Great Western Coffee Shop

I had a super off peak from ludlow to reading

I wanted to upgrade from newport to reading - I normally pay about ^34 (yeah I know I know) but was assuming since me and my rail card are currently divorce it would be about ^50

TM was very condescending, told me it would be about ^100 and there was no such upgrade for 50ish in the machine - I told him there was but I can't prove it since the last months tickets were lost with the railcard.

He told me there wasnt, I told him there was, I them stomped off to standard as I'm not paying ^100 one way between new port and reading - I actually stood at the buffet

Who was right?

I think you pay the difference between the respective fares.

SSR is ^51.70
FSR is ^138.00

So difference to pay is ^86.30 however in real life it might be done different, i.e upgrade as if it was a single fare.

Based on you usually paying ^34 to upgrade then it is only applied for a single leg of the journey, so the difference between the SSR and FOS.
By that reckoning
SSR ^51.70
FOS ^117.00

Total to pay ^65.30

Not sure where the ^100 fare came from.

Did you have a single or return?

The correct way to do such an upgrade is from Ludlow to Reading not from Newport.  You cannot partially upgrade a ticket half way along the route in the way you describe.

So the upgrade from a super off peak return to offpeak first return would be from 51.70 to 138.00.  This would come out at 86.30 which is not too far off from the stated 100 from the TM.

If however you had a single the upgrade from super off peak single to anytime first single would be  from 30 to 117.  This would be 87.00.

What I am describing is the correct way to do it as staff should be trained to do.  Of course you could just charge the difference between a standard single and a first single and that would be about 38 quid. 

However that is NOT the correct way to do it but it is quicker so may be done sometimes.  Especially if a customer opens their wallet and shows about half  dozen such ticket already issued before.  ;D 

But there is no first class from ludlow to newport so why should I pay the fare for it

P.S The reason I upgrade one way is I never know if I'm coming back via newport or evesham or even birmingham (as I did yesterday) so its pointless to pay the full via newport fare in both directions - especially if I go back via evesham

Excessing std returns to travel first one way is not straight forward.
For walk on tickets it is either it is the whole difference from the STD return SSR/SVR to the FSR (off peak first) if available
OR
it is the whole difference between the SSR/SVR to the SOR, then half the difference between the SOR (i.e. what you've now paid) and the FOR
Some times it's cheaper just to buy a FOS to start with.