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Heathrow to Bristol in November

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Blillpers

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Hi,
This November me and my mother are going on a trip to Bristol. We will be flying with Scandinavian Airlines into Heathrow and then catch a train from Paddington. As we will be making an very early start in Sweden we would like to travel first class to make the trip as enjoyable as possible. I'm now looking at buying the UK train tickets, but I'm very confused about all the different options.

I'm not sure exactly how we'll get from Heathrow to Paddington, however I'm not willing to pay for very expensive first class tickets for a 15-minute trip. What we would like to have is first class tickets Paddington - Bristol and return. What kind of ticket would be the best and cheapest option? Is it possible to reserve seats, or can you count on the first class section not being overcroweded? The outward trip will be in the early evening and return in late morning.

Also, are the GWR services still HSTs, or have the new trains arrived? Unfourtantly my mother is unable to travel on tilting trainsets, as she gets pretty bad motion sickness.
 
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Blillpers

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I've got as far as picking which services we would like to travel on, however when I want to reserve seats it only gives me an error message stating

"There are no more seats available to reserve for your chosen ticket on the outward/return service. You can buy this ticket without reservations or you can change your service or ticket selection and try again."

The same thing happes no matter which services I chose. Something wrong with the booking system perhaps?
 
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island

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Rather than take the extremely overpriced Heathrow Express service, catch a frequent bus to Reading and join your train to Bristol there.

It's still HSTs on GWR.

I don't know what the reason you aren't getting offered reservations is. When are you travelling? You may be booking too far ahead or you may be travelling on a day when there is a match in Cardiff in which event GWR won't offer seat reservations as a matter of policy.
 
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Blillpers

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Right, Reading is certainly an good option. We are arriving at Heathrow in late afternoon on the 16th of November, return is in the morning on the 19th.

As far as I can remember the Heathrow Connect service isn't that overpriced either?
 
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island

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For the return leg there are engineering works between Paddington and Didcot Parkway on the weekend of 18/19th and they have not yet confirmed details of the service. They won't open up reservations until that's done.

I can see reservations available on outbound services to Bristol Parkway on the 16th but not Bristol Temple Meads.
 
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Blillpers

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Right, that makes sense. I'll just wait for a bit then. Thanks for the help!
 
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Mag_seven

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Blillpers said:
Also, are the GWR services still HSTs, or have the new trains arrived? Unfourtantly my mother is unable to travel on tilting trainsets, as she gets pretty bad motion sickness.
Click to expand...

The new trains on the GWML don't tilt so you will be OK. The only trains that tilt in the UK are those on the West Coast Main Line operated by Virgin.
 
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