Who should get the delay repay money for train ticket?

[MarmaladeMarxist]

The payer, or the traveller?

I occasionally travel by train for work - I have the use of a company card to pay for things like this.

Last week this happened and I had a nightmare journey with a cancelled train, long wait on a platform with no shelter in driving rain, replacement bus etc. As I was travelling in the evening to stay overnight (with a family member, not in a hotel) and attend a meeting first thing in the morning, I wasn't late for the meeting despite being 3 hours late arriving.

This means that I can claim delay repay and get a full refund on the ticket - but should this money be paid to my company (who paid for the ticket) or to me (who had the inconvenience and stress of a horrible cold wet journey)?

I would assume the payer. Isn't it money back for paying for a journey that didnt materialise as what was paid for?

No.

National Rail describes delay repay as compensation for delays & cancellations.

They decribe a refund as being available if your train is delayed or cancelled and you decide not to travel. Refunds would go back to your employer.

Can you apply separately to get a refund for a service that wasn't provided as agreed? Are they two different things? I'm not familiar with the scheme?

If you use the ticket then you don’t get a refund.

The traveller gets compensation for the inconvenience of the delay.

No it doesn’t automatically go back into the original payment method.

The person making the claim provides bank details for it to be paid into.

Out of work hours, it should go back to the traveller that was inconvenienced. If the delay made you late for or actually miss a meeting the travelling was for, then (if I could be arsed to claim) it should go back to the company that paid for it.

Should be paid to the poor relative whom you ambushed with your overnight stay (via obvs reimbursement from co card to you to them).

I’d assume OP, like most people, has arranged to stay overnight with her relative with their permission. I’m also assuming OP and her relative actually chose to do that so they could spend some time together, instead of OP staying in a hotel which would have been on offer from her company.

Why do you think she ambushed her family member? It was clearly arranged since she was always travelling down to stay overnight; that had nothing to do with the delay.

At my company whilst work books the ticket it’s me that set up the delay repay account and I get the refunds. My argument to work is that you pay for get me from A to B and back again. The delay repay is compensation for the disruption to me personally - on occasion I’ve had to get Uber home when the train decides it’s not going to continue the journey or I’ll get a coffee or food whilst I wait. Not to mention the childcare fines for late pick up!

You need to check your company policy. If you claim money the organisation has explicitly said you’re not entitled to they could arguably accuse you of theft. In your position you should probably have made use of taxis/hotels etc. to minimise inconvenience even if it costed them more.

Ambushed 🤣🤣🤣

My relative (who is actually my dad) was the one who suggested I go the evening before and stay overnight with him when I first told him, some weeks ago, that I was visiting his home town for this meeting!

My DD travels from Euston to Birmingham once a week and she almost always gets a refund. She keeps it. She asked her employer (civil service) and was told to do that. It's her personal inconvenience.

They can’t enforce or win an accusation of theft because someone kept personal compensation, which is not a refund, purely designed and clearly marketed to be compensation to the traveller.

I’m never sure so I claim it for one of the charities 😇

Definitely the traveller. I got compensation for a cancelled flat to the tune of 300 euro and was allowed to keep it as it was me that was inconvienienced.

@Snorydog that reminds me, we also use hire cars and the service provided is dreadful. Cars delivered late or delivered to the wrong address, no fuel in them or in poor condition, or left in a stupid place (I often have mine delivered to my home, where it could be left on a large unrestricted parking area next to my garden, which they always ignore in favour of putting it on my drive and blocking in my car so I have to play car tetris to use my own car if I need to go out on a personal errand before I use the hire car or they leave it half on the footpath in front of my garden where it is also blocking the narrow road).

I complain many times and sometimes they pay £25 compensation to say 'sorry'. I know I can't keep the money myself but they have twice sent me a cheque in my name and in both occasions I have immediately donated the same amount to charity and told my department head by email that I have done this. She is fine with this (as well as making sure I add the reasons for the complaint to the long list of why the car hire company is shit action tracker).

National Rail Conditions of Travel. The contract is between the TOC (train operating company) - 'We' - and the passenger - 'You' (Part A). Delay repay is compensation for you, the passenger:

'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 compensation from the Train Company that is responsible for the delay in completing your journey.' (32.1). This means the TOC running the leg of the journey that caused the delay.

The best method is to claim online, through the TOC website. You can specify where the refund goes, giving your own bank details. If a ticket was bought while logged in to the TOC, and a particular train specified, delay repay may be automatic to account details already given.

The system for refunds (if you don't use the ticket to travel) is slightly different, and may be direct to the purchaser. The contract for payment, not travel, is between the TOC and the purchaser. 'A Ticket may be transferred by the person who bought that Ticket to another person ...' (5.1).

Your company may have its own policy to collect the delay repay. It may make a difference that you were travelling outside working hours. Your route then is to challenge the policy or drop the matter.

I have worked for several companies where I have had to travel and I always have claimed it for me, as it’s me that’s been inconvenienced. Never been an issue and I have never been challenged in it

The company doesn’t care but having a demotivated employee is more of an issue for them

Depends on your company. I had a flight compensation for a delay and asked—I was told that I should claim it for myself. I wouldn’t advise taking advice from MN on this one—find out your own company’s policy before proceeding.

In the last 20 years I have had this dilemma probably 30-40 times. But I always pay for train fairs on my own credit card and then claim it back from expenses. Trains are always delayed and I have always kept the refund for myself. It’s not my CEO that is stood on a train platform in the cold or missing bedtime with the kids because the train was delayed.

It’s a little perk that happens a few times a year - usually in the depths of winter.

I complained about a nightmare hire car for work and they delivered a bottle of wine when they came to collect it 😂

It should go to you. You suffered the inconvenience. The company still got you from A to B which is what they paid for.

I once had a horrendous train journey- over 6 hours sitting on the train then finally reached my destination at 2.30 am and had to be up at 6am then run a whole day conference. My colleague I was with didn't put her ticket through as expenses because of the compensation. I couldn't believe it, we were both so knackered and hungry!

I can’t fathom that logic. There’s no helping some people.

Had it been travel during work time, then maybe the company should get the refund, but it was your time that was inconvenienced, so you should get the compensation. My future DIL travels for work, any refunds she applies for herself (big company tells her that’s acceptable).