Speedferries basic tickets

[letsgetoutofhere!]

We are due to travel with Speedferries at the beginning of August on a ticket booked many months ago. The ticket is a basic one, therefore we cannot make amendments to it. Since booking the ticket we have changed our car. It still fits into the standard car dimensions as per speedferries web site - just!!

 

When booking the ticket we had to enter the cars number plate which obviously is now incorrect. Has anyone else travelled across in a different car to which the original booked was made for?

 

I plan to just chance my luck, but the wife is a bit nervous about it.

[Richard T]

From the Speed Ferries T&Cs:

6.5 BASIC Ticket

• A BASIC Ticket is valid for the booked travel dates and times ONLY

• A BASIC Ticket is non-amendable and non-transferable.  The booked departure can not subsequently be changed

• You
  are required to notify us if your vehicle or passenger list changes – a
  Call Centre amendment fee of £15 will be charged - It is NOT possible,
  under any circumstances, to amend both the lead passenger name and the
  vehicle

• Check-in for
  travel on a BASIC Ticket must take place no later than 45 minutes prior
  to scheduled departure time. Should a customer fail to check-in in time
  for the booked journey on a BASIC Ticket the booking will be lost. No
  transfers or refunds will be made

Richard T

[Chancer]

Notwithstanding the above, have a try at changing the vehicle reg on-line, you may just get lucky, it does say elsewhere that the vehicle type can be changed on-line once free of charge as long as it is in the same category.

[dave21478]

I dont know if things have changed recently, but in the past I have twice turned up in a different car to what I had booked, both times without informing them beforehand and never even had it mentioned.

 Both times the replacement car fell within the same dimensions / category and I assumed that this was what mattered to them, not the actual reg number of the car travelling.

First time I was supposed to go in a Landrover defender, and ended up using a peugeot 106, so a definately noticeable change! the second time was changed from a Mondeo to a Vectra, so very little difference.

 

[Chancer]

Come to think of it you are right, they only use the registration number if you dont have your bookig reference or are struggling to communicate (in whatever language).

So long as you dont have a vehicle in a different category I reckon it is worth the risk assuming that you have calculated what it will cost you if you are unsuccessfull.

I have always found them to be very responsive to polite, reasoned discussion and very firm in applying the rules to those shouting the odds.

[AnOther]

I agree, if it's in the same class then just turn up.

I must admit that we use Norfolk Line not Speedferries but I think they probably all take a fairly laid back view of these things as long as you are not seen to trying to take the pee.

If you think about it you could very well leave UK in a car on UK plates and return a couple of weeks later in exactly the same car but this time with French ones and it would be patently unfair to penalise customers for that but if you do phone up to tell them then their systems will likely kick in and do just that.

A slightly different scenario I know but the first time we came over house hunting we wanted to change our booking for the return ferry and nievely phoned them up to do thus automatically incurring both a change fee plus the difference in the fare which added up to more than the £42 we had paid for the entire return ticket in the first place [:-))]

From what we learnt on that and the next couple of trips trip we subsequently always booked the cheapest fares, usually the midnight or 2am sailings, but habitually turned up for the one before and always got on for free. On a few occasions we turned up even earlier and always got on but it was luck of the draw whether it was for free or we had to pay a €30 supplement [;-)]

 

[Acegundog]

December 07 we were booked on with a basic ticket Audi A2 but had to go in our Honda CRV in the end.  Absolutely no problem whatsover - just gave our booking ref no and that was that.

 

[letsgetoutofhere!]

Thanks for all the replies. In the past when trying to change this basic booking on line I have been presented with an error message saying, as a basic ticket you cannot amend it. It has just let me change the number plate on line. Not sure why it has let me now, but would not back in Feb, but who cares......!

[briwy]

      

We used a different car last year when the original car developed a sudden fault a day before we went.

We just turned up and had no problems. No questions asked about the car at all.

Ive never seen anyone check registrations when we have booked in.

[just john]

Theoretically it is in your interest to log the correct vehicle details so that you are able to show when you took the vehicle abroad and when you return, for insurance purposes etc, maybe SD can confirm this, however we have also arrived in a different car and pointed it out without any problem (I'm not sure if they bothered to amend the detail change even)

[AnOther]

[quote user="now just john "]Theoretically it is in your interest to log the correct vehicle details so that you are able to show when you took the vehicle abroad and when you return, for insurance purposes etc, [/quote]

And practically, as somebody recently discovered [blink]

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1235518/ShowPost.aspx