{"id":150,"date":"2009-05-28T21:00:35","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T20:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/?page_id=150"},"modified":"2009-06-21T08:15:05","modified_gmt":"2009-06-21T07:15:05","slug":"seat-reservations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/?page_id=150","title":{"rendered":"Seat Reservations"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have now managed to complete the majority of the seat and sleeper reservations for this years Summer travel 2009<\/a><\/p>\n

In total 77 trains would be used with 15 either not requiring reservations or known to be unreservable
\nThis leaves 62 reservations being required
\nIn order to assist booking staff it was decided to split this into four batches
\nThe first batch was completed with the ticket purchase, the second batch later the same evening, the third batch the following day, and the fourth batch one day later
\nThis left one final batch, which would be reserved once the relevant seat plans or information was provided by the relevant passenger Train Company<\/p>\n

The first stage was to obtain the seat plans<\/a> that applied to the trains and then work out which seats would be suitable
\nWhen travelling I prefer a seat at a table of two seats, rather than a seat at a table of four seats or airline style
\nI also prefer sitting at the facing corner, so that there is a maximum view
\nHowever, for some train types this is not possible as the First Class seating area is either small or in the middle of the coach
\nFor sleepers it is also known that the berths next to the toilets or above the bogies can be especially noisey
\nFor these reasons it is best to make a short list in order of preference, so that if your first choice is already taken then you can work your way through them
\nIn some cases, typically where there are less than 7 days before travel, you have to take what is available<\/p>\n

First batch :
\nThis was performed at Glasgow Central Travel Centre
\nThis Travel Centre is operated by Virgin Trains
\nThe staff are more than happy to assist with specific bookings, if you already have preferred seats just let the staff know before you start
\nOn this visit the Sleeper Supplements were not applied; this is \u00a340 for First Great Western and \u00a343 for First ScotRail
\nAlso, the First ScotRail \u00a32.50 First Class sleeper refreshment vouchers were not issued, however as I had not been charged for the supplements I did not query this
\nThe Customer adviser also experienced difficulty finding the First Class berths for First Great Western
\nIt should be noted these sleeper are solo or shared, so remember to ask for a Solo Berth when using a First Class ticket
\nTwo trains were found to be either unreservable, of which one was known to be unreservable
\nThe first was the 16:36 York to Edinburgh Waverley Cross Country service on Sunday 21 June, which was found to be full
\nAs a result a reservation extension was made on the previous train
\nThe second was the 07:43 London Euston to Birmingham New Street Virgin Trains service on Monday 22 June
\nThis service is temporarily not operated by a Pendolino or Voyager, and so is known not to be reservable<\/p>\n

Second batch :
\nThis was also performed at Glasgow Central, later the same evening
\nThis Customer adviser was clearly more experienced, however was clearly annoyed that I had specific seat requirements but still fulfilled my requests
\nAs expected the sleeper supplements were applied, but again the \u00a32.50 First Class sleeper refreshment vouchers were not issued
\nI was advised these were only issued with First Class single tickets
\nI then presented an email and letter from First ScotRail confirming that these vouchers should be issued when holding a First Class All Line Rail Rover
\nThe Customer adviser also noted that I had not been charged for one of my bookings earlier in the day, so sadly that ticket was cancelled and charged correctly<\/p>\n

Third batch :
\nThis was also performed at Glasgow Central, the following day
\nAgain the Customer adviser was happy to take all my requests
\nRather than read my list I was asked to read them out, which made the process much quicker
\nThere were no sleeper reservations
\nA second attempt was made for the 16:03 York – Edinburgh Waverley (see first batch above)
\nThis was still showing as full
\nThe booking for the 12:16 Manchester Piccadilly – Preston First TransPennine Express service on Friday 26 June was also showing as full<\/p>\n

Fourth batch :
\nThis was also performed at Glasgow Central, one day later
\nAs this was in the late evening there were only two Customer advisers, so I advised them early on that if it became busy I would be happy to suspend my requests so that any queue could be dealt with
\nAgain, I was asked to read out my list and I started off with the sleeper reservations
\nThe first was completed successfully, however the Customer adviser had placed the reservation as a complete package in error and the only way to correct this was delete the entire booking and start again
\nBy this stage a queue had already built up so I suggested I come back again
\nAfter 15 minutes I was back, this time suggesting each reservation be completed on its own
\nAgain, the \u00a32.50 First Class sleeper refreshment vouchers were not issued
\nAll the subsequent reservations were completed without any major issues, so much so that the Customer adviser was even to able guess some of the seat numbers before I had read them out!
\nA second attempt was made for the 12:16 Manchester Piccadilly – Preston (see third batch above)<\/p>\n

Final batch :
\nLike those above, this was performed at Glasgow Central
\nDue to Arriva Trains Wales and East Midlands Trains refusing to provide information (see below) any suitable facing window seats were reserved<\/p>\n

Whilst researching the tickets, prices, and entitlements during May 2009 I sent an email to First ScotRail, asking what holders of First Class All Line Rail Rover tickets would receive
\nThe original email confirmed that \u00a32.50 First Class sleeper refreshment vouchers would be issued, along with London Underground vouchers
\nI had no plans to use London Underground, so had no interest in these
\nOn completing the third batch I sent a reply to that original email, along with a copy of the sleeper reservations
\nThe following day I received a letter by post confirming that I should have received these refreshment vouchers but they could not be issued now, so I had been issued with Travel Vouchers to the value of \u00a315.00 as compensation
\nA further email was sent regarding the fourth batch, this response advises that the original response and information was incorrect, with refreshment vouchers and London Underground vouchers only being issued with First ScotRail First Class sleeper single tickets<\/p>\n

An email was sent to Arriva Trains Wales for seating plans
\nA response was received after 7 days that seating plans were not available<\/p>\n

An email was sent to Cross Country regarding the 16:36 York to Edinburgh Waverley Cross Country service on Sunday 21 June, which was found to be full, but was found on there website to have seats available
\nA response was received within 24 hours, requesting date of travel
\nA subsequent reply confirmed a reservation had been made<\/p>\n

An email was sent to East Midlands Trains as seat plans were not available
\nThe inital reply later that day advised that seat plans did not exist, sadly this is not the case as Travel Agents have access to them (if required)
\nMy subsequent request was for details on whether the First Class is at
\nthe London end, using this allows use of the seat plans to check the seat plans
\nThe reply to this was received after 7 days, advising that First Class could be at any end of the train<\/p>\n

An email was sent to First TransPennine Express regarding the 12:16 Manchester Piccadilly – Preston service on Friday 26 June, which was showing as full
\nRather than respond by email I had a response in writing
\nIncluded was a reservation on my alternative service, the 12:46 Manchester Piccadilly – Preston<\/p>\n

An email was sent to Wrexham & Shrophire as seat plans were not available
\nThe initial response later that day advised that seat plans were not available, but they would be more than happy to meet my requirements if I provided further details
\nThe following day I had a confirmed reservation, which appears to meet my requirements<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have now managed to complete the majority of the seat and sleeper reservations for this years Summer travel 2009 In total 77 trains would be used with 15 either not requiring reservations or known to be unreservable This leaves 62 reservations being required In order to assist booking staff it was decided to split […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2,"menu_order":9998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229,"href":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150\/revisions\/229"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rail-britain.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}