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Coronavirus - Ticket Refund Policy – 27 March 2020Dear Travel Agent, Our TOC members have agreed a national coronavirus related ticket refund policy as described below:
Refund Administration Fees for Anytime and Off-Peak Tickets All TOCs have agreed that the administration fee for refunds should be waived for all Anytime and Off-Peak tickets. This agreement is in place for all tickets valid to travel from Tuesday 17 March until Thursday 30 April 2020.
Advance Purchase Ticket Refunds As from Monday 23 March, all TOCs have agreed that customers who already hold Advance Purchase tickets to travel on services that will be affected by the revised timetable, will be entitled to a refund with no charge. The administration fee for refunds should be waived for all Advance Purchase tickets, sold prior to 07:00 on 23 March 2020, for travel after 07:00 on 23 March 2020. Refunds must be applied for before travel on the first booked train. This agreement will be in place for all tickets valid to travel from Monday 23 March until Thursday 30 April 2020. Advance Purchase tickets sold after 07:00 on 23 March, for travel on the reduced timetable, will be eligible for refund, free of charge, only if the service is later disrupted or cancelled, and the customer decides not to travel.
Advance Purchase Ticket Changes Customers still wishing to amend their journeys to travel on another service, may still do so free of charge, provided that the change is requested before the original travel date. Please note that if the new tickets are more expensive when the client requests a change of travel plan, then the client will have to pay the difference. This agreement will be in place for all tickets valid to travel from Tuesday 17 March until Thursday 30 April 2020.
Timeframes for Refund Submissions We appreciate that many offices may be closed due to recent government guidance, and this will cause disruption to your usual office procedures, one being the submission of refund requests. Therefore, we have relaxed the usual timeframes required for submitting refund requests. The current requirement for refund submissions is that your clients must submit tickets for refund to your agency no later than 28 days from the expiry date of the ticket. Your agency should then ensure that the refund application is submitted to TARS during the same accounting period. As from 27 March 2020, clients have up to 56 days from the expiry date of the ticket, to send their refund requests to you, enclosing documentary evidence such as a dated refund form/letter, confirming the date the request has been sent to your agency. Refund requests sent by travel agents to TARS will continue to be accepted for up to 2 months from the date the refund was received at your agency. This arrangement will continue until further notice.
Return of tickets to agents The government has advised people against non-essential travel and therefore many clients and travel agents are unable to visit their usual place of work at this time. As a result, it has become extremely difficult for ticket holders, wishing to apply for a refund, to return them to the place of purchase. For this reason, TOCs have agreed that travel agents can accept refunds upon receipt of an image of a destroyed (cut in half) ticket. If you wish to accept an image of a destroyed ticket, then please ensure that you advise your clients not to dispose of the ticket until you have confirmed that you have a clear and eligible copy of the ticket, enabling you to process the refund. This arrangement will continue until further notice.
Refund Processing For all coronavirus related refunds, where no fee is to be charged for refunded Anytime, Off-Peak and Advance Purchase tickets, and also for exchanged Advance Purchase tickets, they must be sent to TARS for processing. The Evolvi TIS cannot process auto refunds without the usual fee being applied and so you will need to send them to TARS, with the usual documentation to; TARS
Rail Delivery Group Travel Agents Team
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