Rail ticket lock in

oxygenkiosk

I bought return tickets on Trainline for myself and my son to London for August for £100 last week (May) on purchase I realised that the outbound train had us getting in at after 11pm which was some default value. Having come and gone from the page I must not have changed it to a reasonable time.

It appears that such a ticket could not possibly be refunded apparently despite there being months before the journey! which is a scandal. Therefore I submitted to paying a further £40 for extra new earlier train tickets. Following this i read, deep in the T&Cs, I could have changed the time of travel for this train in 'several months time' for £10 each.

I suppose this is all obvious to seasoned travellers or travel geeks, but for me this is very anti-consumer and shouldn't be allowed, you should with 24hrs of purchase be able to amend or cancel even an ;early' booking.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6670875/rail-ticket-lock-in

Purchasing a train ticket for a certain time is a specific exclusion from the right to cancel under CCR. Does not apply to "the supply of accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance".

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/28

So, far from being something that should be outlawed, the type of purchase you have made was specifically considered by the law makers to be a type of contract that is not cancellable.

The route to change that would be writing to your MP.

Ayr_Rage

If you want cancellation rights within 24 hours, then buy from a company that allows it or move to somewhere that has it written in legislation.

At least you've posted on the right board and your rant may help others to avoid making the same mistake that you have.

mta999

In fairness to the op I have nearly fallen for this myself in that you select train times on trainline and by navigating off that page and back again the times are changed and it is very easy to miss unless you take care

By the way did you call trainline as they are very helpful and once they did change a ticket for me that I had accidentally booked wrongly

maman

Just for information, there are tickets called 'advance' which are a bit cheaper than usual. Without reading the small print, people (including me) assumed that the reduced price is just because you're buying them well in advance.

I'm obviously not alone because there's now a big handwritten whiteboard at my local station pointing out that these tickets are for set times and can't be used flexibly even off peak.

Okell

Don't buy tickets from trainline.

Buy them from the train operating company

And doublecheck what you are buying before clicking on "buy now"