Hello. I just bought advanced tickets from Waterloo to Winchester. After I bought them, I see that it says I should pick them up at Winchester (my arrival station). When I look at the help button for National Rail, it says that you can pick the tickets up at ANY train station. Does anyone have experience with this? will I be okay picking up my tickets at Waterloo?
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
When you buy the tickets it asks you where you want to pick them up, you probably didn't read that question and gave the wrong answer ☺. But, in practice you can pick them up from most stations.
Just go to any ticket machine in Waterloo (or any other station you happen to be passing through). You will need your reference number ( a long sequence of letter and numbers), and the credit card you used to buy the tickets, even if it has expired. The credit card is used for ID, nothing will be charged.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33994 posts
Yup, that'll be a case of fumble finger. It won't hurt anything. Doesn't have to be a station with a staff member on duty, as long as the machine is there and you have the original credit card and the reference number you can pull the tickets out of the machine ready for us when you need them.
Be very sure to wait for all the little card pieces to drop into the collection tray, they are sometimes quite slow, and be very sure to take them all. You will have from one to three pieces of card for your own benefit, such as the receipt, a summary, your details, and one or two cards for each leg of the journey for each person. All your information may be on one ticket including the FROM and TO part, and which train you are allowed to travel on (with Advance it only the precise train named, it is invalid on any other) and perhaps coach and seat number, all in teeny tiny print or it could be spread over two pieces of card with a reference to requiring the second piece on the ticket, and big print on the second piece... This varies operator by operator and ticket issuer. Just be very sure to take them all. If you can't make heads or tails of it just hand the whole wodge over to the Train Manager/Guard/Senior Conductor when they come through the train. They will have seen it all before - and the confused look won't be a surprise either....
Posted by
OP
Kansas
124 posts
Thank you! what a relief
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5466 posts
The reason they ask the question as to where you are picking up tickets is to deter as far as ;possible people not knowingly turning up at stations to pick up where this isn't possible.