Would you claim this refund?

[Rockstick]

I brought a flexible train ticket, and booked a seat on a specific train.

In the event I got an earlier train and all went smoothly, but the train I'd booked was delayed, meaning I'm "entitled" to a refund of about £20. Would you claim it?

This reminds me I had the exact same situation a couple of months back. Should have claimed…

If you can be bothered then do it. As others say, trains are overpriced, frequently late/cancelled, overcrowded…It makes up for all the times your journey goes to shit and you can’t claim. My daughter travels frequently and claims whenever she can.

Of course you do. I have done this myself more than once. Getting the earlier train is neither here nor there.

I got the earlier train once because my train was already delayed and getting the later train would have made me late. It meant I left my meeting 15 mins early. Absolutely entitled to my refund.

Even if you weren’t inconvenienced you had paid for a service that wasn’t available. Whether or not you used it isn’t really the point.

I’d be tempted- the bigger their total refund bill this year then maybe the bigger the incentive to sort out the generally shit service next year?!

I would normally, as @TheShiningCarpet says, they wouldn't hesitate to fine me for a minor infraction. And I'm still annoyed that about five years ago, my Delay Repay (or whatever it was at the time) was declined even though my train was cancelled and then the replacement was delayed by over an hour, they said because I couldn't produce a ticket I couldn't have the refund. Reader, I didn't have a ticket because I specifically signed up for the digital ticket.

I might not for £20 as I accidentally got on the wrong train before xmas and the conductor was kind and didn't charge me for a new ticket. So I feel like it would balance out, in a karmic sort of way!

So you booked a seat that you decided not to use - so nobody else could use it either - and the seat/train you chose instead was problem-free?

So you're effectively considering asking them to compensate you for you blocking one of their seats wholly unnecessarily whilst getting the exact service that you wanted and paid for?

God yes, I’d consider it compensation for the absolute arsehat who fined me AND made me buy a new ticket for the accidental senior railcard ticket I’d bought because of the stupid app. I clearly wasn’t trying to get away with it - I was 25!

I would yes but in revenge for when avanti cancelled my train and said I could get thd next one, only my seat reservation was now invalid and I had to stand all the way but that wasn't deemed worthy of compensation.

Nonsense, the seat was available as soon as the train left London. Thats what (?expensive) flexible tickets are for, so you can travel flexibly. The seat reservation is done automatically, you have to pick a train, even if you don't know which one you'll be on.

A bit low rent, op?

It doesn’t work that way - you presumably scanned your ticket at the barrier to join the earlier train or maybe by the inspector onboard or at the barrier when you arrived to exit - this gets logged so they’ll know you didn’t get the later (delayed) train

I know this because once my train was delayed/cancelled from the city centre station but they were being offered on the other slower lines from another local station but getting into a different central London station - when I claimed the refund they knew I’d scanned my ticket at the other stations exit barrier and knew that my arrival time wasn’t delayed by over 2 hours

You could but I’d advise you to try a number of other things which are more financially lucrative. Using someone else’s credit card to order mobile phones is a good one. Or if you work in finance, then putting your own bank details on invoices can give you a nice income stream.

Other useful things you could try are a smash and grab on a jeweller’s store at night, or kidnapping someone’s child for a bumper ransom.

Hope you can find some good ideas among those.

OK, apologies, I stand corrected - I wasn't aware of that requirement.

Nevertheless, if you feel that getting the exact service that you wanted and paid for had a negative impact on your life, then by all means go ahead and claim compensation.

It would depend on how much it was. <£10 I probably wouldn’t bother but if it was more then I would.