Virgin Advance Ticket

Lilith1980

Hi all

I went onto the Virgin site and bought an advanced ticket for 22nd May because I'm travelling to London and didn't want to pay £54. I bought a single for £14.

I am due to return to Stoke on 26th May but I have continually checked on the website and there's no reservations available for 26th May even though dates after it are available. I have since learnt this morning from the National Rail website that Virgin aren't accepting reservations from 24th May to 29th May, not sure why

So therefore it looks as though I will have to pay the full £54 but I already have the single so I'm going to be paying more for trying to be thrifty :mad:

Any ideas? Could I try and get a refund on the advanced ticket? I ordered it over the phone from Thetrainline.com

Thanks

dzug1

The reason is that there are engineering works, so no trains to Stoke. There is a bus connection from Stafford.

Several possibilities:

See if you can get a cheap ticket to Stafford and pay for the bus separately.

You can't get a refund on the advance ticket - but you can use it as a credit to the cost of the new ticket - less £10 admin.

Possibly return from London by coach? Probably not a lot slower given the partial bus on the rail route.

It's still possible there will be cheap tickets - with similar works last year Virgin were releasing them about a week before travel. But no guarantee.

dzug1

Just spotted this on National Rail site:

Details of revised timetables have not yet been confirmed for Virgin Trains. We expect this information to be available from 10 April 2009

Which means it will be possible for the cheap fares to be released as well

Lilith1980

Thanks dzug

bunking_off

You'd need to forfeit your existing Advance with this suggestion, but it's worth considering.

When booked via Virgin's website (www.virgintrains.co.uk) there's a ticket that used to be called a "Saver Half Return". In the wonderful world that is rail ticketing, this is quite different to a "Saver Single"...whereas a SHR costs half the price of a Saver Return, a SS is only about a pound cheaper. A SHR is only available when bought simultaneously with an outward Advance ticket, and is only available from Virgin's website...nowadays it just shows up as "Off Peak" with no explanation. Strangely, it can't be bought from other websites such as thetrainline.com even though VT and thetrainline are one and the same company & use the same booking engine. Also, you can't buy this ticket via phone from VT, or at a station.

As dzug's said, with engineering works on the 26th there's no Advance tickets available. Offpeaks are still available regardless, though. So if you rip up your existing ticket and go on the VT website, you should be able to get an Advance out for £14 (as before) and a SHR (marked as "Offpeak") for £27.35, i.e. total £41.35, versus paying £54.70 for an off-peak return.

omelette451

dzug1 wrote: »

See if you can get a cheap ticket to Stafford and pay for the bus separately.

This is possibly the best solution. There are two competing operators on the Euston-Stafford stretch, so there are plenty of deals available. Currently VT advance singles for that day are £26. Alternatively, if you're willing to travel on a slower London Midland train you can get a walk-on 'super off peak single' ticket for £17.90 (an advance ticket costs £6 if you can leave London around 6pm). From Stafford there are both ordinary buses and the rail replacement coaches to Stoke. It's also entirely possible that advance tickets to Stoke will become available at a later date.

The moral of the story is that if you're making a return journey it's always wise to consider how you're going to get back before booking a cheap single ticket - many people are caught out when actually a flexible 'off peak return' would have worked out cheaper overall.