LNER on-board upgrade to first class

[NorEast]

Passenger travelling Newcastle to Dundee. Get free travel in Scotland with National Entitlement Card (visual impairment). Two questions:
- can they pay to upgrade on board as usual, though they won't have paid for a ticket in Scotland?
- will it cost £39 for this journey length?

Thanks.

 

[MrJeeves]

- can they pay to upgrade on board as usual, though they won't have paid for a ticket in Scotland?

Yes, their NEC will act as the ticket.

- will it cost £39 for this journey length?

LNER used to offer fixed-price upgrades regardless of journey length, but they've now muddied the waters.

Their website simultaneously says

Upgrades range from a starting price of £39 on our super off-peak weekday, and weekend services, to £69 for the longest journeys on our mid-week services.

and just below that also states

Set prices are £39 or £49 depending on the journey being made.

https://www.lner.co.uk/first-class-travel/#ontrain

These upgrade prices don't appear to be part of the normal fares data, unlike some other operators' upgrades, so it's impossible to tell.

You might also get a cheaper upgrade by bidding in advance through Seatfrog, but it's hard to know that when you don't know the on-board price!

 

[NorEast]

Thanks!

 

[MrJeeves]

To come back to this, I submitted an FOI to LNER to actually find out how their new first class on-board upgrades work.

Their network is now split into three zones, "London", Zone A and Zone B.

"London" is King's Cross and Stevenage.
Zone A covers Peterborough through to Lincoln/Doncaster/Hull.
Zone B covers the rest of the LNER network.

Prices range from £39 through to £69, and can be found on BR Fares.

If you're travelling from London/Stevenage, enter this as an origin. If you're travelling to them, enter them as a destination.

You can then enter ONTRN MDWK 1ST A (I007), ONTRN MDWK 1ST B (I008), ONTRN WKND 1ST A (I005) or ONTRN WKND 1ST B (I006) as the other location.

If not travelling to/from London, enter your boarding point as the origin, and the appropriate zone for your destination.

For example, a Zone B to London King's Cross on-board upgrade would be £69 at peak times, or £49 at off-peak times.

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks. Full details of all British rail fares shown, with built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

I can't say I understand some of the logic versus the FOI PDF they released though, as fares data suggests Inverness to Peterborough (Zone A) is cheaper than Inverness to York (Zone B), which doesn't match what the PDF they have provided says unless there's some weird rules in the redacted issuing instructions.