Claim derailed

We have been very fortunate to avoid complications from the recent ash-induced travel chaos. We travelled a week or so before the travel "ban" and are due to travel in a few weeks, but we missed this problem entirely.

The severity of this event makes the snow disruptions seem minor even though, at the time, these seemed to be quite significant especially on the "Thameslink" line (now First Capital Connect).

There were also severe non-weather problems on this line. I was affected when I started daily commuting to London again at the beginning of this year.

However, I had pretty much forgotten about the problems until I saw the recent compensation offer from FCC. 50% reduction off monthly season tickets - which is what I have been using [the season-ticket sweet-spot for value occurs at one month. The extra discounts for quarterly and annual tickets due not really make up for the lack of flexibility].

I had not personally been too badly affected as I only started regularly using the service on 11th January but the window for compensation ran to 15th January. This meant I was covered and could pick up a handy £300 or so discount.

It was a bit of a coup that I had just sneaked inside the timeframe. But then I checked my records and discovered that on the first occasion, I actually opted for a weekly ticket for just the first week ! I bought my first monthly ticket on the 17th.

Before I knew about the compensation, I didn't feel too put out but now I feel like I have missed out !