I recently bought an Intercity open return ticket via the Southern
rail website. The outward journey is on 23rd May, 10am, Kings Cross to
Newcastle. I also asked for seat reservations. The website said an
outward one only was available and asked whether I wanted "facing"
etc., etc.

When the tickets arrived in the post, there was nothing for the
reservation. When I emailed, they said there PROBABLY hadn't been an
available seat (so why did their website offer me one?). They couldn't
reserve one for me, and my only option was to visit a travel centre.
Well, the whole point of using their website was so I could do
everything at home, so I won't be using *them* again.

I live in Croydon and wonder, does anyone know whether the ticket
office at E. Croydon will be able to reserve me a seat on that day for
a fee, if one is available and I take my tickets? I don't want to
queue up and find out it's not possible.

Adam.

"Hobbyist" wrote in message
...
I recently bought an Intercity open return ticket via the Southern
rail website. The outward journey is on 23rd May, 10am, Kings Cross to
Newcastle. I also asked for seat reservations. The website said an
outward one only was available and asked whether I wanted "facing"
etc., etc.

How recently was this? Until yesterday, that journey was outside the normal
12 week booking horizon - as engineering work can cause a service to be
cancelled, they aren't normally bookable.

When the tickets arrived in the post, there was nothing for the
reservation. When I emailed, they said there PROBABLY hadn't been an
available seat (so why did their website offer me one?). They couldn't
reserve one for me, and my only option was to visit a travel centre.
Well, the whole point of using their website was so I could do
everything at home, so I won't be using *them* again.
I live in Croydon and wonder, does anyone know whether the ticket
office at E. Croydon will be able to reserve me a seat on that day for
a fee, if one is available and I take my tickets? I don't want to
queue up and find out it's not possible.

Yes they should be able to from today onwards - which should sort out your
more recent question in uk.railway as well...

Paul S

On 1 Mar, 11:55, "Paul Scott" wrote:
"Hobbyist" wrote in message

...

I recently bought an Intercity open return ticket via the Southern
rail website. The outward journey is on 23rd May, 10am, Kings Cross to
Newcastle. I also asked for seat reservations. The website said an
outward one only was available and asked whether I wanted "facing"
etc., etc.

How recently was this? Until yesterday, that journey was outside the normal
12 week booking horizon - as engineering work can cause a service to be
cancelled, they aren't normally bookable.

This was on Friday 26th Feb. Sorry, I confused my outward and return
dates above. The website said a reservation for my OUTWARD journey on
14th May (Kings X to Newcastle) was available. Because it's a one
month open return, my preferred RETURN journey on 23rd May was NOT
available.

My error above has confused the matter: to be clear -

Kings X to Newcastle 14th May
Newcastle to Kings X 23rd May ideally (tho I may go on either 22nd
or 24th, depending)


When the tickets arrived in the post, there was nothing for the
reservation. When I emailed, they said there PROBABLY hadn't been an
available seat (so why did their website offer me one?). They couldn't
reserve one for me, and my only option was to visit a travel centre.
Well, the whole point of using their website was so I could do
everything at home, so I won't be using *them* again.
I live in Croydon and wonder, does anyone know whether the ticket
office at E. Croydon will be able to reserve me a seat on that day for
a fee, if one is available and I take my tickets? I don't want to
queue up and find out it's not possible.

Yes they should be able to from today onwards - which should sort out your
more recent question in uk.railway as well...

Paul S

Thanks, Paul. I'll pop in one weekday and hope there's a seat
available.

I can't offer a direct answer to the question about East Croydon, but I'm
almost 100% sure that buying tickets through the website is almost
certainly not going to get you the best possible seat option.

I have been exasperated that every time I purchase an advance ticket
through the Virgin website, that I get a seat without a window, without
fail. There have been more than enough instances where I get a ticket
without a window, and directly behind, all 4 seats (window and aisle) are
unreserved. This isn't a problem when I get there first, and can just sit
in the better seats, but I don't always get that option. After quizzing
the guard on the day, he first gave me the spiel that I was given the
"best available", and when I pointed out the empty seats behind, he said
"your only real option is to go to the window at Euston, they will give
you the best seats". A pretty awful solution, but it showed to me that I
can never rely on the website to get the seats I'm looking for.

In summation, I don't know if you'll get what you want at East Croydon,
but ultimately, you'll probably be best served to go along to the window
and try it - that's often the only test for these sorts of things.

On Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:37:58 -0800, Hobbyist wrote:

I live in Croydon and wonder, does anyone know whether the ticket office
at E. Croydon will be able to reserve me a seat on that day for a fee,
if one is available and I take my tickets?

On 1 Mar, 11:58, Martin Petrov
wrote:
I can't offer a direct answer to the question about East Croydon, but I'm
almost 100% sure that buying tickets through the website is almost
certainly not going to get you the best possible seat option.

I used Southern's website this time, but previously I have always used
the Trainline and been satisfied. I always ask for an aisle seat and
have always got one. However, the Trainline didn't have the open-ended
ticket to the end(ish) of May that I was wanting, but Southern did.

I have made two trips via Virgin. On the first, I had reserved a seat
via website, but on boarding the train, it had NOT been reserved.
Luckily it wasn't busy that day, and I got an empty seat no problem.
On the second trip, they forgotten to load the food and drink for the
buffet car, so from London, there was nothing available unitl we got
to York and arrangements were made. As the joke goes, the name
"Virgin" should be changed, because it's f*cked! :-)

On a related note, Mr Branson has been reminding us recently that we
can expect and energy crunch (and particularly and oil shortage)
around 2015. So why does he have this ambition to waste fule by flying
people into space. I'm convinced he's right on this matter, as the oil
price zoomed in 2008 when the world was still in a boom. Next time the
economy takes off, things are probably going to be worse.

"Hobbyist" wrote
I have made two trips via Virgin. On the first, I had reserved a seat
via website, but on boarding the train, it had NOT been reserved.
Luckily it wasn't busy that day, and I got an empty seat no problem.
On the second trip, they forgotten to load the food and drink for the
buffet car, so from London, there was nothing available unitl we got
to York and arrangements were made. As the joke goes, the name
"Virgin" should be changed, because it's f*cked! :-)

I wonder whether East Coast know that Virgin are running trains from London
to York?

On 1 Mar, 14:34, "John Salmon" wrote:
"Hobbyist" wrote

I have made two trips via Virgin. On the first, I had reserved a seat
via website, but on boarding the train, it had NOT been reserved.
Luckily it wasn't busy that day, and I got an empty seat no problem.
On the second trip, they forgotten to load the food and drink for the
buffet car, so from London, there was nothing available unitl we got
to York and arrangements were made. As the joke goes, the name
"Virgin" should be changed, because it's f*cked! *:-)

I wonder whether East Coast know that Virgin are running trains from London
to York?

This must have been early noughties, and I'm sure it was Virgin. And
the only time I reserve a train seat is from London to N/cle - journey
is 3 hours plus.

"Hobbyist" wrote
"John Salmon" wrote:
"Hobbyist" wrote

I have made two trips via Virgin. On the first, I had reserved a seat
via website, but on boarding the train, it had NOT been reserved.
Luckily it wasn't busy that day, and I got an empty seat no problem. On
the second trip, they forgotten to load the food and drink for the
buffet car, so from London, there was nothing available unitl we got to
York and arrangements were made. As the joke goes, the name "Virgin"
should be changed, because it's f*cked! :-)

I wonder whether East Coast know that Virgin are running trains from
London to York?

This must have been early noughties, and I'm sure it was Virgin. And the
only time I reserve a train seat is from London to N/cle - journey is 3
hours plus.

I think you'll find Virgin have never operated London - York. They ran to
York with CrossCountry trains until they lost the franchise.

In message
,
Hobbyist writes

This must have been early noughties, and I'm sure it was Virgin. And
the only time I reserve a train seat is from London to N/cle - journey
is 3 hours plus.

After British Rail, the East Coast mainline was run by the Great
Northern division of WAGN (West Anglia and Great Norhern) until 2006,
after which the service has been run by First Capital Connect.

Virgin have never got their sticky paws on the line. Mind you, I must
admit I rather like Virgin - I've lost count of the complimentary
refreshments I've had off them over the years because of delays on the
West Coast mainline.
--
Paul Terry