Virgin Trains - do they have seats allocated?

[JMN2]

I was a bit silly and booked a return to London, wasn't too bothered about a seat, apparently one is able to amend it later.

I just got my tickets printed, no seat numbers, on my account online no chance to amend or book a seat at all. All very rubbish.

Adult standard class super off-peak return. £132.70 return to London and it's all ruddy shite.

Moderator Message:
Profanities removed. Please don't do that again. - Chris

[Lootman]

According to this, Virgin Trains have either one or two "unreserved" coaches. First come, first served, but if you are getting on at the start of the journey, should be doable:

https://twitter.com/virgintrains/status ... 80?lang=en

Otherwise lots of people make a reservation and then don't show up, usually when it is an off-peak return like yours and so they aren't tied to one particular service. So you can look at the reservation indicators onboard and, if the seats are vacant after the reservation start location, then you're probably golden to sit there.

Evidently Jeremy Corbyn doesn't know that.

[JMN2]

Well, IIRC, I could've gotten myself a seat number when I booked, but didn't bother because one was supposed to amend and change right up until the trip. Well that's not the case. I am boarding in Durham.

Virgin website says go to your my account and your booking and dropdown box here and there, well, there's nothing there except a chance to cancel.

130 quid for this pile of shite.

[JMN2]

How to amend your seat reservation

1. Sign in to My Account and go to My Bookings

2. Find the booking with the seat reservations you want to change

3. Select Amend Reservations from the drop-down list

4. You then have two choices:

Option 1 – Choose new seats for the same journey

(this is your only option if you have an Advance Fare)

Option 2 – Choose new seats for a new journey

5. If you select option 2, you’ll need to select a new date and time from those shown

6. Next choose your seating preferences and click Continue

7. You will then see a confirmation screen for the new seats you have booked

8. Within a few minutes, you will receive your confirmation email. This is your receipt for the amended seat reservations, and shows the original booking reference and the new booking reference

9. Print out the confirmation email and keep with your tickets



We can only help you change your seats for bookings made on our trains, and not with bookings made with any other train operator.

[JMN2]

#3 drop down list doesn't exist.

[BobbyD]

#3 drop down list doesn't exist.

Need help? Phone 0344 556 5650

[shadowside]

My wife is a frequent traveller on Virgin East Coast and very familiar with their booking system. A few weeks ago they introduced a new computer programme. Since then seat reservations have been a nightmare. She has had several long conversations with customer service who are not able to work the new system any more than she is.

If anyone from Virgin is reading this " You have a problem that needs sorting"

[Loup321]

You can also go to a ticket office with your tickets and request a seat reservation. I imagine Durham's ticket office would be able to do this (I use London Euston). I don't imagine all the staff at my local station could manage it, but one of them probably could. It's free and all you have to do is queue up. I think you have to do it the day before you travel (but I can't remember why I think that).

LouP

[Hardgrafter]

Reservations can normally be made well in advance, and remain available until two hours before the train starts its journey, or, for early morning trains, up to 1600 the previous evening. Please remember that at busy times (weekends, holiday periods) all seats can quickly be booked

That's from National rail website.
At Euston last week they told me 'two hours' before departure (obviously if your train starts in Aberdeen ....)

[YeadonLad]

There has recently been a problem where the reservation details have not been printed correctly. You receive a travel ticket and the reservation ticket but the latter does not give details of either the train or the seat. The railway companies and (most of) the platform and on board staff know about this issue.

The problem appears to be random and affects (as far as I am aware) all train companies where seats are reservable. I travelled from Leeds to London the other week:
- the outward ticket was printed in the new format where seat reservation details are shown on the travel ticket.
- the return had separate travel and reservation tickets but no train/seat details were shown on the latter.
And yes, there were booked in the same transaction.
The conductors comment ' Oh, another one of them'.

I have a journey from Exeter to Leeds shortly, on a through train, but which was booked through TrainSplit so it has been split into 6 travel tickets and 6 reservation tickets. Five of the reservation tickets are correct, one has the train/seat details missing.

[JMN2]

There you go, you see, I'm not crazy, I don't just invent these problems

So if I just board the train and find a seat there is a good chance someone would have reserved that and would like me to move?

I just became a socialist - bring on Corbyn and let's nationalise the railways and have some proper service for a change!

[chas49]

There you go, you see, I'm not crazy, I don't just invent these problems

So if I just board the train and find a seat there is a good chance someone would have reserved that and would like me to move?

I just became a socialist - bring on Corbyn and let's nationalise the railways and have some proper service for a change!

Well - unless the system is also omitting to "reserve" the seat, there should normally be an indication on or above the seat that it is reserved so you may be asked to move by the ticket holder.....

[BobbyD]

There you go, you see, I'm not crazy, I don't just invent these problems

So if I just board the train and find a seat there is a good chance someone would have reserved that and would like me to move?

I just became a socialist - bring on Corbyn and let's nationalise the railways and have some proper service for a change!

Well - unless the system is also omitting to "reserve" the seat, there should normally be an indication on or above the seat that it is reserved so you may be asked to move by the ticket holder.....

The trick being to find seats which were reserved for an already completed leg of ther journey.

[csearle]

I just became a socialist - bring on Corbyn and let's nationalise the railways and have some proper service for a change!

Oh my giddy aunt, don't you remember how truly, unspeakably rubbish our train service was when it was nationalised? Don't ever let us go back to those bleak times again!. C.

[stevensfo]

I just became a socialist - bring on Corbyn and let's nationalise the railways and have some proper service for a change!

I agree 100%.

I have never voted Labour and was brought up a staunch Daily Mail reader, but at the tender age of 56, I simply can't believe how our lives have become so screwed up!

British Rail were not perfect but at least you had a ticket in your hand and you'd get get there somehow. In one case, they got a minicab to drive a load of us students down to Hitchin because the trains from Huntingdon were cancelled.

Fast forward to privatisation and I missed a flight from Stansted because the idiots at Cambridge didn't give a toss about the Stansted express being cancelled for the whole afternoon. Trying to meet my son for a uni visit was a disaster when I discovered in Birmingham that there were plenty of trains but you had to know which train company went where.

I always thought that the whole point of public transport was to encourage people to leave their cars at home and travel cheaply while producing less pollution and helping the environment.


Steve,

[BobbyD]

There you go, you see, I'm not crazy, I don't just invent these problems

So if I just board the train and find a seat there is a good chance someone would have reserved that and would like me to move?

I just became a socialist - bring on Corbyn and let's nationalise the railways and have some proper service for a change!

That won't help Corbyn porefers sitting on the floor.

The UK has the safest rails in Europe, with passenger km's on target to double since privatisation after decades of flat lining under nationalisation, and the UK tax payer spends a lot less money subsidising private travel than most of his European counterparts...

[chas49]

Moderator Message:
This has departed from being a DAK. Topic locked (chas49)