing this at the station and they have referred me back to the website where I have bought the ticket.

My question is can this be done at the station or do I have to go back to my client?

Regards

Ant

 

[premier01]

I referred to this only recently in the post about excessing an Off-Peak Day Return ticket-basically you can arrange this at the station by paying the relevant excess fare-this would usually be the difference between the Advanace ticket and the Anytime Single ticket available for immediate travel that day-there is also usually a £10 administration charge-I wouldn't allow them not to issue this as it is allowed as part of the T's & C's of the tickets although I would allow plenty of time to sort this and would not advise boarding theh train without the correct tickets.

 

[bnm]

One wonders how you are collecting your tickets if a client paid for them? Don't you need the debit/credt used when purchasing to enable collecton from a TVM?

 

[welshpax]

bnm - They have told me to put any debit / credit card into the machine and enter the reference number. If there are any problems, they have told me to go to a manned ticket window.

Premier - Thanks for the advice, I thought that would be the case, but past experience has taught me to be cautious.

 

[Deerfold]

bnm - They have told me to put any debit / credit card into the machine and enter the reference number. If there are any problems, they have told me to go to a manned ticket window.

I'm not quite sure how this works but my wife had some tickets delivered by the same method when she visited a university for work reasons. I was quite surprised when it worked - I'm guessing it just checks the name of the card.

 

[TheWalrus]

I've used advance tickets on the wrong train. As long as it's the correct route (obviously) they don't check your reservation ticket usually so you should be ok on any train from London to Cardiff. If not explain your meeting over run etc., and if they demand excess, ask how much and pay it I guess? But I've never got that far before

 

[janb]

I'm not quite sure how this works but my wife had some tickets delivered by the same method when she visited a university for work reasons. I was quite surprised when it worked - I'm guessing it just checks the name of the card.

I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't make any check involving the card. When these come to the window as a ToD, it says "Third Party Collection" or something similar.

 

[premier01]

I've used advance tickets on the wrong train. As long as it's the correct route (obviously) they don't check your reservation ticket usually so you should be ok on any train from London to Cardiff. If not explain your meeting over run etc., and if they demand excess, ask how much and pay it I guess? But I've never got that far before

The Fast Ticket machines check the name on the ticket regardless of who paid for the ticket so providing that your name is on the ticket you should be OK-if it isn't then you will have problems and will need to allow time to sort this at the station-I collect tickets booked through a corporate travel company every week without problem and my name is usualyy printed on the tickets.

As for risking using the tickets on the train I would advise against this unless you are going to get the money refunded by your company etc as they are very strict now with Advance tickets-although not sure about FGW trains-and as per the other topic it would be classed as travelling with no ticket-it really depends on how likely it is for the meeting to over run etc but I usually book open tickets now unless there is at least a 2 hour gap between the meeting and the train.

 

[Flamingo]

I've used advance tickets on the wrong train. As long as it's the correct route (obviously) they don't check your reservation ticket usually so you should be ok on any train from London to Cardiff. If not explain your meeting over run etc., and if they demand excess, ask how much and pay it I guess? But I've never got that far before

You've been very lucky. I make most of my revenue on passengers who are on the wrong train with advanced tickets (as do most guards on the Paddington - Swansea line).

Whether I pretend I am a booking office and excess with the £10 admin fee, or charge a full open single (as per T&C) depends on my mood and their attitude

Meeting over-runs, under-runs or cancellations are not in the accepted book of excuses, (same with late and early flights).

 

[yorkie]

If you approach, apologise, explain and be polite, then the vast majority of guards will be lenient. But if you just sit there and say that the railway should pay for the meeting/flight being delayed and have a moan then you deserve to be chinged IMO!

 

[Solent&Wessex]

You've been very lucky. I make most of my revenue on passengers who are on the wrong train with advanced tickets (as do most guards on the Paddington - Swansea line).

Whether I pretend I am a booking office and excess with the £10 admin fee, or charge a full open single (as per T&C) depends on my mood and their attitude

Meeting over-runs, under-runs or cancellations are not in the accepted book of excuses, (same with late and early flights).

Here Here. Lots of my revenue is from Advance tickets on the wrong trains. "My Meeting finished early / late", "Nobody told me", "I didn't realise", "that bloke at the station said it would be ok", "it was ok on the last train", "no-one else ever says anything", "I need to get home early because (insert reason here)" etc etc etc are all invalid reasons and will warrant a new fare being charged.

 

[tony_mac]

I know that my mother has sometimes done this.

Usually it's because her connection got in a little bit early and she doesn't see the point in waiting at the station for an extra 30 minutes when the trains are almost empty.

It's not as if she even has a reserved seat, so what harm does it do to swap one quiet train for another one?

(I have warned her of the possible consequences!)

 

[Solent&Wessex]

I know that my mother has sometimes done this.

Usually it's because her connection got in a little bit early and she doesn't see the point in waiting at the station for an extra 30 minutes when the trains are almost empty.

It's not as if she even has a reserved seat, so what harm does it do to swap one quiet train for another one?

(I have warned her of the possible consequences!)

If she is on a "connecting service", without a reservation then she could catch any reasonable train which connects in or out of the one which is reserved.

 

[tony_mac]

No, it is a reservable service - but London Midland don't bother with actually giving you a seat reservation any more. (You still get a train reservation, but no specific seat)

 

[Chris-P]

If you approach, apologise, explain and be polite, then the vast majority of guards will be lenient. But if you just sit there and say that the railway should pay for the meeting/flight being delayed and have a moan then you deserve to be chinged IMO!

This! I was getting a train from Bristol to Paddington, and I'd finished an hour early. When the train before the one I was reserved on arrived, I found the guard and asked nicely if I could get on that train (explaining that I'd be happy to wait if I needed to). The guard was perfectly willing to let me travel as I had seen him beforehand and asked politely. He said that he'd normally excess people if they hadn't asked him beforehand.

 

[Deerfold]

This! I was getting a train from Bristol to Paddington, and I'd finished an hour early. When the train before the one I was reserved on arrived, I found the guard and asked nicely if I could get on that train (explaining that I'd be happy to wait if I needed to). The guard was perfectly willing to let me travel as I had seen him beforehand and asked politely. He said that he'd normally excess people if they hadn't asked him beforehand.

For the first time in my 3 years of using advance tickets I missed my train on Sunday due to my wife's flight being 3 hours late. We went to the boking offive to explain and they stamped our tickets for use on the train an hour later than we'd booked. I know they didn't have to, but it was much appreciated.

Although our tickets weren't then checked...

 

[welshpax]

Thanks for the advice everyone, had the ticket changed this morning no problems at all, took the ticketing staff about 30 seconds, very impressive!

I will be back for more advice in a few days I have a week from hell coming up soon which involves meetings in Nottingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and London.

Thanks Again