Paul G writes:

In message , Graham Nye
writes
On 01/03/2012 09:22, ®i©ardo wrote:
My message on ticket collection was on my First Great Western
confirmation. However, 2 -3 years ago I was collecting from other than
the station that I had nominated for that purpose.


Yesterday I pre-ordered a ticket for next week for collection from my
home station and today I was able to pick it up from my destination
station. So the system is indeed more flexible that the website
message implies.


It also used to be that you could use any credit card to activate the
ticket machine and then enter a reference number to collect your
tickets.

I used the Virgin ticket machines at Euston last Saturday and they
needed the specific credit card that I had booked with (which is a bit
inconvenient as I use a different credit for online bookings and don't
always carry it) and were extremely slow (from when the card was put
in it took upwards of a minute to bring up the ticket details on the
screen). On the other hand I didn't need to tap in a reference
number.
Have always wondered why they can't identify the booking from the card,
and save all the pain of entering a booking number. Often have 2 or 3
booking numbers as its usually cheaper to buy separate tickets for parts
of the journey than through tickets. Like they use to do at the cinema.

However, last time I went to the cinema, they needed the booking number.
Apparantly it was in case the card had been stolen after I had made the
online booking.

Was struggling to understand:
How someone who had stolen my card would know I had used it to buy at
cinema, ticket and even then which cinema I had made the booking at.

And if my card had been stolen, the last thing on my mind would be a
couple of 10 quid cinema seats.

Phil