Reservations and confusion on Avanti

[MarkWi72]

I bought a return ticket a few days ago for Euston - Birmingham International. Ticket is for 18.13 which has been cancelled. There’s an 18.09 service which I assume is a re-timetabling.

In any case I asked an Avanti staff member and they said my ticket can be used on any train. By stroke of luck I’ve got on 9P37 , 17.39 Euston to Preston service( 17.39 but about 15 late from Euston).

Loads of seat reservations , but I found some available seats in coach D. After a while they flickered to reserved to New Street and then Coventry. Is this usual?

 

[AlterEgo]

Probably just the reservations downloading slowly. The unreserved carriages on a Class 390 are in C, G and U.

 

[MarkWi72]

Ah

Probably just the reservations downloading slowly. The unreserved carriages on a Class 390 are in C, G and U.

Ah, cheers. Well I’m staying put, no one has turned up and we’re near Watford Jn

 

[voyagerdude220]

Probably just the reservations downloading slowly. The unreserved carriages on a Class 390 are in C, G and U.

If it's an 11 car.
Just coach C on 9 cars.

 

[MarkWi72]

Sorry: 9P97

 

[voyagerdude220]

18:13 cancelled due to a train fault.
18:09 still running.

 

[MarkWi72]

18:13 cancelled due to a train fault.
18:09 still running.

Ah, ok. I thought they were very close together on the timetable.

 

[MontyP]

I bought a return ticket a few days ago for Euston - Birmingham International. Ticket is for 18.13 which has been cancelled. There’s an 18.09 service which I assume is a re-timetabling.

In any case I asked an Avanti staff member and they said my ticket can be used on any train. By stroke of luck I’ve got on 9P37 , 17.39 Euston to Preston service( 17.39 but about 15 late from Euston).

Loads of seat reservations , but I found some available seats in coach D. After a while they flickered to reserved to New Street and then Coventry. Is this usual?

I've had this in Std Premium from Glasgow to Euston. Got on at Glasgow Central, picked an unreserved seat (plenty of seats reserved so the reservations were working). Then someone kicked me out at Preston as they had it reserved. The light switches from green to red somewhere after Carlisle.

 

[KNN]

This isn't much help now, but I think Avanti allow you to reserve seats after the train has departed its origin station, which means that you can be sat in a seat which then becomes "someone else's" half way through your journey.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This isn't much help now, but I think Avanti allow you to reserve seats after the train has departed its origin station, which means that you can be sat in a seat which then becomes "someone else's" half way through your journey.

They do, and they change from Available to Reserved under people. There's meant to be tech on the units to prevent this (cameras on Pendolinos, sensors in the seats on 80x) but it either doesn't work or isn't turned on. Worse than even LNER's "maybe reserved" thing.

 

[blimmo]

I have also noticed that they will only display the currently active reservation which rather makes displaying where they're reserved to pointless. On Sunday I was travelling EUS-COV and my seat displayed "Reserved to MKC" so I was relieved when no one asked me to move and thought I was safe. Then at MKC one of the passengers joining asked me to move and I noticed the display had changed to "Reserved to Manchester". Would be much better imo to combine the reservations and simply state "Reserved to Manchester" from the beginning. Or even better remove the fake compulsory reservations flag and it should be easier to find an unreserved seat.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I have also noticed that they will only display the currently active reservation which rather makes displaying where they're reserved to pointless. On Sunday I was travelling EUS-COV and my seat displayed "Reserved to MKC" so I was relieved when no one asked me to move and thought I was safe. Then at MKC one of the passengers joining asked me to move and I noticed the display had changed to "Reserved to Manchester". Would be much better imo to combine the reservations and simply state "Reserved to Manchester" from the beginning.

That probably happened because the Manchester journey was booked after departure. So far as I recall it does indeed aggregate them on Pendolinos at least, I've seen one that said reserved to Glasgow, seen it empty and sat there, and later been turfed out by a passenger at Preston, for instance (may not be the actual stations). Unless of course it is as you say and it was a genuine double booking.

On the 80x it shows the current one and the next one separately - I can confirm that for definite because a journey I do often involves a split ticket and you see both on the screen.

 

[blimmo]

Fair enough. I guess I'm effectively complaining about the same thing as you then!

 

[Falcon1200]

Boarded an Avanti service at origin, Glasgow Central, today and took a seat clearly shown as Available with green light. Happened to glance up at Carlisle and the light is now orange with the seat reserved from Preston! Spoke to the Train Manager who could not explain this. Same thing happened to my sister back in August, too.

How can this happen? At least Cross Country have the decency (!) to warn you that your seat may be reserved from under you, Avanti cannot even do that. The process is a disgrace.

 

[Peter0124]

If you tweet Avanti of your available seat they can get it reserved for you to prevent anyone getting it later.

 

[74A]

Boarded an Avanti service at origin, Glasgow Central, today and took a seat clearly shown as Available with green light. Happened to glance up at Carlisle and the light is now orange with the seat reserved from Preston! Spoke to the Train Manager who could not explain this. Same thing happened to my sister back in August, too.

How can this happen? At least Cross Country have the decency (!) to warn you that your seat may be reserved from under you, Avanti cannot even do that. The process is a disgrace.

As you boarded at the origin the likely explanation is the reservations had not yet loaded.

 

[erk]

That probably happened because the Manchester journey was booked after departure. So far as I recall it does indeed aggregate them on Pendolinos

Not in my experience. My journeys from London to Manchester routinely involve a split, and I select the same seat for both parts. The display firstly shows "Reserved to [X]", then changes at X to "Reserved to Manchester".

 

[Peter0124]

The reservation system on Avanti is definitely inferior to LNER, as atleast the latter shows all of the reserved journeys on that seat.

 

[Mugby]

I notice the OP posted his experience on Sunday last (9 Nov) There were multiple cancellations on AWC that day, particularly between 1200 and 1400.
In fact their services were in total disarray for various reasons. Would that be why reservations were up the spout?

I just happened to be looking because I'll be travelling by AWC this Sunday and I wanted some idea of how they ran last wknd.

 

[MarkWi72]

I notice the OP posted his experience on Sunday last (9 Nov) There were multiple cancellations on AWC that day, particularly between 1200 and 1400.
In fact their services were in total disarray for various reasons. Would that be why reservations were up the spout?

I just happened to be looking because I'll be travelling by AWC this Sunday and I wanted some idea of how they ran last wknd.

I didn't realise they were all up the spout last Sunday. Might be a factor for later trains and a lack of crews. As I said in the OP, the 18.13 had been cancelled.

 

[Falcon1200]

If you tweet Avanti of your available seat they can get it reserved for you to prevent anyone getting it later.

Thanks! (although I don't use Twitter...)

As you boarded at the origin the likely explanation is the reservations had not yet loaded.

Not so; On boarding at Glasgow Central reservations were displayed throughout the coach, in fact the seats I normally prefer were reserved later in the journey so I deliberately chose an Available seat, only for it to become reserved en route.

 

[route101]

Another reason to head straight to ureserved carriages.

 

[Bletchleyite]

80x reservations have been off on every train I've used the past couple of weeks - is there an issue and is that being sorted?

 

[ChilliSauce]

If you tweet Avanti of your available seat they can get it reserved for you to prevent anyone getting it later.

And that is where Avanti are not smart like LNER ...because with the LNER app you can make your own seat reservation.

I have got on at Leeds with no reservation and selected a seat and because by that time it is too late to make the reservation from Leeds I have gone in the App and made a reservation from Wakefield and moved the Res to the seat I am sitting in .. So no one can do a last minute Res on the seat as the journey progresses.

Avanti need to wake up !!!

 

[Kev77]

80x reservations have been off on every train I've used the past couple of weeks - is there an issue and is that being sorted?

Yes there is an issue. No, not getting sorted. Lots of "we are looking into it" management speak but no action. Same with air con, water in shop, toilets, heating etc. First group doing the bare minimum until they lose the franchise. All about profits for the share holders. Very difficult and frustrating few years for frontline staff. This forum alone is a good example of the understandable anger passengers have but they have little understanding of how things work and vent at the TM.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not in my experience. My journeys from London to Manchester routinely involve a split, and I select the same seat for both parts. The display firstly shows "Reserved to [X]", then changes at X to "Reserved to Manchester".

Yes you're correct. On one now and it behaves as you say. Must have been another reason eg a double booking.

 

[MontyP]

As you boarded at the origin the likely explanation is the reservations had not yet loaded.

It's not that, it has happened to me a number of times e.g. where I have sat at the only "green" seat around a table of four (the others being reserved) and then noticing an hour or two into my journey that my green light has changed to amber or red ...

 

[Kev77]

Most of the issues are West Mid services. When working them in both directions I find that the reservations will suddenly appear around Wolves going south and dissappear going north. The same has been happening to the auto announcer. It will give the terminating station followed by calling at, then nothing. It is a known problem.

 

[Kettledrum]

On Thurs 13th November, I was on the 19.07 Euston to Liverpool. None of the seat reservations were working, but I found my reserved seat. About 5 minutes later, a lady came, who had a e-ticket with exactly the same seat reserved as per her e-ticket. I had a paper ticket, but surely that can't explain it......How could we both have exactly the same seat reserved for the journey?

 

[ItsMattUK]

On Thurs 13th November, I was on the 19.07 Euston to Liverpool. None of the seat reservations were working, but I found my reserved seat. About 5 minutes later, a lady came, who had a e-ticket with exactly the same seat reserved as per her e-ticket. I had a paper ticket, but surely that can't explain it......How could we both have exactly the same seat reserved for the journey?

This has happened a lot recently for my partner and myself. We've boarded the train, got to our seats to find them occupied and someone producing the same reservation for the same journey on the same date. This is usually from Preston to Euston. The last time this happened we ended up standing the entire trip - my partner has a disability too - as the previous train was also cancelled and there was over 2 trains worth of people cramming onto one train. Avanti where far from helpful.