Great Western Coffee Shop

I am aware you can change an Advance Ticket prior to departure providing the origin, destination and TOC are the same - but can you change class?

I have a 1st Paddington to Swindon advance which I want to change to a standard class the following day.  Can I do that?

There is nothing in the retail guidance that says you can't change the class of travel. As long as, as you rightly say, the origin, destination and TOC/route stays the same, then I don't see there being a problem.

^10 admin fee plus any difference in the price. A negative difference is not refunded.

^10 admin fee? That's daylight robbery!!!  :o

Is it? This is a long-standing arrangement to dissuade passengers who really want flexible tickets from buying advance-purchase tickets, thereby potentially depriving other passengers from buying tickets (as they are limited) at that price.

You'll pay at least three times as much with airlines; domestic or international.

Last minute bookings where a business has to provide a service for however many people turn up, and bookings which are made and then amended / cancelled are the bane of the lives of service businesses.  It's not unreasonable to have discouraging cancellation / change fees on products which are sold at a small proportion of the fully flexible cost.   Of course, the proportions and fees are an interesting discussion!

I don't think it's unreasonable. You've bought a ticket valid on a particular service only and now want to change it. That costs the operator money, and if the charge were de minimis then it would encourage a lot more to do it, which would create a lot more work for operators.

So in my case I have a ^22.80 ticket - the cheapest advance on the train I now want is around ^15 - so I assume I'd just pay the ^10.

That should indeed be the case. I'd be a little insistent if you are told you can't downgrade.

.... And so it was. Very helpful clerk who knew exactly what to do and issued me a new ticket within a minute.

Thanks for all the advice.