Booking Seats on one advance booking next to another

[F Great Eastern]

I've just booked an advance ticket from Ipswich to London and was assigned a seat as normal, but someone is travelling with me who is traveling further.

As they will be on a different booking, it means we cannot sit together?

 

[Hadders]

Some TOC websites have a choose your seat option but many do not, unfortunately. You should be ok if you find two unreserved seats on the train next to each other as seat reservations are only normally checked to make sure you are on the correct train (where applicable).

Booking tickets for this type of situation is usually best done at a station.

 

[route:oxford]

I've just booked an advance ticket from Ipswich to London and was assigned a seat as normal, but someone is travelling with me who is traveling further.

As they will be on a different booking, it means we cannot sit together?

When you booked your seat, it would have been wise to choose one which also had an empty seat next to it. That way your friend could have chosen to sit next to you if he booked straight away.

 

[David Goddard]

The only TOC I have seen such a good online facility is Cross Country, when booking on their trains, when you can pick our seat from the seat plan. Haven't seen such a facility on any other TOC website, which is surprising (would have expected Virgin to offer something like that)

 

[marks87]

The only TOC I have seen such a good online facility is Cross Country, when booking on their trains, when you can pick our seat from the seat plan. Haven't seen such a facility on any other TOC website, which is surprising (would have expected Virgin to offer something like that)

East Coast offer it as well.

 

[ValleyLines142]

When you booked your seat, it would have been wise to choose one which also had an empty seat next to it. That way your friend could have chosen to sit next to you if he booked straight away.

With Greater Anglia you cannot select the seat yourself; it is allocated at random so the OP wouldn't have had a choice.

Also the OP's friend is on a different booking.

I may have misinterpreted that, however.

East Coast offer it as well.

Yes, CrossCountry and East Coast are the only two TOC's whose websites allow you to select a seat by looking at a plan of the train.

Great idea in my opinion! I'm surprised other TOCs haven't followed this.

 

[F Great Eastern]

I have booked my seat, the other person has not but would like to book as soon as possible since they want to book an advance for the next few days and prices could rise etc.

Would it be wise to go into the booking office in Ipswich in the morning to see if they could assign a seat near my seat, or can they not pick custom seats either? It's for GA services for my one leg and the other persons two legs.if that helps.

What happens if we just sit in two unreserved seats, would we get a penalty fare for that? Could we mitigate this by removing the reservation slip from our seats, to therefore it does not cause any problems since they would then become free? Would the Guard take any action if we just sat in random seats as long as they were free?

 

[ValleyLines142]

Would it be wise to go into the booking office in Ipswich in the morning to see if they could assign a seat near my seat, or can they not pick custom seats either? It's for GA services for my one leg and the other persons two legs.if that helps.

If anything it would just be easier if you go to Ipswich station and telll them your situation and I'm sure they'll just offer you two new seats next to each other. That's what I've done in the past when I've been in the same shoes as you.

What happens if we just sit in two unreserved seats, would we get a penalty fare for that?

No, you wouldn't get a penalty fare. You can either do as I mentioned above (booking new reservations tomorrow), or just hope on the day there's two seats together somewhere. If you think the service will be busy, then do the former.

Could we mitigate this by removing the reservation slip from our seats, to therefore it does not cause any problems since they would then become free?

If you've managed to find two together, then yes, that would be fine. Just remove the labels

I'm going to Manchester on Tuesday, but my friend and I have got backwards facing seats, and we can't travel backwards, so if the seats opposite (we're on a table) facing forwards are free then we'll have them instead and will put our seat reservations there so that our original backwards seats are free for someone else to sit in.

Would the Guard take any action if we just sat in random seats as long as they were free?

No, he should be fine with it.

 

[Romilly]

Just remove the labels

Very often, reservation labels indicate that there is a penalty for their unauthorised removal. The meaning of "unauthorised" in this context can be debated, but it probably means authorised by the person who put the label there in the first place (i.e. authorised by the train operating company or a member of its staff). If your reservation is the only reservation on the label (i.e. the seat isn't reserved for someone else for a subsequent part of the journey), I suppose you could argue that the company has impliedly authorised you to remove the label given that it is there solely for your benefit. Personally, I would leave the label alone, especialy as my experience is that most passengers looking for unreserved seats check empty reserved seats to see if the reservation is one that hasn't been taken up.

 

[island]

Other than on CrossCountry and East Coast, the only ways to request a specific seat by number are by phoning telesales or in person at a staffed station.

If you have already been assigned a seat with your advance ticket and now wish to change to a different seat, there is a £10 change fee applicable to this in line with Advance ticket terms and conditions. Some clerks may waive this if they're in a good mood.

 

[greatkingrat]

At work we use the Evolvi site for booking train travel and that gives the option to pick a specific seat. I'm surprised none of the public sites have introduced this option yet - it would seem fairly easy to do and would be a good selling point.

 

[ValleyLines142]

At work we use the Evolvi site for booking train travel and that gives the option to pick a specific seat. I'm surprised none of the public sites have introduced this option yet - it would seem fairly easy to do and would be a good selling point.

Is the Evolvi site available to the public?

 

[richw]

Is the Evolvi site available to the public?

You've got to have a corporate account with them to use them

 

[Johnny_w]

Phone customer services in Norwich. I did this to get a reservation for my mum
as she has a (Ret) Priv ticket.

Lovely lady on the phone sorted it so we could all sit together.

JW