Adding virgin weekend upgrade to existing offpeak booking in advance?

[Pauljsgreen]

I have tried the search but must not be very good at it.

I have another question; about first class upgrades and seat bookings now.

My wife and I plan to travel from Kilmarnock to London on 29/4 returning on 2/5.

I was simply going to book online Glasgow / London off peak return (out 0940 from Glasgow friday returning from euston 1530 or 1630 monday) with the bank holiday / weekend upgrade both ways which I've discovered through this good forum is a full service with breakfast on the Friday (£25 instead of £15). That would get me seat reservations and tickets collected from my local station's ticket machine.

I would then need to buy a STD class single Each way Kilmarnock to Glasgow and return and this is about £5.50 per person each way - over £20!!

However, if I book Kilmarnock / euston off peak return it's actually cheaper I think than glasgow / euston for the standard class off peak return (£112.95 each way vs £114.70 pp).

That would be ideal, but I can't add the first class upgrade.

I think I'm clear that I can do it on the train but I really would like to get all of this sorted in advance and have all travel docs in my possession so my journey is more relaxed with seats booked at the window table single side so my wife and I are together with a power point, etc.

I see from various ts & cs that tickets other than advance tickets can buy a first class upgrade in advance. Is my local station (Kilmarnock) ticket office able to do that and book seats (from my printed off pendolino seat plan ).

Or, ideally, can I add the upgrades to my booking online somehow?


Thanks again
Paul

 

[island]

Don't think you can do it online but you may be able to do it over the phone and definitely can do it at a booking office.

 

[Mike395]

Give the (usually very helpful) Virgin customer services a ring, they should be able to it for you

08450 008 000

(The actual ticket sales number leads to thetrainline's Indian call centre, but the Virgin staff should be able to book a seat reservation for you no problems )

 

[Pauljsgreen]

Give the (usually very helpful) Virgin customer services a ring, they should be able to it for you

08450 008 000

(The actual ticket sales number leads to thetrainline's Indian call centre, but the Virgin staff should be able to book a seat reservation for you no problems )

Thanks for the reply.....

Would that include adding the first class upgrade and taking the cc payment? Can I then get the tickets from a station machine?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Don't think you can do it online but you may be able to do it over the phone and definitely can do it at a booking office.

Thx to you too island!

 

[Mike395]

Yes, that shouldn't be a problem (In the unlikely event they cant do it themselves, they'll put you back through to thetrainline's call centre, but its worth trying the UK team first, as I had great fun last time i tried anything even basically complex with thetrainline staff....)

 

[AlterEgo]

Unfortunately Customer Relations can't make bookings or take payment, they can only make you a free seat reservation. I suspect the OP's found that out by now!

 

[Pauljsgreen]

Update

Thanks for all the help so far.

I called customer services and they confirmed they could book seats but not sell me the upgrade. I did wonder how I would get confirmation of the seat booking, but only thought of that afterwards.

Anyway, i also visited my local ticket office (Kilmarnock) and asked them how they would approach selling me an upgrade. The response was "we've been told not to sell weekend and bank holiday first class upgrades as their availability is down to capacity on the day". Ok, fair enough. I said I understood that was for those attempting to upgrade advance purchase tickets, whereas I was going to be upgrading a flexible off peak return. same response so I thought I'd try plan c.

Visited the virgin staff at Glasgow central who confirmed it would be no problem to sell me a first class upgrade and book seats, I'd just need to bring in my tickets.

So, off peak return purchased online Friday around 1pm. Visited Glasgow central on my way home, collected my tickets and headed to the virgin desk.

The girl I got took my tickets, processed the upgrade and took my credit card payment. I asked if we had single window seats at a table facing each other, she confirmed that was the case and printed the seat booking tickets.

As I was celebrating with an overpriced beer in one of the bars in Glasgow central I checked the seat booking against the pendolino seat layout PDF I had conveniently stored on my iPad.

Argh!!!!! Two seats side by side at a table of 4. Different seats on the return journey but same layout.

Hastily finished my beer and back down to the virgin desk waving my iPad at the first virgin rep I got (different from the previous one) who brought out a paper copy of my PDF and asked the type of seat we'd like changed to. Got quiet coach h seats 6 and 9 both directions.

So, all looks ok for the moment and looking forward to the journey?

btw - off topic, but I got what looks like a cracking london 5 star hotel deal on a lastminute.com "secret hotel" by finding out the real hotel name by searching moneysavingexpert.com.

Again, thanks for all the help


PG