5 ms·

The UK has a near-universal policy for refunds on cancelled or delayed train services ("delay repay"). Several train operating companies issue these refunds aut

The UK has a near-universal policy for refunds on cancelled or delayed train services ("delay repay"). Several train operating companies issue these refunds automatically for tickets booked directly with them, and others will automatically notify the customer that they are entitled to claim. I think some companies have taken the view that reducing the amount of administrative overhead for both themselves and passengers is a better long-term investment than trying to weasel out of otherwise reasonable claims. An airline with that kind of policy in place is certainly one which I would be more likely to make subsequent bookings with!

tialaramex 6y ago
For Delay Repay you'll get the same sort of nonsense this post is about from travellers whose expectations don't match reality. A train ticket from A to B is a contract to arrange travel for you from A to B. If it proves impossible to fulfil the contracted travel on time, it'll be re-arranged and you get compensation for your trouble under Delay Repay. But the exact same sort of person will buy a ticket from A to B, another from B to C, and one from C to D. Then upon hearing, while waiting at A, that the B-C train is affected by a delay, they book tickets from Z-D and take a taxi to Z to catch that train. Then they're very angry that the train operator wants to compensate them only for the delay on the short B-C journey, rather than pay for their taxi and Z-D ticket. But the B-C journey operator has absolutely no reason to know you wanted to leave from A or travel to D. You've confused your goal with the quite different contractual arrangement you made. An A-D ticket might perhaps cost more than your assortment of A-B, B-C, C-D tickets, but that ticket does come with the promise to actually get you from A to D like you wanted, if it's so important that you'd arrange an alternate method to get there, just buy the more expensive ticket that does what you actually wanted and don't act as though the operating companies should read your mind. Story time: Some time ago now, I was making a routine journey up the country, I had purchased my ticket which would have me arrive in my destination city about 2300 or so, fifteen minutes walk from my hotel, via London and I set off on time late afternoon. Unfortunately there was a one-under (ie most likely somebody committed suicide, though that's a matter to be decided much later, at the moment it happens they're just a person who is under a train for some reason, the power needs to go off and the lines must be closed while somebody sorts that out) just ahead of us, delaying us by an hour into London. But because the operating companies are responsible for the end-to-end journey I wasn't bothered. I crossed London and arrived far too late for my connection of course, but again the operating companies are responsible for the end-to-end journey and they boarded me onto a later train. This train was scheduled around overnight engineering work so although it was the same physical type of train and the same route as usual, it took about two hours longer, and it would not reach my final destination. Instead it would arrive at about 0150 on the outskirts of an airport some distance away and terminate. The remainder of the railway was closed overnight, and I would travel by road. Now, I imagine that planners for the operating company concluded that almost all travellers do not want to go to an airport at 0150 or take a coach across country to their real destination afterwards. So they had assumed that this last train of the night would be empty or nearly empty when it finally arrived at the airport. So although they were obliged to arrange onward transit they hadn't bothered. But because of the one-under there was dozens of us on this last train. At its final calling point was one confused employee. He's expecting maybe one tired person gets off the train, he apologises for lack of onward transit, if he's lucky the person says they'll sort it out because their actual destination is nowhere near a station anyway, otherwise he gets a cab and goes home. Instead he's facing a crowd of dozens. He's going go need at least one coach, to the city they were originally expecting to arrive at three hours ago. He calls his bosses. There are no coaches. Then he telephones every taxi firm in the city, and fleets of taxis begin arriving. Instead of taking people to the railway station they had tickets to, the taxi drivers see it as much simpler to take them wherever they are going directly - the train company picks up the tab either way. So I checked in to my hotel about twenty minutes later. What's key here is that the expectation of the supplier is correctly aligned to my goal. I wanted to travel to my destination, they wanted to deliver me to that destination. When things went wrong, we both remained clear on the goal and so the resolution was satisfactory. A late night taxi for each train passenger is obviously horribly expensive and they lost money on that deal. But if I'd gone off piste and tried to get there by some other method from London even if it was cheaper they're under no obligation to compensate me for that, the deal was they get me to the agreed destination.

tialaramex 6y ago

For Delay Repay you'll get the same sort of nonsense this post is about from travellers whose expectations don't match reality. A train ticket from A to B is a contract to arrange travel for you from A to B. If it proves impossible to fulfil the contracted travel on time, it'll be re-arranged and you get compensation for your trouble under Delay Repay. But the exact same sort of person will buy a ticket from A to B, another from B to C, and one from C to D. Then upon hearing, while waiting at A, that the B-C train is affected by a delay, they book tickets from Z-D and take a taxi to Z to catch that train. Then they're very angry that the train operator wants to compensate them only for the delay on the short B-C journey, rather than pay for their taxi and Z-D ticket. But the B-C journey operator has absolutely no reason to know you wanted to leave from A or travel to D. You've confused your goal with the quite different contractual arrangement you made. An A-D ticket might perhaps cost more than your assortment of A-B, B-C, C-D tickets, but that ticket does come with the promise to actually get you from A to D like you wanted, if it's so important that you'd arrange an alternate method to get there, just buy the more expensive ticket that does what you actually wanted and don't act as though the operating companies should read your mind. Story time: Some time ago now, I was making a routine journey up the country, I had purchased my ticket which would have me arrive in my destination city about 2300 or so, fifteen minutes walk from my hotel, via London and I set off on time late afternoon. Unfortunately there was a one-under (ie most likely somebody committed suicide, though that's a matter to be decided much later, at the moment it happens they're just a person who is under a train for some reason, the power needs to go off and the lines must be closed while somebody sorts that out) just ahead of us, delaying us by an hour into London. But because the operating companies are responsible for the end-to-end journey I wasn't bothered. I crossed London and arrived far too late for my connection of course, but again the operating companies are responsible for the end-to-end journey and they boarded me onto a later train. This train was scheduled around overnight engineering work so although it was the same physical type of train and the same route as usual, it took about two hours longer, and it would not reach my final destination. Instead it would arrive at about 0150 on the outskirts of an airport some distance away and terminate. The remainder of the railway was closed overnight, and I would travel by road. Now, I imagine that planners for the operating company concluded that almost all travellers do not want to go to an airport at 0150 or take a coach across country to their real destination afterwards. So they had assumed that this last train of the night would be empty or nearly empty when it finally arrived at the airport. So although they were obliged to arrange onward transit they hadn't bothered. But because of the one-under there was dozens of us on this last train. At its final calling point was one confused employee. He's expecting maybe one tired person gets off the train, he apologises for lack of onward transit, if he's lucky the person says they'll sort it out because their actual destination is nowhere near a station anyway, otherwise he gets a cab and goes home. Instead he's facing a crowd of dozens. He's going go need at least one coach, to the city they were originally expecting to arrive at three hours ago. He calls his bosses. There are no coaches. Then he telephones every taxi firm in the city, and fleets of taxis begin arriving. Instead of taking people to the railway station they had tickets to, the taxi drivers see it as much simpler to take them wherever they are going directly - the train company picks up the tab either way. So I checked in to my hotel about twenty minutes later. What's key here is that the expectation of the supplier is correctly aligned to my goal. I wanted to travel to my destination, they wanted to deliver me to that destination. When things went wrong, we both remained clear on the goal and so the resolution was satisfactory. A late night taxi for each train passenger is obviously horribly expensive and they lost money on that deal. But if I'd gone off piste and tried to get there by some other method from London even if it was cheaper they're under no obligation to compensate me for that, the deal was they get me to the agreed destination.