Avanti Standard Premium

JBuchananGB · 24 Mar 2026

Hello
I am trying to plan a trip from Southport to Billericay and back. The forum's ticketing site is doing well for me. What I can't quite figure out is how I would specify Avanti Standard Premium for the part of the journey between Wigan North Western and Euston. Ticketing site is proposing Advance Single Southport to London Zones 1-2 on the outbound and Advance Single Euston to Wigan North Western on the return.

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yorkie · 24 Mar 2026

JBuchananGB said:
Hello
I am trying to plan a trip from Southport to Billericay and back. The forum's ticketing site is doing well for me. What I can't quite figure out is how I would specify Avanti Standard Premium for the part of the journey between Wigan North Western and Euston. Ticketing site is proposing Advance Single Southport to London Zones 1-2 on the outbound and Advance Single Euston to Wigan North Western on the return.

It's a lot of work for a booking site to automatically offer this, however it is my understanding that the plan is that this will be possible at some point in the future.

JBuchananGB · 24 Mar 2026

Thank you for your help. The worst thing about this route is the Minimum Connection Time at Wigan. Train from Southport due in at xx03. Train to London due out at xx13. Both stations have a 5min MCT and there's 1min to walk between. Journey Planners won't let me do the connection.

Bletchleyite · 24 Mar 2026

It might be because I quite like 807s, but how about going via Liverpool? Two connections per hour that way and a 15 minute frequency service from Southport. The 807s do have a coach of Standard Premium now, though the seats aren't quite as luxurious as the Pendolino ones. And some services do remain Pendolino worked if you prefer them.

Probably less likely to be messed up by way of a cancellation than Northern too. (I certainly wouldn't risk not leaving the correct minimum connection time given the high chance of this).

JBuchananGB · 25 Mar 2026

I've done it that way in the past, in both directions. Timewise it can be quicker via Wigan, apart from the bad mismatch on the connection. This particular trip is not time critical, and I notice the fares are better via Liverpool. Also boarding there it will be easier to find the Standard Premium.
Thank you for the suggestion.
Not long ago, I drove to Wigan, caught the 07.13 and was getting off train in Billericay at 10.21. Journey planners say that is impossible.

voyagerdude220 · 18 Jul 2026

In the absence of any other threads about Avanti Standard Premium..

I've just noticed that many of the Advance Standard Premium singles between Preston/Liverpool/Manchester and London Euston are actually around £10 more expensive compared with the total cost of buying the cheapest Standard Class single (be it Off Peak/Advance/Anytime) and paying the £40 upgrade on the train.

Egg Centric · 18 Jul 2026

voyagerdude220 said:
In the absence of any other threads about Avanti Standard Premium..

I've just noticed that many of the Advance Standard Premium singles between Preston/Liverpool/Manchester and London Euston are actually around £10 more expensive compared with the total cost of buying the cheapest Standard Class single (be it Off Peak/Advance/Anytime) and paying the £40 upgrade on the train.

They are, but standard premium is often quite busy. If you buy it in advance you are guaranteed* the seat.

This is quite common. It's often much cheaper to use seatfrog (or even weekend first) than many first class advances and for airlines that offer it to bid for an upgrade than buy business class outright. But you lose that certainty.

*ish

voyagerdude220 · 18 Jul 2026

Egg Centric said:
They are, but standard premium is often quite busy. If you buy it in advance you are guaranteed* the seat.

This is quite common. It's often much cheaper to use seatfrog (or even weekend first) than many first class advances and for airlines that offer it to bid for an upgrade than buy business class outright. But you lose that certainty.

*ish

Fair enough, but I think it's wrong when the Advance SP single is more expensive than the combined cost of buying an Off Peak/Anytime and upgrading on the train, as you're effectively paying more for the Advance train specific ticket instead of paying less and having a flexible ticket (all be it without a seat reservation).

[And also potentially not being charged the SP upgrade on the train if the TM doesn't appear.]

Precipice · 18 Jul 2026

If you buy a SP ticket and there are no free seats in SP, will Avanti refund you the difference between your ticket and the standard ticket you could have bought (where you probably end up finding a seat)?

Watershed · 18 Jul 2026

Precipice said:
If you buy a SP ticket and there are no free seats in SP, will Avanti refund you the difference between your ticket and the standard ticket you could have bought (where you probably end up finding a seat)?

They would have to pay at least the difference to the cheapest valid walk-up standard fare under the NRCoT, though as a matter of custom and practice it is usually calculated based on the equivalent tier of Advance which is generally a more generous interpretation.

Under consumer law, if the customer could prove what the standard class price would have been at the time of purchase, that would make a pretty clear case for how much an 'appropriate' price reduction (i.e. partial refund) would be.

VT 390 · 19 Jul 2026

Precipice said:
If you buy a SP ticket and there are no free seats in SP, will Avanti refund you the difference between your ticket and the standard ticket you could have bought (where you probably end up finding a seat)?

As far as I know the only Standard Premium tickets that can be purchased before boarding the train are advance tickets which should always come with a seat reservation.
So the only time you should not get a standard premium seat already holding a standard premium ticket would be if the seat reservations did not load (unusual in my experience on Pendolino services) or if your booked train was cancelled.

Lost property · 19 Jul 2026

Just buy a cattle class ticket, then, when you get on board, go to the SP carriage and pay the guard for the upgrade. Dead easy.

Avanti Standard Premium

JBuchananGB

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yorkie

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JBuchananGB

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Bletchleyite

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JBuchananGB

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voyagerdude220

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Egg Centric

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Precipice

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