June 2022 Rail Strikes

Explorer98

Might be a bit early for this but I'm sufficiently wound up so here goes!!

We had planned to go to London on Friday, June 24th, the objective being to take my Grandson and his friend to see Green day at the Olympic Park stadium. We had it all planned, booked and paid for; trains from Newark to King's Cross (booked through Trainline - looks like a mistake!), hotel rooms with Premier Inn (stay overnight) then travel back on Saturday.

Now it looks like Saturday return travel might not be possible so we have to change things i.e. drive down and not stay in London overnight.

Trainline have said that LNER haven't authorised them to refund but we can change our travel dates. Don't see what that gets us - I don't think the band will move the gig!

We're outside the cancellation window for Premier Inn as it's only 12 days till we travel.

That's around £400 down the pan unless we can find some legislative leverage. I have an idea that LNER's policy might eventually filter through to Trainline and to be honest, if they offered a voucher (with a long enough life) we'd probably take it. Not sure what (if anything) we can do with Premier Inn though. I'm wondering if there's any scope to apply Section 75 to any of this? 

Any ideas good people?

Jon

martindow

It is possible that it could be settled  - threatening to strike hopefully concentrates minds to find a solution.  If the worst comes to the worst, could you not drive down and stay in the hotel?  Tubes are not going to be affected on the Friday, only on Monday so you could park somewhere in north London and travel in.

johnbhoy70

Similar-ish here!! 

My wife and the kids travel  down from Glasgow on Wednesday 22nd to see Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre and return on Thursday 23rd..... return could be the issue. Tickets were bought weeks ago through Trainline (about £200) and theatre tickets were about same i think!! Only consolation is our hotel is free cancellation if we cancel before 24 hours of check-in i believe. 

Spent this afternoon trying to sort out and wondering what to do.

Firstly, our travel insurance won't cover us as it's not at least a 2 night stay and i'm not sure it would cover strike/industrial action anyway. 

I've ended booking a Megabus from London Victoria to Glasgow for them on the 23rd as a contingency which i hope they don't need. That was roughly £60 but i didn't want to be fretting over this the next couple of weeks. Also, Megabus are a Tesco Clubcard partner which i didn't know till they asked for payment so ended up only costing about a £10. Like i said i hope it doesn't come to anything but wanted a back up plan. 

OP- i hope you manage to get something sorted out and also to anyone else that is going to be affected by this. 

Ps- i'm usually an optimist but the way things are heading i feel a real summer of discontent is heading ouur way!!!

p00hsticks

What about getting an extra night in the Premier Inn and travelling back on the Sunday instead of the Saturday ?

Is that a possibility

 

Andy_L

Explorer98 said:

Might be a bit early for this but I'm sufficiently wound up so here goes!!

We had planned to go to London on Friday, June 24th, the objective being to take my Grandson and his friend to see Green day at the Olympic Park stadium. We had it all planned, booked and paid for; trains from Newark to King's Cross (booked through Trainline - looks like a mistake!), hotel rooms with Premier Inn (stay overnight) then travel back on Saturday.

Now it looks like Saturday return travel might not be possible so we have to change things i.e. drive down and not stay in London overnight.

Trainline have said that LNER haven't authorised them to refund but we can change our travel dates. Don't see what that gets us - I don't think the band will move the gig!

We're outside the cancellation window for Premier Inn as it's only 12 days till we travel.

That's around £400 down the pan unless we can find some legislative leverage. I have an idea that LNER's policy might eventually filter through to Trainline and to be honest, if they offered a voucher (with a long enough life) we'd probably take it. Not sure what (if anything) we can do with Premier Inn though. I'm wondering if there's any scope to apply Section 75 to any of this? 

Any ideas good people?

Jon

AIUI you have to wait for the train to actually be cancelled, which I don't think has yet happened for the (potential) strike day. So, as far as trainline are concerned, at the moment you just trying to cancel it because you want to rather than LNER cancelling it

lisyloo

p00hsticks said:

What about getting an extra night in the Premier Inn and travelling back on the Sunday instead of the Saturday ?

Is that a possibility

 

Apart from the fact that everyone is doing that :-)
i checked yesterday for 25/6 and a lot are sold out, the others (not central) were about £175.
i have suggested driving to a relative but bear in mind thy whatever you do (tubes, park etc.) a lot of other people with set events will be trying to do it also.
as someone who’s lived in London I’d suggest looking at buses once you get there as tourists go for the tubes.
if you’re not in a massive rush you can have some nice trips e.g. parliament, Big Ben, horseguards on the bus. It can of course be slow.

johnbhoy70

I quickly ruled out the idea of my wife staying a second night. The train tickets are just standard and not flexible so as well as the extra cost of a 2nd nights accomodation there could well be a chunk to pay there too and that's if there's any availability for the following day, the 24th. That's not to mention the knock-on effect the days after the strike and it could be bedlam. Plus it would mean another day off work for her and school for the wee one. It's an idea for some but not for us sadly.

Explorer98

We’ve booked another hotel (Holiday Inn Express) which we can cancel for free up to 4pm on the 23rd. It’s in Hemel so the plan is to drive there then get the train in and out of Stratford before the strike day.

What concerns me the most (if the strike goes ahead) is how much we lose because Premier Inn and Trainline aren’t interested!!

I won’t use Trainline again. I have for years but they’re useless if anything goes wrong and all they really do is give the TOC something to hide behind.

We travelled to London last week and some seats near us had been double-booked - by both LNER and Trainline. The train manager’s position was “You’ve booked through Trainline? Nothing to do with us”!!

Explorer98

johnbhoy70 said:

I quickly ruled out the idea of my wife staying a second night. The train tickets are just standard and not flexible so as well as the extra cost of a 2nd nights accomodation there could well be a chunk to pay there too and that's if there's any availability for the following day, the 24th. That's not to mention the knock-on effect the days after the strike and it could be bedlam. Plus it would mean another day off work for her and school for the wee one. It's an idea for some but not for us sadly.

That was my finding too - plus I’m not mad on staying in London when it’s going to be hard to get around AND the hotel we’re in has nothing available for a second night.

onashoestring

Explorer98 said:

What concerns me the most (if the strike goes ahead) is how much we lose because Premier Inn and Trainline aren’t interested!!

What rate did you make your booking with Premier Inn ?

Flex rate  - is fully refundable and allows you to cancel up until 1pm on the day of arrival . 

Semi- flex- fully refundable if cancelled up to 3 full days before arrival 

STANDARD  (cheaper ) rate you can still amend the date to stay at the same hotel - whilst it won’t help with this particular trip it’s better than loosing all your money - amend the date and you can have another trip to London in the future and your accommodation is paid for . 

lisyloo

Explorer98 said:

We’ve booked another hotel (Holiday Inn Express) which we can cancel for free up to 4pm on the 23rd. It’s in Hemel so the plan is to drive there then get the train in and out of Stratford before the strike day.

What concerns me the most (if the strike goes ahead) is how much we lose because Premier Inn and Trainline aren’t interested!!

I won’t use Trainline again. I have for years but they’re useless if anything goes wrong and all they really do is give the TOC something to hide behind.

We travelled to London last week and some seats near us had been double-booked - by both LNER and Trainline. The train manager’s position was “You’ve booked through Trainline? Nothing to do with us”!!

Why should premier in be interested if you specifically chose a rate with 14 days cancellation and then did not cancel?
i sympathise about the strikes but why should premier inn take the hit?
you could (presumably) have paid more for greater flexibility?
you can’t have it both ways - a discount plus flexibility.

since covid I’ve been making flexible arrangements and sometimes that means paying a bit more.

its not premier it’s fault and there are other options for travelling
ive generally driven to London over the last couple of years rather than use the trains, got parking and then an Uber.

lets hope these strike get cancelled as it’s going to cause a lot of issues for both consumers and businesses