Gifting Tickets

[NthernTraRcrap]

Hello,
I am sick of losing advance tickets.
Very often late in the day, my work will inform me that I need to travel somewhere the next day and as such they give me a car to take home.
Sometimes I already have an advance ticket booked and of course I am not paying the ludicrous £10 fee Northern charge to amend it.
Whilst I am not technically losing any money, as the company will be paying for the fuel, it frustrates me that Northern are profiting.

Is there somewhere I can donate tickets or at least advertise the ticket and then send someone the barcode so they can make use of the journey?

This of course would be for free and perhaps more people could get involved and would prevent countless tickets from going to waste.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is there a retailer that doesn't charge a change fee on Advances? If so that'll be your best bet.

 

[Haywain]

Is there a retailer that doesn't charge a change fee on Advances? If so that'll be your best bet.

CrossCountry are often mentioned in this respect.

 

[johncrossley]

CrossCountry are often mentioned in this respect.

Although it says

Train Ticket Refunds and amendments | CrossCountry | CrossCountry Trains

Need to change or claim a refund on your CrossCountry train ticket? Explore easy amendments and refunds with our comprehensive guide.

www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

You can make changes to your Advance train ticket 2 hours after you have purchased and up to the day before the departure time on your ticket

which surely can't be right as Advance tickets can be changed right up the departure time. I've changed tickets on the day with them no problem.

 

[bcarmicle]

Are your work paying for the tickets in the first place? Assuming yes, can you persuade them to buy flexible tickets (or not purchase the tickets until the plans are confirmed)?

 

[njr001]

I booked First Class Advance Tickets months ago for travel between Paddington & Cardiff for Next Week with a disabled Railcard to a conference which has now been cancelled, I wish I could pass them on to somebody who could use them preferably making a donation to a railway charity.

 

[Merseysider]

Firstly, book your Advance tickets with XC and the app will let you move your Advance tickets for no fee up until departure time (I did this earlier this month).

Secondly, most (but not all) Northern advance tickets are available on the day at the same or only marginally higher price versus weeks ahead.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Aug 2024 ==

I booked First Class Advance Tickets months ago for travel between Paddington & Cardiff for Next Week with a disabled Railcard to a conference which has now been cancelled, I wish I could pass them on to somebody who could use them preferably making a donation to a railway charity.

Have you considered emailing customer services and explaining? Every now and again they have a heart

 

[jamiearmley]

There's also Seat frog to change Northern advance tickets. Fee much lower than £10.

 

[zero]

Are your work paying for the tickets in the first place? Assuming yes, can you persuade them to buy flexible tickets (or not purchase the tickets until the plans are confirmed)?

From the post, it sounds like the OP is using advance tickets on Northern for their daily commute - so a flexible ticket is probably not much more. As mentioned already, the solution would be to use XC for booking to take advantage of the free changes.

To answer the OP, tickets are occasionally advertised or given away on reddit, but it's usually long distance tickets that are given away there. It's unlikely that someone who wants to take a commuter journey in the next few hours at a fixed time, who doesn't already have a ticket, would think to search for someone giving away a ticket

 

[Watershed]

Buying your Advance tickets through a retailer that doesn't charge admin fees for changes seems like the logical solution here. If it's a journey you make regularly, it's unlikely you'll lose out as you can just redate your Advance, if necessary multiple times.

To my knowledge, the list of retailers that advertise no admin fees for Advance changes is as follows:

• XC
• TPE
• Railsmartr
• Ticketyboo