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Help and Support With Your Booking

 

Ticket Types

Assertis Rail's online booking system helps you to find the most appropriate train fare for your journey, from fully flexible Anytime tickets to the cheapest Advance fares. For further information about ticket types and the tickets available for purchase, please see Ticket Types.

Reservations

Like Train Operating Companies (TOCs), Assertis Rail depends upon the National Reservations System for seat reservation allocations. Whilst your seat preferences will be passed to the Train Operating Company, seat allocations are subject to availability and we cannot guarantee that your preferences can be met.

Delivery

Your tickets will be delivered by the method selected at the time of purchase. Please find further details and delivery timescales below.

Collection From Self-Service Ticket Machines

  • Tickets are available for collection 15 minutes after ordering
  • Tickets can be collected from self-service machines at over 1,000 stations (‘ticket on departure’ or ToD)
  • The collection reference (an alphanumeric 8 digit reference number found on the confirmation page and email) must be entered into the machine for tickets to be collected
  • Any payment card can be used to collect tickets (the card used for payment is not required for business account customers)
  • There is no charge for self-service ticket machine collection
  • Please note only one collection reference is provided per transaction. If tickets are to be picked up from the station independently, each journey must be booked as a separate transaction. When the collection reference is entered into the machine, tickets will be printed for all journeys within the same transaction

Royal Mail First Class Post

  • The First Class delivery option will only be available if there is enough time for delivery from booking your journey to your journey commencing (5 working days)
  • Please allow at least 5 working days for the tickets to arrive
  • Please ensure the name, address and postcode are entered correctly
  • Tickets can only be delivered to UK addresses (including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man)
  • If a delivery address is outside of the UK please use the ‘Collection from self-service machines’ option
  • There is a charge of £1.70 for First Class delivery

Unless extreme weather conditions apply, your tickets should arrive within 5 clear working day if you have placed your order before 2pm.

Royal Mail Special Delivery™ Next Day

  • The Royal Mail Special Delivery option will only be available if there is enough time for delivery
  • Delivery for next day before 13:00 can only be guaranteed on orders made before 14:00 (2pm) the previous day
  • A delivery address must be entered and the tickets must be signed for upon delivery
  • Tickets can only be delivered to UK addresses (including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man)
  • If a delivery address is outside of the UK please collect tickets from a self-service machine
  • There is a charge of £8.50 for Royal Mail Special Delivery
  • Unless extreme weather conditions apply, if ordered before 14:00 (2pm Mon-Fri), your tickets will be delivered by 1pm the next day (for most parts of the UK *). If ordered after 14:00 (2pm), your tickets will arrive within 2 days

* Some remote parts of the Scottish mainland and the Scottish Isles take longer.

NEW: Self Print tickets

Assertis Rail now offers self-print tickets, for Advance fares in both Standard and First Class, on certain journeys with CrossCountry and First Great Western including:-

CrossCountry:

  • Plymouth to Edinburgh
  • Birmingham New Street to Stansted Airport
  • Reading to Newcastle
  • Bristol Temple Meads to Manchester Piccadilly
  • Cardiff Central to Nottingham

All of the above routes go via Birmingham New Street. CrossCountry routes also extend to Southampton Airport Parkway and Stansted Airport, making it easier for you to connect with your air travel!

First Great Western:

  • Reading to Bristol Temple-Meads
  • Reading to Bristol Parkway
  • Reading to Bath Spa
  • Reading to Plymouth
  • Reading to Exeter St David's
  • Reading to Swindon

About Self-print tickets:

Self-print train tickets are similar to self-print airline tickets; they will be delivered to you as a PDF attachment to an email. Simply print them off at home at your leisure; all information relevant to your journey will be included, including reservations where applicable.

Please ensure clean white A4 paper is used to print out your tickets; they will include a barcode which may be scanned at station ticket gates or on board the train, so please keep them in good condition and do not fold the paper across the barcode.

One self-print ticket will be provided for each passenger.

To open your self-print ticket you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is already installed on most PCs and Macs. If it is not installed on your PC or Mac, or your version is not up to date, please visit Adobe to download it (free of charge).

Not received your booking confirmation email?

The primary confirmation of your booking is shown on screen immediately after a successful payment transaction. It confirms the booking reference, journey information and payment details. For convenience, a copy of the booking confirmation will also be emailed. Please allow 30 minutes to receive the booking confirmation email. If it has not been received within this time, check your mailbox spam filters.

If you have still not received your email confirmation, you can re-send your confirmation email from the administration portal.

Payments

If you are having problems with payment, please check the following information:

Own Card - please check that you have filled out all mandatory fields and that you have complied with any error messages that may have been displayed. If you are still having problems with payment please contact us.

Stored Corporate Card - please ask your administrator to check the card details are correctly stored in the administration portal. If you are still having problems with payment please contact us.

Virtual Card (Premier Accounts only) - please contact the business team. 

All payment cards used for booking tickets must have a UK registered billing address. Currently, asseris is unable to process payments from non-UK-registered cards. Please note that a billing address is not required at the time of purchase for Premier Account users.

Refunds and Amendments 

Refunds, amendments and lost in post queries are dealt with by Assertis. Please refer to the section below to understand which tickets are eligible for refund/amendment. If a ticket is eligible for a refund/amendment, or tickets have been lost in the post, email business@assertis.co.uk

Anytime and Off-Peak tickets are refundable. If a customer decides not to use a ticket of this type, a refund claim can be submitted. The refund must be claimed within 28 days of the departure date. If a customer has only used the outbound portion of an Anytime Return or an Off-Peak Return ticket, the return portion may still be eligible for a refund. Such claims require individual assessment, as return ticket values are quite often only a matter of pence more expensive than the outward portion. However, in some cases the difference can be more substantial and a refund can be sought.

Advance tickets are non-refundable, unless the service was subject to cancellation by the Train Operating Company (TOC). Advance tickets can be amended by first buying a qualifying replacement ticket, which then allows customers to apply for a refund of the cheapest ticket – see ‘Amendments.’ If you have already booked your qualifying replacement tickets, please see ‘How to apply for a refund’.

All tickets for which a refund is sought must be present with the refund form. If a customer has selected to collect tickets at the station, but did not travel, the tickets still need to be collected and submitted with a refund form. Please bear in mind that the tickets can be collected from any station which has ticket on departure machines, not only the one selected during the booking process.

How to Apply For A Refund

If you have booked tickets to collect at the station and wish to refund ALL of the tickets, please email business@assertis.co.uk and include the following information: Your booking number, the reason for refund and replacement booking reference number (if applicable). Emails must originate from the same email address as used for booking or the business administrator. If you only wish to refund part of your booking, your tickets were posted out to yourself or you have already collected your tickets please print out and complete this form. Please be sure to enclose any tickets along with the completed form. Assertis Rail recommends that you use an insured method of postage in order to send your refund request; we cannot process a refund unless we receive the original tickets. Please post your refund request to: Assertis rail Refunds, 150 Minories, London, EC3N 1LS, United Kingdom.

For refunds based on the re-booking of qualifying replacements for Advance tickets, where the new tickets qualify, please ensure that proof of purchase is provided for the replacement booking when the original tickets are returned for a refund. Without this proof of purchase, the refund cannot be processed.

Please note that eligible refunds take up to 21 days to be processed. In most cases, an administration fee of £10 is required for the refund of part or all of the booking. Refunds based on Advance ticket amendments are charged differently – see 'Amendments'.

The refund amount will normally take into account any use of the ticket and in some circumstances, no refund will be paid. Customers are unable to apply for refunds at the station.

Please send the completed application and unused tickets to:

Assertis Rail Refunds,
150 Minories
London
EC3N 1LS
United Kingdom

Please ensure that the unused tickets are appropriately insured against loss in the post as refund applications cannot be processed without the tickets. Royal Mail Special Delivery service is recommended, so that tickets can be insure to cover their face value. Click on the 'prices' tab at the Royal Mail website for more details.

Customers will be notified by email within six weeks of receipt of the refund application to confirm whether the refund application has been approved by the central authority, or to indicate if there has been a delay. Once the repayment has been processed onto the customer’s card, it can take up to 5 working days to appear in the account.

Amendments

Advance tickets cannot be refunded, but they can be amended. An amendment involves re-booking a new journey, before the departure of the first reserved train printed on the original ticket (the outward leg of the original journey).

Customers can then apply for a refund of the original tickets. The re-booking and the amount of refund are subject to the conditions explained below.

Please note that tickets cannot be amended after the original date of travel. If a customer has booked a return trip in one transaction, and both are Advance tickets, the return leg could still be amended. In this case, the customer would receive a refund (less admin fees) on the cheaper journey, even if the cheaper journey is the rebooked journey.

Train Operating Companies apply an Advance amendment fee of £10 per ticket for changes made to the journey. assertis does not profit from this, and the entire £10 goes to the Train Operating Company. There will also be an administration charge of £10 for the overall booking.

If a customer wishes to amend the date of a single Anytime and Off-Peak rail ticket, or the outward travel date for a return ticket, a new ticket must be bought prior to an application being made for a refund on the existing ticket. There will also be a £10 administration fee per booking for changes made to the journey.

Late Tickets, or Tickets Lost in Post

If tickets are genuinely late or lost in the post, Assertis Rail will take responsibility for the loss.

Assertis Rail need to ensure however that all details below have been checked prior to identifying the tickets as having been lost in the post:

  • The full and correct address was given during the booking
  • Enough time was allowed for the tickets to be delivered
  • First Class post – 5 full working days
  • Special Delivery - the order must have been completed before 14:00 (2pm) on the previous day. Delivery is not made on Sundays

 

If it is established that the tickets are indeed late, please check the following:

  • Has someone else at the address received the tickets?
  • Has an attempt been made to deliver the tickets and a note left to notify that tickets have been left at the Post Office or sorting office, awaiting a re-delivery request or collection?
  • If an attempted delivery was made within the timescales referred to above, and the letter is being held by Royal Mail, awaiting re-delivery or collection, no claim for replacement tickets will be met, as delivery was attempted and only local circumstance prevented it. Note that this may only be possible to verify with Royal Mail
  • Has the item become concealed at the address?Is it possible that there may have been postal delays? (eg. during periods of severe weather)

Once these checks have been made, and the tickets have been established as lost or late, please ask your account administrator to escalate the issue to Assertis Rail.

Tickets Lost by Customer

Should Assertis Rail successfully print a customer’s ticket(s) and deliver them to the customer (be it collection from a self-service ticket machine or delivery by post), the tickets then become the responsibility of the customer.

At this time, Assertis Rail has fulfilled its contractual obligation and therefore the customer is at fault and will be unable to claim a refund for the lost tickets.

Cancellations

What if the Train Operating Company cancels the train?

Even if a service is scheduled to run at the time of booking, subsequent disruption to services can occur. It is always advisable to check a planned journey with the Train Operating Company before travel.

If a Train Operating Company cancels a service you wish to take or on which you have a reservation, you should be able to take the next available service but are advised to contact an appropriate member of staff at the station. If you have not yet left for the station, please contact the Train Operating Company whose service has been cancelled and ask them to confirm the alternative arrangements that they have made to accommodate you on another train.

If, as a result of the cancellation, you choose not to travel, you will be eligible for a refund (for any type of ticket that you bought) through Assertis Rail and no administration fee will be charged. Please refer to the 'Refunds and Amendments' section.