Coronavirus refunds
We understand that you may need to change your travel plans as a result of changing COVID restrictions.
Whether you are looking to change the date of your journey or get a refund, we have put the following information together to help you see what options are available.
The information is based on the different ticket types in place, if you hold a paper ticket and you’re not sure what type of ticket you have, please check the information printed on the orange stripe in the top left corner of the ticket for one of the following.
Student travel window
If you are a student and you booked an Advance ticket on or after 2nd December 2020 for travel between 2nd January 2021 and the 7th February 2021 (UK Government Student travel window), you can either:
- Change your date of travel at any National Rail Ticket Office without paying a £10 admin fee
or
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You can receive a non-cashable voucher for the same value as your ticket
Please see the Additional FAQ's below for information on how to apply for your voucher.
The outward travel dates of flexible tickets such as Off-Peak and Anytime can already be rebooked to another date without an admin fee.
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 a number of 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:
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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 amount 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.
Please note Advance tickets are not normally refundable. To support government guidance, we have made the following exceptions:
You can receive a refund to your original payment method with no admin fee charged if:
Please see the separate FAQ section at the bottom of this page for full details of how to apply for your refund. Please note, you have up to 28 days from the expiry date of your ticket to apply for your refund. |
You can receive a non-cashable voucher for the same value as your ticket if:
Please note: 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. Please note, you must apply prior to the date of travel. |
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
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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.
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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.
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:
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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.
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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.
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.
Additional FAQs
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 The 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 Paper Ticket Refunds 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:
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.