First Class Single Torquay - Paddington

[Essexman]

I recently had to purchase a ticket from a GWR Ticket Examiner having accidentally bought my ticket for the wrong day.

It was travelling First Class from Torquay to Paddington, for which the usual first class anytime day single is £147.90.

She charged me £48.00 for a standard class super off-peak single plus £60.00 first class upgrade, a saving of almost £40.00.

Is this a combination of tickets which would generally be available? Can I book a standard class fare, pay an upgrade on the train and save money over the normal ticket?

 

[bcarmicle]

I believe the GWR Weekday First Class Upgrade is subject to the discretion of the onboard staff (which is in turn based on how busy First is), and you would need to speak to the guard before sitting down in First. Certainly viable if First Class tends not to be busy on that train and it's fine if you occasionally have to sit in Standard.

 

[redreni]

Out of interest, did you get a refund on the unused, incorrectly dated ticket? Was the the ticket dated for a date before your actual date of travel, or after?

Depending on your answers, this may be one of the first times I've heard of a mistake like this actually saving the passenger money. Although, the right to a refund on an unused ticket after the beginning of its period of validity is to be removed from April...

 

[Essexman]

Out of interest, did you get a refund on the unused, incorrectly dated ticket? Was the the ticket dated for a date before your actual date of travel, or after?

Depending on your answers, this may be one of the first times I've heard of a mistake like this actually saving the passenger money. Although, the right to a refund on an unused ticket after the beginning of its period of validity is to be removed from April...

On the advice of the Ticket Examiner I have emailed GWR customer service requesting a refund of the new single ticket. The original was a return and I'd used the outward half, albeit 14 days before it was valid. It wasn't picked up at the barrier or on any of the outward trains (three as I travelled via Bristol but there were no checks) and I didn't notice the error until boarding at Torquay on the return. Once I'd realised what I'd done I went to find the train manager but met the ticket examiner first and she was understanding that it was a genuine error. If they refund it I won't gain any money, just get back the fare paid for the return when I had a ticket but it wasn't yet valid.

 

[redreni]

Hmm, seems like you've received some odd advice, there, but best of luck with the refund request.

To my mind the ticket sold to you on board surely has to be considered used, given the reason it was sold to you was that you didn't have a valid ticket.

Conversely, the one that wasn't yet valid cannot possibly have been used, even if you travelled while holding that ticket believing that it was valid and believing you were using it. You couldn't have been using it if it wasn't valid.

Maybe not worth making that point to GWR, though, because while they might end up having to concede the ticket was wholly unused and eligible to be refunded, the only way for you to establish that is, effectively, by confessing to travelling without a valid ticket, and presumably GWR could, if it wished, still take action against you for that (particularly for the outbound leg where the error wasn't detected either by you or by them, and so no valid ticket was ever purchased).