Excessing TO a railcard fare + Virgin easement

[takke]

I have a couple of questions regarding a fare excess I am considering - I just thought someone on here might be able to help out!
The ticket I currently have is a Solihull-London ticket routed via HWC and it is an Off Peak Day Travelcard. There is no railcard discount on the ticket.

1. Can I excess the ticket to a Solihull-London Any Permitted ticket, with a 16-25 Railcard discount? This would mean that it should be a zero excess fare, since the railcard fare would be cheaper (£37.50 vs £54)

2. Would I be able to use the Virgin Trains easement and travel on VTWC between BHI-EUS at whatever time I like (travelling short BHI-EUS on the SOL-BMO-BHM-BHI-EUS permitted route), even though my ticket is routed between two stations without VTWC service between them? Would I be better trying to get the ticket 'overdistance' excessed to a Birmingham-London ticket?

I can't find any examples of someone doing this to see whether it would be possible - most people seem to be excessing the other way round, from a railcard ticket to an undiscounted one.

 

[OwlMan]

No, travelcards can only be excessed for the non-London part of the ticket, with a few exceptions.

Day Travelcard Excess Procedures

It is NOT possible to use standard excess fare procedures in relation to Day Travelcards, as this will cause problems with ticket gate operation and revenue allocation. In the following circumstances a new Day Travelcard must be issued and the original ticket submitted for a refund:
1. Changing a non-Travelcard ticket into a Day Travelcard (e.g. excess an Off-Peak Day Return to London Terminals into an Off-Peak Day Travelcard).
2. Upgrading between different inboundary Day Travelcard zonal combinations (e.g. excess a London Zones 1-2 Day Travelcard into a London Zones 1-6 Day Travelcard).
3. Changing between different Day Travelcard fare categories (e.g. excess an Off-Peak Day Travelcard into an Anytime Day Travelcard).
4. Upgrading a Standard Class Day Travelcard into a First Class Day Travelcard.
Please note that in scenarios 3 and 4 above, if the excess relates only to the trunk leg of a Day Travelcard to/from an Outboundary location and does not impact on travel within the London Zonal area itself, excess fares may be issued where the ticketing system is capable of issuing it (please refer to local instructions).

 

[takke]

No, travelcards can only be excessed for the non-London part of the ticket, with a few exceptions.

I think that's what I was looking at doing? I wanted to excess the ticket to Any Permitted on the non-London part - I wouldn't be changing the travelcard part in any way.

 

[bb21]

I think that's what I was looking at doing? I wanted to excess the ticket to Any Permitted on the non-London part - I wouldn't be changing the travelcard part in any way.

Yes, provided that a Travelcard fare exists for your proposed routing, but do note that it is subject to local TIS capability.

The issue is that if you excess to a Travelcard, you would not be eligible for the Railcard easement.

 

[takke]

Yes, provided that a Travelcard fare exists for your proposed routing, but do note that it is subject to local TIS capability.

The issue is that if you excess to a Travelcard, you would not be eligible for the Railcard easement.

OK, I didn't realise that.

 

[OwlMan]

OK, I didn't realise that.

The easement is only for offpeak singles and offpeak returns (not day returns)

Holders of Off-Peak ticket
types SVS/SVR, which are
discounted using 16-25, Senior
, Disabled Persons, HM Forces
and Family & Friends Railcards
and Jobcentre Plus Travel
Discount Card, can travel on
Virgin Train services at any
time, provided that all travel
is on Virgin Trains services
only. This easement does not
apply for journeys wholly
between Milton Keynes Central/
Northampton and London Euston
in either direction.

 

[Haywain]

And in any case, you cannot add a discount through an excess fare that was not applied to the original ticket.

 

[yorkie]

The ticket I currently have is a Solihull-London ticket routed via HWC and it is an Off Peak Day Travelcard. There is no railcard discount on the ticket.

Out of interest, how come the ticket was issued this way, when it's not what you want?

I would always* advise buying the correct ticket in the first place because it can be difficult to obtain excess fares, and some types of excess are discretionary.

I think you will need to go back to the retailer and obtain a refund (an admin fee of £10 will apply unless you bought the ticket from Southern's website and have not yet collected it or you bought the ticket from Southeastern) and then purchase replacement ticket(s).

If you bought the ticket at a ticket office and go back to the original point of sale to obtain a refund and replacement tickets they may waive the admin fee.

* Except for change of route excesses, which is the only type of excess I can think of where you'd be entitled to at the time of original purchase.

 

[takke]

Out of interest, how come the ticket was issued this way, when it's not what you want?

I would always* advise buying the correct ticket in the first place because it can be difficult to obtain excess fares, and some types of excess are discretionary.

I think you will need to go back to the retailer and obtain a refund (an admin fee of £10 will apply unless you bought the ticket from Southern's website and have not yet collected it or you bought the ticket from Southeastern) and then purchase replacement ticket(s).

If you bought the ticket at a ticket office and go back to the original point of sale to obtain a refund and replacement tickets they may waive the admin fee.

* Except for change of route excesses, which is the only type of excess I can think of where you'd be entitled to at the time of original purchase.

The ticket was purchased for me by a company (they're paying for the ticket) who booked it through thetrainline.com. I asked them to book one ticket for me and they booked a different one. If I'd been booking myself, then I would have just bought what I wanted

It doesn't really matter, as I will just take the Chiltern route in this case - it's hardly any longer.