Ticket Code 4W/7W

[saismee]

Greater Anglia currently offers a ticket known as the Weekend Return ticket (WKF for Friday outbound, WKG for Saturday outbound). The restriction code for this is either 7W or 4W (depending on departure date.

Unfortunately, people are stupid and don't read the most basic terms of their ticket when purchasing. As it is cheaper than an Off-Peak return from London, people are selecting it when using the "Open return" feature on retailers. The staff are then put in a tricky situation when having to tell a group of people that no, the ticket you have paid 50 pounds for is not valid.

To add insult to injury, the NRE website's restrictions on the tickets just display "Text here" and nothing else. I noticed this when trying to explain why their ticket is invalid.

Note that choosing a return date correctly offers the Off-Peak Return (SVR). It is yet another reason why the "Open return" option should be removed.

Attached images show the NRE website for 7W and the Greater Anglia app which very clearly states the terms.

 

[MrJeeves]

Unfortunately, people are stupid and don't read the most basic terms of their ticket when purchasing. As it is cheaper than an Off-Peak return from London, people are selecting it when using the "Open return" feature on retailers. The staff are then put in a tricky situation when having to tell a group of people that no, the ticket you have paid 50 pounds for is not valid.

To add insult to injury, the NRE website's restrictions on the tickets just display "Text here" and nothing else. I noticed this when trying to explain why their ticket is invalid.

To prevent the rail industry looking wholly incompetent, perhaps staff should raise this with their operator's retail or pricing team so that the knowledgebase data can be amended to reflect the restrictions, rather than attempting to enforce restrictions which are never made clear to a passenger before buying their tickets.

 

[Alex365Dash]

It appears that the electronic restrictions for these codes are correct, but the public-facing restrictions just haven’t been filled in.

The tickets themselves should cover only the dates they’re valid anyway (and there aren’t any time restrictions on the dates they are valid), but as mentioned above, it’s worth getting in touch with the retail or pricing team to get the public restriction sorted.

 

[saismee]

rather than attempting to enforce restrictions which are never made clear to a passenger before buying their tickets.

They are made clear on purchase, though, but not afterwards.

It seems we  are wholly incompetent as...

The tickets themselves should cover only the dates they’re valid anyway

The displayed dates include the outbound date on the return half! To make it even worse, nobody told any of us about these tickets. A brilliant agency worker had to educate gateline and ticket office staff about it.

The general consensus now is that they're valid as day returns, but it isn't clear if RPIs will issue penalties or excesses still. This has been an issue for over a month and has already been raised by multiple staff members.

 

[MrJeeves]

They are made clear on purchase, though.

They're not through anyone other than Trainline. Trainline has the money and time to write custom blurb about different ticket types, such as these.

Anywhere else you buy tickets from that isn't operated by Trainline will simply show "Weekend Return (Saturday Departure)".

The displayed dates include the outbound date on the return half! To make it even worse, nobody told any of us about these tickets. A brilliant agency worker had to educate gateline and ticket office staff about it.

The general consensus now is that they're valid as day returns, but it isn't clear if RPIs will issue penalties or excesses still. This has been an issue for over a month and has already been raised by multiple staff members.

The tickets should not show this. I would similarly recommend staff seeing tickets like these to raise them with their retail or pricing team so that they can be referred to the appropriate retailer or fulfilment provider to investigate via the industry processes.

Booked through the forum's site, the outbound ticket is issued only for the date chosen, and the return is issued from the day after the outbound until the Monday.

 

[Alex365Dash]

The displayed dates include the outbound date on the return half!

Well, that’s taking the biscuit…

The general consensus now is that they're valid as day returns, but it isn't clear if RPIs will issue penalties or excesses still. This has been an issue for over a month and has already been raised by multiple staff members.

I’d agree with you on that, although if a penalty or excess is issued, a customer would probably be likely to get a Penalty Fare cancelled on appeal or get an excess refunded later.

The bit that’s more concerning is that it’s been a known issue for that long and it still isn’t any closer to being sorted…

 

[MrJeeves]

The bit that’s more concerning is that it’s been a known issue for that long and it still isn’t any closer to being sorted…

They can't be solved if the problems are only known by frontline staff and never get reported to anyone else!

 

[Alex365Dash]

They can't be solved if the problems are only known by frontline staff and never get reported to anyone else!

I would agree, but OP has mentioned above that it did get reported:

This has been an issue for over a month and has already been raised by multiple staff members.

 

[MrJeeves]

I would agree, but OP has mentioned above that it did get reported:

The important question is raised to who, I suppose.

 

[Hadders]

In a situation like this the passengers must be allowed to travel without penalty.

Details of the issue should be noted by front line staff and passed TL the appropriate pricing team for resolution.

Now it’s been mentioned on here there’s probably a better chance of it getting resolved

 

[saismee]

They're not through anyone other than Trainline. Trainline has the money and time to write custom blurb about different ticket types, such as these.

In all fairness, I've only seen these tickets bought through Trainline and TOC-branded Trainline retailers. It's quite clear there's a failing in the industry if Trainline are the only ones doing something right.

 

[blimmo]

Now it’s been mentioned on here there’s probably a better chance of it getting resolved

I posted about the restriction code here over a month ago. https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/restriction-code-4w.293491/
I also sent an email to the contact us address on the National Rail website.

The restriction text being missing effectively means passengers can use them as day returns but that is the only additional validity which I suspect is why it hasn't been fixed. I don't think this is acceptable really though.

 

[Adam Williams]

I also sent an email to the contact us address on the National Rail website.

This is more useless than a chocolate teapot at the best of times.

If you're in the industry, there are various pricing contacts you can locate on the iKB.

 

[saismee]

If you're in the industry, there are various pricing contacts you can locate on the iKB.

Again assuming that the industry is competent. I have no access to internal resources at all beyond my work email and ASB reporting.

 

[Adam Williams]

You do. You might not know that you do, but you do

 

[saismee]

You do. You might not know that you do, but you do

Oh almost certainly through one of the station computers, but I don't have enough time to rummage through that to find who to contact.