AIBU to think that this brave new world of everything needing to be booked in advance while simultaneously being non refundable is a massive PITA?

[Uptee]

And that it's all down to the internet?

Yeah, it's "easy" to book things online, but it's not always "easy" to turn up for them. Life gets in the way, people get sick, have pressing commitments appear, plans change. And when that happens, easiness goes out of the window. Suddenly it's not so easy, to do anything at all, because none of this ease is really for the convenience of customers. It's just to push cash flow forwards.

Half the time, you have no choice but to book in advance. There are no walk-up tickets. Or, if you're talking walk-up tickets on the train, they're £200. So instead you buy a train ticket for £70 which is still let me remind you a fuck of a lot of money, and even though your journey that you won't make (say for example, because a booking you had as a self employed person got cancelled) is weeks and weeks hence, there is no refund. You might just have well have burnt that bloody money. It's a fucking con.

I wonder how common that is? Here in Liverpool I can turn up with no notice.

YANBU. when my eldest was preschool age in winter or if it randomly rained on my day off with him we could last minute go to the local soft play and he’d have fun still. Fast forward to now and my youngest is that age. You now have to book online in advance, for a two hour slot - the first one starts at 9 a 20 min drive away so I’m barely back from the school run, the second is over lunch and you can’t take your own food and the third is over the afternoon school run. Adults are now £4 each too. I don’t go now.

Started during Covid and must have made them a fortune so they stuck with it . But how do they make money if you just don't show up ? It's not like they can resell it can they . I hate the lack of spontentity as I might see something ask if anyone would like to go but if it's months in advance not many can give a definite answer . And being penalized heavily for not booking straightaway , like Booking.com.

I never buy tickets insurance any more although my DH bought two tickets to a local theatre and bought insurance. Come the day and it was absolutely hammering down with rain. We cba to get soaked so didn't go (it was an am dram performance that come about £12). I decided to claim for the tickets and said that due to inclement weather, we couldn't get there and as supporting evidence (just for a laugh) I took a screenshot from the BBC weather app and sent that. A couple of days later, they paid up 😂

Train tickets can be great value compared to running a car and i've not had trouble getting refunds

Trains changed the rules on refunds recently though - any advance tickets are now non refundable.

Ah perhaps but i thought on trainline it still gave u a choice of refundable with a fee

Advance tickets have never been refundable. Open tickets are, but they're often far more expensive. Eg if I want to go to London without booking a set train in advance it's £140 off peak, or £320 during peak times.

I could go for a minimum of £50 ish, but I can't change the tickets and I'd have to be very lucky to get it at that price to go for a day out, certainly not something I can do without booking 2-3 months in advance.

The problem with cars is you pay probably 70/80% of the cost of ownership, whether you use it or not, and a lot of the time, a train isn't practical, so you need a car, so once you have it you might as well use it except for the minority of journeys where parking is difficult and/or expensive or the rare time when it's faster. Otherwise the car is cheaper, especially if more than one person is travelling and you have far more flexibility.

In Swansea you book and it's made the whole process a lot better. No more queues, you can always get a parking space. Under the old 'just turn up regime' I could spend 30 minutes just queuing. Under the new system I am in and out in under five minutes. I don't think pre-booking for going to the tip is a massive deal as you'll know when you're planning on carrying out an activity that requires you to go to the tip - moving house, clearing the garden, doing a job etc.

I was today years old when I learned about this!

The time I feel this worst is for Christmas events. I really really despise having to book and pay for Christmas experiences in fucking August.

Where i prefer booking in March when tickets come out for panto but as I like particular seats

and I always see on the local town fb group people wanting tickets so if ever couldnt go I would get my money back

Depends on which company it's for. With LNER even if you buy from trainline they only have advance (non refundable) or fully flexible (refundable but £200 a journey) and there are no in-between semi flexible tickets like off-peak etc any more, from them.

It's swimming for me. I'd sometimes wake up and think 'it's a nice day, think I'll pop to the pool for an hour or so.' Nowadays you have to book at least 48 hours in advance just for an adult swim. Sponteneity right out of the window.

There are, but you need to know what to look for. LNER have an off peak flexible single ticket that you can book in advance or buy on the day, with no restrictions on train as long as you don't use it for arriving at/leaving London during their peak window.

If you're on the LNER website, on the page where it shows you the list of times and advance prices, click on select ticket to expand the box and it's in there.

But seeing as you don't need to book in advance, you can buy it at the station before travelling. It's £73 from Leeds to London/vice versa, so worth buying if you don't need a peak train and can't get a cheaper ticket. There's also something with a 70 minute either side flexibility that you can change for a £10 fee, but I can't see how to buy that.

I think you would be kind to point this out to the soft play centre. They might not change their booking system, but they might consider changing their time slots.

EMR often have cheaper tickets if you book weeks in advance or the night before. Paying on the day are always the most expensive.

Exactly this, about owning a car: when you have paid the costs of a car, a train becomes an expensive, slow, and unreliable luxury. I’d gladly get rid of my car if short term car hire existed my town, like it does in large cities.

There needs to be more thought about this. Electric cars are extremely expensive to buy, especially if you don’t yet have the means to charge at home, but could work very well if there were places to hire them from in every town, like the bikes in London. This doesn’t occur to many politicians, with their jags and land rovers.

Yes this, even if I want to use public transport, much of the time I need a car to access it!!!

I’ve just been on the Trainline looking at trains to the airport for tomorrow and been asked to add my age “to enhance my experience” FFS.

Yes, I have noticed this recently. Why do they need to know? I mean it's pretty obvious when I add a senior railcard what demographic I am in.

Couldn't agree more op, does my head in.

I spent a month in Thailand recently and you can still book most things on the day. It was lovely to have to not schedule and be free!

But just imagine how dramatically enhanced your train journey will be when some bot knows how old you are. Transformational.