London show cancelled 40 mins before start

Kinhh

Hi all
8 of us took a day off (5 self employed) to travel to London by train to see moulin rouge. We get there to be told it’s cancelled. We then got an email to confirm it had been cancelled. We were told to get there at 1:30. Email received at 1:48! We will get the tickets refunded, but I wondered about the train fare? Thank you 

Aylesbury_Duck

No harm in asking the theatre, but I doubt you're entitled to a travel refund.  Presumably you made a day of it anyway?

pinkshoes

For things like this you can claim on your travel insurance if you took it out.

DullGreyGuy

What was the reason for the cancellation?

Kinhh

Due to staff Illness. 

Kinhh

Never thought about getting travel insurance for a show, good tip, thanks 

Belenus

I doubt if the theatre are obliged to cover your travelling costs but there is no harm in asking if they will give the eight of you a voucher for free or heavily discounted tickets for a different future show in addition to the refund for Moulin Rouge.

Ask them politely, The worst that will happen is they ignore you or refuse your request.

Did you find other things to do on the day? I presume you planned to do other things so the trip was not entirely wasted.

Grumpy_chap

Kinhh said:

Never thought about getting travel insurance for a show, good tip, thanks 

I have never thought of that in the past, except my wife and I have booked to see a show just after Easter and the check-out process included an option for travel / cancellation insurance to cover the event.  My initial thought was that was absurd, but then I realised the show is north of £500 so the extra £10 was a bargain so added to the bag.

I am not sure whether regular travel insurance would cover a cancelled show - there is often a requirement to have pre-booked overnight stay.
Regular travel insurance may also contend that you had not suffered a loss.  The show tickets were refunded (or changed to a different date) and you did get the train travel.  The loss would only arise when you incur the cost for the repeat journey to see the show on a different date.

p00hsticks

Grumpy_chap said:

Kinhh said:

Never thought about getting travel insurance for a show, good tip, thanks 

I have never thought of that in the past, except my wife and I have booked to see a show just after Easter and the check-out process included an option for travel / cancellation insurance to cover the event.  My initial thought was that was absurd, but then I realised the show is north of £500 so the extra £10 was a bargain so added to the bag.

I did draft a post on this thread earlier asking whether the OP had taken out the optional insurance that is usually offered when booking the ticket. But I didn't post it in the end becasue I had a look to see if it would have reimbursed the OP for their rail travel in these circumstances and - if the ticketmaster event insuracne is typical - it wouldn't.

https://www.ticketmaster.com/insurance

As I read it, their event insurance would refund the ticket price if you didnt manage to make it to the show because of e.g. illness, traffic disruption etc, but wouldn't refund travel expenses if the show is cancelled.  

MattMattMattUK

Kinhh said:

Never thought about getting travel insurance for a show, good tip, thanks 

Get an annual policy, then you are covered for lots of things you might not realise.

Manxman_in_exile

Kinhh said:

...We were told to get there at 1:30. Email received at 1:48! ...

Where were you told to get to by 1:30?  London?  The theatre?  Settled in your seats?  And you were informed of cancellation at 1:48?

What do the T&Cs say about cancellation and giving notice of cancellation?

I'm pretty sure nobody else will agree with me but I don't see why all of you shouldn't be asking for both your travel costs and time off work!

It might be that their T&Cs are so watertight that they cover this situation, but I can't see that it's at all reasonable that they should tell you the show is cancelled with no prior notice after the time you have been told to arrive.  If their T&Cs do allow that I think I'd argue that they were blatantly unfair under Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk).

I would suggest that it should be perfectly foreseeable to the venue that if they cancel at no notice then people travelling to see the show will have paid out on train tickets etc to get there, and that those are losses stemming directly from their breach of contract.  (Assuming that a cancellation with no warning whatsoever is a breach, and I don't see how it can't be... )

However, I'm sure nobody else will agree with me so I accept I'm probably wrong and the OP should just be satisfied with the ticket refunds...