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Seat Reservations


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I am having a nice day out to the Severn Valley Railway today and booked my seat on the 0703 from Euston to Birmingham New Street. As usual I booked a forward facing, window seat with power socket. So why is it that on a seat that is facing the right way round I have a rear facing aisle seat? Don't Virgin know which seats face which way and which are next to a window? Rant over! 

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Window seats are a problem because many of them are not lined up with windows at all.

You would think they could get direction & window/aisle right though. This is why many reserved seats seem to be free; those who have reserved them sit elsewhere making a mockery of the whole system.

I frequently travel from MK to Euston in the early morning. Most seats are reserved, many of which are empty. I often sit in a reserved seat but rarely get asked to move.

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1 hour ago, Chris116 said:

As usual I booked a forward facing, window seat with power socket.

 

Did you actually check the seat location & direction after the system allocated it to you?  I find that the system will abandon your stated preferences as soon as it gets a bit difficult to match them, and just plonk you anywhere.  This seems to happen especially if I ask for the quiet coach (which TBH I don't usually bother with these days).  I always use the change seat booking function before going ahead with the ticket purchase because this happens so often, and it gives you a chance to choose a more suitable alternative if the system has picked you a dud, even if you can't actually get one that meets all your requirements.

 

IIRC from booking on VTWC for the missus a few weeks back, the seat selector even shows you which seats are actually aligned with a window and which don't have a view.

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It gets worse on the ECML when a train reverses at Newcastle.

I have overheard some very un-lady like comments from dear little old ladies when the train starts going backwards.

If a seat is not as booked I tend to look at the reservation labels and pick a seat near bye that is reserved but is vacant or is reserved for only part of my journey.

Of course on the ECML when a reversal takes place the next use of that set will have incorrect reservations in respect of direction.

Bernard. 

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30 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

It gets worse on the ECML when a train reverses at Newcastle.

I have overheard some very un-lady like comments from dear little old ladies when the train starts going backwards.

If a seat is not as booked I tend to look at the reservation labels and pick a seat near bye that is reserved but is vacant or is reserved for only part of my journey.

Of course on the ECML when a reversal takes place the next use of that set will have incorrect reservations in respect of direction.

Bernard. 

I was kindly informed elsewhere on RMW about the seat reservation diagram facility on LNER. You book your ticket and then you can choose your seat (well after they are allocated). OK so no guarantee that the seat will be whatever way round etc when the train arrives but it does really help to remind me what seat has a decent view and is maybe 'private'. Fun to play with (sad I know). On a recent LNER HST trip down to 36E a week or so ago it was apparent that some passengers had no idea about the new electronic seat allocation indicator system with the little screens above the seat on the rack front. They were thinking all the seats without cards (and that was all of them of course) were not reserved and that was causing amusing activity in the coach (B) that we were in. The bloke sitting where our two seats were booked was left to it as we had spied two seats without table at the very front but were rear facing. I don't care about that and these seats are often not available on the diagrams as I think they try to leave them for walk ons and non booked passengers? Great view of the confiusion though.

P

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Personally I find the new LNER seat reservation displays very helpful, and with the colour light system certainly much easier to understand than the tiny displays on Voyagers and Pendolinos. On the latter I have seen messages vary between 'Reserved' (without saying from where to where', 'Reserved Virgin Traveller Club (whatever that is, and again no location details), 'Reserved unless occupied' (guess what, I sat in such a seat recently only for another passenger then to claim it, so a pointless system) and finally 'Reserved from x to x (which is what all the displays should say). And of course on Cross Country Voyagers you can sit in an unreserved seat only for another passenger then to claim it having made a last minute reservation, which you won't be aware of because you can't see the display when sat in the seat !

 

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2 minutes ago, caradoc said:

Personally I find the new LNER seat reservation displays very helpful, and with the colour light system certainly much easier to understand than the tiny displays on Voyagers and Pendolinos. On the latter I have seen messages vary between 'Reserved' (without saying from where to where', 'Reserved Virgin Traveller Club (whatever that is, and again no location details), 'Reserved unless occupied' (guess what, I sat in such a seat recently only for another passenger then to claim it, so a pointless system) and finally 'Reserved from x to x (which is what all the displays should say). And of course on Cross Country Voyagers you can sit in an unreserved seat only for another passenger then to claim it having made a last minute reservation, which you won't be aware of because you can't see the display when sat in the seat !

 

There are seats on X Country Voyagers? Blimey...…………….. :tease:

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I know all about the select your seat option the Virgin West Coast give but I was using the Chiltern website as it is normally cheaper to Birmingham from Marylebone than Euston. Having found the cheapest option was via Euston I went to the Virgin website but I must have filled the last cheap seat so bought via the Chiltern website which does not offer seat selection as their own trains do not have reserved seats. Glad to report I had a comfortable journey and arrived in New Street a couple of minutes early! 

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25 minutes ago, caradoc said:

And of course on Cross Country Voyagers you can sit in an unreserved seat only for another passenger then to claim it having made a last minute reservation, which you won't be aware of because you can't see the display when sat in the seat !

That one's a bugbear of mine. Fine being able to reserve the seat up until a few minutes before departure but a system that actually lets people turf others out isn't a good idea.

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5 minutes ago, Reorte said:

That one's a bugbear of mine. Fine being able to reserve the seat up until a few minutes before departure but a system that actually lets people turf others out isn't a good idea.

 

I initially thought it was a good idea, but having now had to move because someone reserved the seat I was in, I am not so sure ! The ideal would be, as I believe with the LNER system, a method of ensuring that an already-occupied seat is not reserved en route. The problem might be, for Cross Country in particular, the section for which a seat is actually occupied; For example, someone joining a Southampton-Newcastle train at Oxford might be travelling right to Newcastle, or just to Banbury ! Which also highlights the issue of long-distance through trains also serving as commuter and/or local stopping services for part of their journey.

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1 hour ago, caradoc said:

'Reserved Virgin Traveller Club (whatever that is)

 

The Traveller Club is for those people who spend thousands (over £10k?) a year on tickets - not searon tickets.

You get perks, such as closer parking at certain stations (not that this is monitored!) and free First Class travel at weekends... some free tickets too.

 

They stopped taking applications a while ago, then opened it again, then closed it again, so it's sort of pot luck.

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5 hours ago, caradoc said:

 

I initially thought it was a good idea, but having now had to move because someone reserved the seat I was in, I am not so sure !

 

I will admit that I am not familiar with this system, but can you not reserve the seat you are sitting in, once you're on the train?  At least from the next station, if not the one you've just departed from.  If not then it does seem a bit unfair.

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53 minutes ago, ejstubbs said:

 

I will admit that I am not familiar with this system, but can you not reserve the seat you are sitting in, once you're on the train?  At least from the next station, if not the one you've just departed from.  If not then it does seem a bit unfair.

 

You could, however I have the good fortune to be travelling free on a staff pass so on some operators I am not allowed to reserve seats !

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I think I have read that the LNER seats have sensors that show they are occupied or not and so if you sit In a seat it should prevent a walk on booker having it unless there is a weird coincidence in timing. However, to me this is just another little gismo that could just go wrong/break/ fail/set fire to the seat/ can't distinguish between a body and some geezer's huge back pack!

Ar$£

Edited by Mallard60022
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On 23/03/2019 at 17:24, ejstubbs said:

 

I will admit that I am not familiar with this system, but can you not reserve the seat you are sitting in, once you're on the train?  At least from the next station, if not the one you've just departed from.  If not then it does seem a bit unfair.

Possibly, and whilst most people these days lug around a box of electronics to do so not all of us do and it seems a bit ridiculous to me that you should have to for something as simple as not getting turfed out of a seat.

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I travelled up to Derbyshire back in November; fine going up (Crosscountry from Southampton), but coming back the East Midlands Alfreton to Nottingham train was late, so missed all my onward reservations. The train manager was extremely helpful and advised me which carriages to avoid on the next leg; it was effortless for the rest of the journey, seats all the way. Due to booking in a hurry, I selected the best time to return without checking the route and found myself going, Alfreton - Nottingham, Nottingham - St Pancras, St Pancras - Paddington, Paddington - Reading, Reading - Southampton. At least I avoided Birmingham New Street lol. One variant of the route had the changing time at New Street as 12 minutes! On the Paddington to Reading leg on the Swansea express service, there was an annoucement shortly after leaving apologising for the fact there were only five carriages due to 'technical difficulties'. Looking through the glass door into the next coach they were packed in like sardines while I sat in a half empty one, weird...

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On 23/03/2019 at 11:04, caradoc said:

And of course on Cross Country Voyagers you can sit in an unreserved seat only for another passenger then to claim it having made a last minute reservation, which you won't be aware of because you can't see the display when sat in the seat !

 

 

As far as I’m concerned this should not be possible. People whose ticket does not include a seat reservation should be able to sit in an unreserved seat when they board and be able to stay there without risk of being kicked out. Either the system should not accept new seat bookings once the train has started its journey, or the passenger should be able to block the seat once on board, perhaps by entering their ticket number and journey start and end points. Or even better using a QR code on the ticket to scan.

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