Can't attend concert

lettyskingal

I have 3 tickets for Pete Tong tomorrow 2/12/23 at The O2 and can't attend cos of the rail strike. Is there any way to get a refund?

Pollycat

What do the T&Cs say about refunds?
Maybe explore other options such as selling the tickets...

jon81uk

Can you take the coach instead? Or drive some or all of the way?

ArbitraryRandom

Maybe - first contact the ticket provider to see if they will just accept and refund - but if they refuse (depending on their terms and conditions they're probably not required to refund if the concert is taking place) and if there's no reasonable way for you to make it to the concert, then it involves trying to claim via the train company and potentially escalating it to the ombudsman. This is the Conditions of Travel which cover 'exceptional circumstances': 

32. Getting your money back for delays and/or cancellations
32.1. If you are delayed in reaching your destination as a result of a delay or cancellation of a train service, you may be entitled to claim money back. You can make a claim in one or more of the following ways:
32.1.1. through the industry arrangements provided for:
32.1.1.1. in these Conditions; and/or
32.1.1.2. in the Passenger’s Charter of the relevant Train Company and/or
32.1.2. by relying on your statutory rights, e.g. under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
However, you cannot recover the same money twice.
32.2. For claims made under the industry arrangements (set out at paragraph 32.1.1 above) for losses caused by the delay and/or cancellation of a train service, you can only recover up to the price of your ticket. However, in exceptional circumstances, a Train Company may consider claims for other losses. This will be for the Train Company to decide in its sole discretion, unlike your legal rights set out in paragraph 32.1 above. If you wish to ask the Train Company to consider making a discretionary payment, you should write in the first instance to the Train Company at the address which can be found on nationalrail.co.uk or by calling 0345 7 48 49 50. Please note that this does not affect your statutory rights (see paragraph 32.1.2).

Consequential losses are not easy to prove and you have to demonstrate (fairly extensively) that you've tried to mitigate your losses - which means if there's an earlier train running or if you could take a longer route (other train services are honouring tickets) or if you could go via bus etc. 

Here's a couple of case studies from the ombudsman that gives an idea of how you could make a successful claim (and what you need to do to prove you've done everything reasonable to try and use the tickets): 

https://www.railombudsman.org/accommodation-costs/
https://www.railombudsman.org/travel-during-industrial-action/

Here's the Which guide to making a claim: 

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/can-i-claim-compensation-for-train-delays-and-cancellations-a0DcH4D97A2N

EDIT: worth saying that generally speaking you can only get compensation if you've already BOOKED your train tickets and the service is cancelled/delayed - not if you were planning on turning up on the day to buy a ticket before departure/after the strikes were announced... because until you bought the ticket then you don't have a contract with the train operator so they have no liability for your failure to travel. 

SiliconChip

Many venues and events now offer the option of purchasing insurance specifically to cover this sort of issue, usually for a fairly low price. I would expect the O2 to offer this, but presumably if they did you declined it (I'd probably do the same on the basis that I'd try to find an alternative way to get there). Do you have any other travel insurance, for example with a packaged bank account, that might cover it?

DullGreyGuy

lettyskingal said:

I have 3 tickets for Pete Tong tomorrow 2/12/23 at The O2 and can't attend cos of the rail strike. Is there any way to get a refund?

Yes if you bought cancellable tickets or insurance. The former is almost unheard of for concerts. 

Obviously left it a bit late, you could have tried to resell them, if allowed, but not time now. Maybe a friend or work colleague would take them or maybe take just one of them and drive the other two of you?

lettyskingal

I tried re-sale through the O2 app but no takers.
I've tried giving them away today so it's not a wasted £333 but still no takers!

Gavin83

Where are you based? Is there really no other way to get there? Can you not drive?

Sooler

lettyskingal said:
I've tried giving them away ... but still no takers!

Complain to Pete Tong 

HillStreetBlues

I had to Google who he was!

user1977

HillStreetBlues said:

I had to Google who he was!

Oh come on. He's even made it into rhyming slang.