Travel Question: Will my ‘self-print’ error be punished?

Q I bought a “self-print” rail ticket for my wife from Edinburgh to London King’s Cross on the LNER website. Unfortunately I missed the box to give her name rather than mine, and the ticket came out in my name. When I tried to correct it I was told I must buy a new ticket. Is this correct?

Richard G

A Yes. I am afraid you have fallen victim to the very different rules for Advance rail tickets for paper tickets, as sent by post or obtained from machines, and the self-print variety.

Even though passengers should be incentivised to do the legwork and print tickets at home (or in the office), the strict rules for these documents mean it can be a bad plan.

The tradition on the railways has always been that anyone can buy a ticket for anyone else. Rule 5.1 of the National Rail Conditions of Travel says: “A Ticket may only be used by the person who bought that Ticket or on whose behalf that Ticket was bought unless specifically allowed by the terms and conditions applying to that Ticket.” You were buying the ticket on behalf of your wife, and had you opted to collect the tickets at Edinburgh Waverley station there would have been no problem.

At the heart of this problem: the rail industry regards the paper ticket – printed on orange-and-white card with the words “National Rail” repeated in small green type – as sufficiently secure. But self-print tickets are regarded as insecure, because they can be printed as often as anyone likes. For this reason, they are generally restricted to Advance tickets. Then, if a dozen different people show up claiming to be me, only the one who can produce my ID will be allowed to travel on it.

The corollary, say LNER: “If you don’t have the required identification, your ticket won’t be valid and you’ll have to buy a new one.”

The inflexibility makes self-print an unappetising option. Besides your case, consider the situation for a small business with a meeting to attend: if the person who booked the ticket is unable to go, and a colleague needs to attend instead, a self-print ticket would be wasted.

Given the other stipulations (“make sure that each ticket is printed clearly … there should be one for each passenger, and each one has to be printed in portrait format in black ink, on plain white A4 paper’) I prefer to stick to the variety dispensed by ticket machines.

I would change, though, were there some financial incentive for doing so.

Every day, our travel correspondent, Simon Calder, tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder