June 2022 Rail Strikes

p00hsticks

onashoestring said:

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 . 

I suspect it was the ADVANCE rate which for some reason you've not mentioned - like the standard rate it does allow you to amend the date of the stay  

Advance
Our Advance rate lets you amend your booking on a like for like basis up to 1pm on arrival day, and offers you a full refund if you cancel your stay at least 28 days before arrival.

Our rates | Premier Inn  

razord

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.

Pretty sure every train ticket right now is flexible under the Book with Confidence scheme until September.

You can change it for free until 6pm the night before.

Book with Confidence

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The rail industry have introduced an easement to the terms & conditions of Advance tickets sold by Train Operating Companies, to help you travel with confidence if your travel plans change.

If your plans change, you can amend when you travel fee free up until 6pm the day before you travel.

Applies to Advance, Off-Peak and Anytime tickets purchased until 30 September 2022. Fare price difference may apply. Advance tickets purchased online can be exchanged for a voucher for future journey*.

Check with your ticket retailer to find out if they are participating in the Book with Confidence scheme.

onashoestring

p00hsticks said:

onashoestring said:

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 . 

I suspect it was the ADVANCE rate which for some reason you've not mentioned - like the standard rate it does allow you to amend the date of the stay  

Advance
Our Advance rate lets you amend your booking on a like for like basis up to 1pm on arrival day, and offers you a full refund if you cancel your stay at least 28 days before arrival.

Our rates | Premier Inn  

Yes I think you are right @p00hsticks , reading between the lines it must be the ADVANCED rate - 

Also to note @Explorer98 Premier Inn T&Cs do specifically mention that when choosing your rate you should consider that with an Advanced or Standard rate you won’t be entitled to cancellation and refund for… limited public transport . 

As Premier Inn’s  T&Cs are clear -and they are not in breach of the contract-  you won’t be entitled to a Section 75 or charge back claim. 

Hopefully the strike is called off but if does go ahead - you still have the option to change the date of your booking and use Premier Inn another time . 

johnbhoy70

razord said:

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.

Pretty sure every train ticket right now is flexible under the Book with Confidence scheme until September.

You can change it for free until 6pm the night before.

Book with Confidence

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The rail industry have introduced an easement to the terms & conditions of Advance tickets sold by Train Operating Companies, to help you travel with confidence if your travel plans change.

If your plans change, you can amend when you travel fee free up until 6pm the day before you travel.

Applies to Advance, Off-Peak and Anytime tickets purchased until 30 September 2022. Fare price difference may apply. Advance tickets purchased online can be exchanged for a voucher for future journey*.

Check with your ticket retailer to find out if they are participating in th l Book with Confidence scheme.

Thank you for that. I didn't check to be honest as i hope this thing won't happen. I do recall quite a few price options when i booked, which was a while back granted, and just assumed they would have been for more flexible options. We paid slightly more for accomodation to have the option on full refund up to 24 hours befroe check-in. 

My main problem with them staying a second night would be the cost of accomodation for a second night plus also it might be tricky getting them booked on a decent train the day following action. 

johnbhoy70

Guys after a bit of help if someone can oblige. Am i right in saying they could get either a number 16,24 or 27 from Victoria Train Station to Euston if they needed to as taxis maybe a problem??

If train from Euston is cancelled late and they need to use my back-up megabus booking from Victoria Coach Station them i'm assuming that's just a short walk for them as hotel is on Belgrave Road and looks like it is between Victoria Coach Station and Train Station and either would just be a short walk. They'll have little luggage..only for an overnighter

Actually looking at it again i think 24 appears to be the only direct with no changes

GingerTim

They could, but in my experience of tube strikes the buses are not only rammed but painfully slow - and the journey from Victoria to Euston is right across Central London. Set out very early.

johnbhoy70

Thank you. That's helpful and good to know.

The issue i have is the bus to Glasgow i have booked as back up from Victoria Coach station is at 0800 on the 23rd and the train from Euston to Glasgow is 1330hrs. I'll need to make a decision on the night of the 22nd of what to do. If the latest  info is the train at 1330hrs from Euston is still running then i'll try and change the bus till later in the day and keeps these tickets as an option and they head for Euston. If the worst happens and the train is cancelled very late on the day then we have hopefully the later bus tickets as a back up.

t0rt0ise

The 390 bus goes from Victoria to Euston.

johnbhoy70

Just to say thanks for the info i've had on here but we've decided it's too risky for us. 

I picked the tickets up at a machine earlier at the station and went to ask at the office about the journeys even though we've had no word officially from Trainline officially that our journey has been affected but it has been. The 0630 from Glasgow is cancelled as nothing is leaving before 0730hrs on the 22nd because of the knock on effect. Trainline then confirmed tthis over the phone to me even though though we've had no emails or messages in the account. I asked when they were going to let affected customers know and they said keep checking the website even though they were actually telling me over the phone it was cancelled and did i want a refund.They also advised they could not rebook onto a later service as they were all full. I then phoned Avanti directly and the girl i spoke seemed to think there was every chance we would get down to London that day but no gurantee but it's too risky with a wee one. The return journey on the strike day of the 23rd from Euston to Glasgow is ironically showing as still running at the moment.

So at the moment the problem is the outward journey on a non-strike day and the return on a strike day of the 23rd is ok. Kind of relieved to be honest because i was getting fed up trying to sort and to be honest others have far bigger issues than us. 

johnbhoy70

Ok...so we got our refund from Trainline back through today and managed to rebook theatre tickets to October so only about £10 all told with Trainline fee and slighly more expensive Theatre tickets.

Now we're not experienced train travellers as usually take car everywhere and only used Trainline a couple of times in the past few years. However, and this is a genuine question, can anybody actually tell me the point of it and if it has any advantage over going directly to the operator.

Prior to the strikes Trainline had advertised all over their site if your journey was impacted they'd be on in advance to let you know. In reality, what they had on their site was a link to the revised Avanti timetable. Trainline staff at their offshore call centre were verbally telling me that our train was cancelled and so were Avanti when i phoned them. However, when i pushed Trainline staff on when they were going to advise us officially they kept telling us to check the website even on the night beofre when strike was confirmed. We actually got official confirmation our train was cancelled from them over 2 hours after our train was meant to leave Glasgow that day.

Now i feel a bit crap to be honest (trip was wife and kids)  as when i spoke to Avanti the girl said there was every chance we would get a later train but because we'd used Trainline there was nothing she could do with regards to tickets. 

What it looks like to me is that Trainline were hoping we'd turn up and get a later train also but they had no access to availability on these trains unlike Avanti. Is that a fair assumption??

I'll not use Trainline again that's for sure. I've hunted about looking for a reason to use them and other than people saying it's a decent website and useful for split ticketing i've come up with nothing. For that matter, you could use their site for that purpose and then just book through the operators when you've done that.