so called trainline and asked for clarification advised that had booked 2 tickets with 1 veterans railcard listed - the customer services representative advised that it is correct that I can travel with the veteran at discounted rate even through I do not have a veterans railcard and they do not have a named companion.
Unfortunately this is just another example of how dire Trainline's customer service is. I'd avoid them in future! The person you spoke to is completely wrong and doesn't know what they're talking about. The Veterans Railcard is only valid for the named holder and companion. Even the most cursory glance at the Railcard's FAQs or conditions would tell them that.
When I google it tells me that if the trainline website has issued a ticket with the wrong discounts then they are legally responsible should I get any penalty fares due to them potentially applying the wrong discount on my ticket
Arguably, yes - but good luck getting reimbursed. They'd probably try to palm you off with a refund on your ticket, as if that closes the matter. You could of course take them to the Ombudsman or ultimately the County Court, but that's a lot more hassle than sorting the situation out now.
TBH the whole thing of Veterans and named companion seems like absolute bollocks to me why should they feel the need to make a restriction.
I agree; it seems needlessly restrictive given how flexible other group-based Railcards like the Family & Friends, Network and Annual Gold Card are. Each of those allow you to take up to 3 other adults with you.
However, those are the rules for the Veterans Railcard and the holder agreed to them when they bought the Railcard.
Ally that to the fact you cannot put any sort of context to a veterans railcard to make sure it applies correctly so in theory you should book a veterans ticket separately to the person they wish to travel with.
Really, retailers should be asking which passengers the customer intends the Railcard to apply to. Making an assumption that both passengers are named on it, and can therefore benefit from the discount, seems wrong to me.
I appreciate that's not in the industry data, but the data has a lot of omissions that retailers already have to know about and work with, so that's par for the course really.
Then book the other separately with very little chance of you being together in a carriage as you cannot specify a seat number it auto chooses ?
You can always book reservations separately - either through the GWR or TPE websites (sign up for an account, log in and then go to your bookings) or via the relevant operator's customer services (by social media or phone) so I wouldn't let the 'tail wag the dog' on that one.
