UK: Inter-city operator LNER is developing plans for a Ticket Protection product intended to give customers greater confidence when booking currently non-refundable rail journeys.
Passengers would a ‘small’ fee, and then be able to claim a refund if they were unable to travel because of eligible unforeseen events outside standard rail refund rules.
The operator is undertaking preliminary market engagement for an LNER-branded minimum viable product that would offer fixed-price protection for a limited number of ticket types, with refund fulfilment and analytics on uptake and usage to inform future development.
LNER envisages that it could be deployed from March 2026 to the end of February 2029, with a possible extension to the end of February 2030.
