Change of travel plans

Travel on a different date

You can change the date of travel without paying a change of journey fee, so long as you request the change before the date of your original journey.

If you bought your ticket from us and no longer want to travel

• Tickets sold up to and including Sunday 6th September 2020:
  
  We can refund your ticket, up to a maximum of 56 days from the expiry date of the ticket and we have waived the £10 admin fee, please see the separate FAQ section at the bottom of this page for full details of the refunds process.

• Tickets sold on or after Tuesday 24th November 2020, for travel during the Christmas Travel Window (23rd to 27th December 2020)::
  
  We can refund your ticket, up to a maximum of 28 days from the expiry date of the ticket and we have waived the £10 admin fee, please see the separate FAQ section at the bottom of this page for full details of the refunds process.
  
  Refunds must be claimed within 28 days of the expiry of the ticket.
  

• All other tickets sold from Monday 7th September 2020:
  
  We can refund your ticket less a £10 admin fee, up to a maximum of 28 days from the expiry date of the ticket, please see our refunds process for full details.

If you bought your ticket from another retailer or train company, you will need to contact them to request your refund.

Advance tickets under normal circumstances attract a fee for changing to a different service or date and are not refundable.

However, given the current situation we have introduced several temporary changes, which vary depending on when you bought your ticket, the journey itself and the travel date.

If you still want to travel but on a different day:

• If you bought your ticket on or before Monday 4th January 2021 for travel anywhere on or after Tuesday 5th January 2021:
  
  You can change your ticket at any National Rail Ticket Office to travel on a different day, without being charged the £10 change of journey fee, but you will need to pay any difference between the fare you have already paid and the best available fare for the new journey.
  
  Whilst we are not limiting the number of times you can do this, if you are not sure of when you will travel, you may prefer to exchange your ticket for a non-cashable voucher of the same value.
  
  You will be able to use this voucher towards the cost of a future National Rail journey over the next 12 months, more information about how to apply for your voucher is below.

• All other tickets, including those bought on or after Tuesday 5th January 2021:

You can change your ticket at any National Rail Ticket Office, but you will need to pay any difference between the fare you have already paid and the best available fare for the new journey, plus a £10 change of journey fee for each ticket changed.

You are not able to exchange these tickets for a non-cashable voucher

If you bought your ticket from us and no longer want to travel.

Whilst Advance tickets remain non-refundable, in the following specific circumstances we can exchange your ticket for a non-cashable voucher of the same value:

• You bought your ticket on or before Monday 4th January 2021, for any journey on or after Tuesday 5th January 2021

Your voucher will be valid for 12 months from the date of issue, allowing you to use them towards the cost of a future journey on the National Rail network.

Please see the separate FAQ section at the bottom of this page for full details of how to apply for your voucher.

If you bought your ticket from another retailer, you would need to contact them to request your voucher.

We cannot exchange any other tickets for a voucher.

If you bought your ticket from us and no longer want to travel:

Unexpired Season Tickets can be refunded at any time.

We will calculate how much is refunded based on the value left on your ticket on the day you submit your Season Ticket less a £10 admin fee for refund.

You can find out how much refund you are due by using this calculator:

Season ticket refund calculator

Please see our refunds process for tickets here, for full details.

This refund can only be backdated with evidence that illness prevented you from travelling.

For more information, including if you require a refund due to sickness that prevented you from using a Season Ticket, see the Season Ticket Conditions page.

If you bought your season ticket from another train operator or retailer, you will need to contact them to request your refund.

Travel on a different date:

Please do not date your carnet ticket until you know for certain that you are going to travel, as it is not possible to amend the date of travel with these tickets once dated.

If you bought your ticket from us and no longer want to travel:

• Tickets sold up to and including Sunday 6th September 2020:
  
  We can refund both complete and partially used books of tickets, up to a maximum of 56 days from the expiry date of the ticket and we have waived the £10 admin fee, please see the separate FAQ section at the bottom of this page for full details of the refunds process.

• Tickets sold from Monday 7th September 2020:
  
  We can refund both complete and partially used books of tickets, and we have waived the £10 admin fee, up to a maximum of 28 days from the expiry date of the tickets, please see our refunds process for tickets purchased after Monday 7th September 2020 here, for full details.

These tickets are not refundable. Please only purchase them if you are certain you will travel.

A full refund is available before the period of validity starts with no fees applied. Tickets cannot be refunded once the period of validity has started.

Please contact Transport for London for any refunds for tickets purchased on Oyster.

If you will not be using your car park season ticket for some time, you can request a refund by following the normal refund process.

If you purchased your ticket online as a “ticket on departure” that you have not yet collected, its easiest to manage your refund or exchange is through your online account in most cases:

• Login to your account at Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink and go to ‘Manage my tickets / refund’ section.
• If you purchased your ticket as a Guest, please refer to your booking confirmation email for details of how to ‘Link your order to an account’
• For Smartcard tickets please use the online Key Smartcard refund form.

If you have an eTicket or paper ticket, or you are unable to process a refund via your on-line account, you should apply for a refund remotely using our online refund form at Thameslink, Southern, or Great Northern.

We aim to process all refunds within 20 working days.

We understand that receiving your refund is important and it will be processed as quickly as possible.

If you have not heard from us within 28 days of submitting a refund application, please get in touch and we will investigate your enquiry.

If you applied at a ticket office, please provide as much information as you can, including a copy of any paperwork issued by the ticket office. If you applied using the web form, or other online service, please quote your reference number.

You can apply for a non-cashable voucher for the value of your ticket, which will be valid for 12 months from the date of issue, for use as payment towards a new ticket.

If you bought your ticket from us:

If you have an e-ticket and bought it from us please use our Contact Us form by selecting the “Make an enquiry” option and “Refunds” subject. Include the following information:

• Booking reference of the e-ticket
• Full name
• Email address
• Telephone number

You will have a non-cashable travel eVoucher added to your online account within 14 days of receiving your request.

eVouchers can be used for tickets that are available from our website.

To use your eVoucher, you will see your voucher total in the delivery options screen once you have selected your ticket and you will have the option to use some or all of your voucher as payment in full or towards that ticket.

Please note that eVouchers cannot be exchanged for cash and are valid for 12 months from the day of issue.

Follow this link for the Contact Us form.

If you have bought a paper ticket, if you have not already done so, please print the ticket(s) and then send it in the post to the following freepost address:

Govia Thameslink Railway
Freepost RTGL-ELXC-HAUU
Ashby-De-La-Zouch
LE65 9EB

Please include the following information:

• Full Name
• Postal address
• Email address
• Telephone number

If your ticket value is above £50 you may wish to use an enhanced Royal Mail service to do this. We cannot be responsible for any tickets lost in the post.

If you bought the ticket from another train company or retailer, even if the journey is on our network, you will need to contact them to apply for a voucher.

It will depend on certain criteria including your journey, when you bought your ticket and the date of travel.

You can refer to the relevant government website, to check for dates of announcements for the previous local restrictions, using the links below:

UK Government website

Scottish Government website

Welsh Government website / weler Llwodraeth Cymru

As soon as possible and must be made prior to the time and date of travel. Once your travel plans change, the sooner you let us know the better, especially for a voucher exchange as these can take up to 2 weeks to process.

If you would like to take a different journey, please request a voucher and rebook.

Please request a voucher and use this to purchase a new ticket for the date you would like to travel.

You can change it again, however, if your travel plans are uncertain the better option for you would be to exchange your ticket for a voucher which can be used to purchase another ticket in the future.

As this is an enhanced service offered due to Coronavirus and the subsequent guidelines. We are only able to exchange advance tickets for non-cashable vouchers. Advance tickets are not normally eligible for refund or credit notes.

If your travel plans are uncertain the best option is to exchange your ticket for a voucher which can be used to purchase another ticket in the future.

As this is an enhanced service offered due to Coronavirus and the subsequent guidelines. Although this process is similar to our refunds process, we are only able to exchange Advance tickets for non-cashable vouchers, and we do not have a self-service function available for this.

Unfortunately, we are not able to take responsibility for any tickets not yet in our possession. If your ticket is of high value or you are concerned, you may want to consider using an enhanced Royal Mail service.

These vouchers can be used to purchase National Rail tickets for travel on any National Rail service regardless of the train operating company.

If you have not received your voucher within 3 weeks, please contact our Customer Relations team using the Contact Us form.

If you purchased an e-ticket as a guest, you can link it to an account retrospectively but clicking on the link in your booking confirmation email. When you have set up your account you can apply for your ticket to be exchanged for an eVoucher.

To use your eVoucher, you will see your voucher total in the delivery options screen once you have selected your product(s) and you will have the option to use some or all of your voucher as payment in full or towards that product, you can also view these within eVouchers screen. Please note that eVouchers cannot be exchanged and are valid for 12 months from the day of issue.

After careful consideration, the government has confirmed that Railcards will remain non-refundable and will not be extended.

We will accept National Rail Vouchers at our Ticket Offices for payment towards the cost of your next rail journey, with an expiry date between 17th March 2020 and 16th September 2020 for a maximum of 6 months after they have expired.

We cannot accept National Rail Vouchers with an expiry date from the 17th September 2020, that have since expired.