Northern complimentary ticket

[AlastairFraser]

Was searching through a bunch of files and found an unused Northern Complimentary Ticket from a delay repay claim I made in July 2021. Appreciate it's been a while since then, but would it still be valid, or do they have expiry dates?

 

[Iskra]

What do the T&C’s on the back say? If there’s no time limit it would still be valid. There is no time limit stated on the letter that accompanies these.

 

[AlastairFraser]

What do the T&C’s on the back say? If there’s no time limit it would still be valid. There is no time limit stated on the letter that accompanies these.

Fair point. No T and Cs restricting it on the ticket AFAIK

 

[SuspectUsual]

None I’ve ever had (and there have been a lot!!) have had expiry dates, and the only challenge I’ve ever had - which I think has been discussed here before - is some guards’ weird insistence on writing in the return date during the outward journey

 

[AlastairFraser]

None I’ve ever had (and there have been a lot!!) have had expiry dates, and the only challenge I’ve ever had - which I think has been discussed here before - is some guards’ weird insistence on writing in the return date during the outward journey

Makes sense. I'd had a few issues with them in the past, and wanted to make sure I didn't have any issues travelling with it.

 

[Andy Pacer]

Makes sense. I'd had a few issues with them in the past, and wanted to make sure I didn't have any issues travelling with it.

What sort of issues have you faced, out of interest?

 

[yorkie]

The only issues I recall are, as others have said, a small minority of Guards have a weird obsession with asking for the return date to be issued, when using a return. This isn't applicable to a single. I usually do know my return date, so do fill this in, to avoid potential hassle.

There is no expiry date.

 

[AlastairFraser]

What sort of issues have you faced, out of interest?

One guard in 2022 accused me of reusing a ticket and booted me off at Horwich Parkway. To be fair, this was an isolated incident, but I don't particularly want to get into an argument about it.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Aug 2025 ==

The only issues I recall are, as others have said, a small minority of Guards have a weird obsession with asking for the return date to be issued, when using a return. This isn't applicable to a single. I usually do know my return date, so do fill this in, to avoid potential hassle.

There is no expiry date.

Thanks for confirming this.

 

[yorkie]

One guard in 2022 accused me of reusing a ticket and booted me off at Horwich Parkway. To be fair, this was an isolated incident, but I don't particularly want to get into an argument about it.

In any customer-focussed industry, this would be a sackable offence. If I behaved like that in any job I've done, I'd expect to be sacked. Sadly there are insufficient safeguards in place at Northern to ensure that Guards consistently act/behave appropriately and are of suitable good character. I hope you complained.

 

[AlastairFraser]

In any customer-focussed industry, this would be a sackable offence. If I behaved like that in any job I've done, I'd expect to be sacked. Sadly there are insufficient safeguards in place at Northern to ensure that Guards consistently act/behave appropriately and are of suitable good character. I hope you complained.

Entirely agreed.
I didn't at the time, unfortunately I had other pressing concerns to attend to then.
However, I certainly will do if it reoccurs!

 

[AY1975]

AFAIK Northern complimentary tickets don't have any time restrictions, although I would guess that you might sometimes encounter an over-zealous guard on a morning peak hour train (or even in the evening peak, especially within the major conurbations that Northern serves such as Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire) who might wrongly tell you that they're not valid in peak hours.

 

[AlastairFraser]

AFAIK Northern complimentary tickets don't have any time restrictions, although I would guess that you might sometimes encounter an over-zealous guard on a morning peak hour train (or even in the evening peak, especially within the major conurbations that Northern serves such as Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire) who might wrongly tell you that they're not valid in peak hours.

Ah, meant to update this thread a few days ago. Thanks to everyone for their advice, I used it on a day trip to Ilkley.
No issues encountered!