Booking sleeper tickets from 3rd party

[Aictos]

Say I want to travel on the 2340 from Edinburgh to Euston but decided to buy the tickets at my station after work from FCC without wanting to contact FSR Telesales, now FCC could easily sell me a ticket but how can FCC reserve a berth for me if I want one?

I know when I call FSR Telesales, it's all arranged but not sure on other parties booking the tickets - I know you can buy them as I saw them come up as a range of options on the ticketing machine in one of the booking offices earlier.

They could easily post them to me or I could collect them from Fort William as one operator asked me, but if I could get my tickets sorted out at work then even better.

 

[theblackwatch]

Been a long time since I did it, but back in the 1990s I regularly used to book my Sleeper tickets/reservations at Harrogate station - I used to time my visits when they were quiet and one particular member of staff was on duty as he knew what he was doing with them - tho I do sometime wonder if he used to groan when he saw me turn up!

 

[Greenback]

We certainly issued them in Reading when I was there 1998-2001.

 

[A60K]

A sleeper reservation can in theory be issued from any ticket office that can issue seat reservations. Whether, in practice, you can actually get the clerk to do it depends on whether they feel confident about making the berth reservation.

I've has some interesting experiences, having to guide a major London terminal station clerk through the process - in particular, they can get confused about how to identify the train (give the departure time and station and ask to select direct trains only), how the berth supplement works if you already hold the travel ticket (believe you select a ticket and berth, and then delete the ticket - may vary according to TIS), and selecting male/female and upper/lower is a novelty.

It's not actually terribly complicated in reality, just that many clerks will never issue them and it can seem daunting to them.

 

[rail-britain]

Two ways of doing this at any manned station

1
Buy a ticket
Buy a sleeper reservation up until 20:00 on the day of travel

2
Buy a ticket
Enquire about sleeper availability (and subsequent reservation) between 20:00 and departure time
The station staff need to phone FSR (as the reservations close at 20:00)

You can also phone FSR yourself and enquire
I had to do it last year, asking them to put an advisory on my reservation that I may have to board at Crewe instead of Euston, the attendant was surprised to see me at Euston, the message simply said "Customer may board at Crewe"

 

[Aictos]

Thanks for that, I was told only Euston or FSR telesales could issue such tickets last year, still I will bear the advice in mind, thank you.

 

[rail-britain]

Thanks for that, I was told only Euston or FSR telesales could issue such tickets last year, still I will bear the advice in mind, thank you

Poor advice from that source then, sounds more like they just couldn't be bothered with the hassle
I had my ALR last year and booked all my sleeper reservations in three visits (albeit all to Glasgow Central)
Equally, I booked one on FGW

If it was the case you could only book a FGW or FSR reservation by contacting them directly then there would be no need for the reservation system!

 

[Sleepy]

Having just poked about on FGW site it appears you can now book both berth/travel all in one tickets AND seperate travel tickets and berth supplements for Night Riv. online ! (select direct train and dep. time after 2300 if from PAD ) Bookings currently open until 1st week July.

 

[Flying Snail]

Having just poked about on FGW site it appears you can now book both berth/travel all in one tickets AND seperate travel tickets and berth supplements for Night Riv. online ! (select direct train and dep. time after 2300 if from PAD ) Bookings currently open until 1st week July.

Unless I am missing something you still cannot book berth supplements on their own to accompany a pre-existing travel ticket such as an ALR.

 

[Sleepy]

Unless I am missing something you still cannot book berth supplements on their own to accompany a pre-existing travel ticket such as an ALR.

Yep F. Snail I agree - was just surprised to see that you can now book ticket + berth supplements online ! (about time though)

 

[Flying Snail]

Yep F. Snail I agree - was just surprised to see that you can now book ticket + berth supplements online ! (about time though)

I guess that seperate supplements may never be available online as people would just buy them without having travel tickets in the first place.



My own experience with trying to buy seperate sleeper supplements at ticket offices/travel centres even at major stations such as Euston/Kings cross has been poor. On my last trip I only managed to book one sleeper at a ticket office and it was not the correct supplement type.


I did get them on FSR telesales but I got the impression from them that they have limited quotas for supplements. They will tell customers requesting supplements (and presumably the reservation system for other sellers) that sleepers are full even when they have berths available to FSR only inclusive tickets, in particular first class/single birth cabins.

 

[Sleepy]

booked some Sleeper tickets with NXEA for Night Riviera in summer today and it was so simple you would not believe !

 

[Matt Taylor]

A sleeper booking is not much different to a seat booking, the difference is having to check whether the customer wants upper or lower berth and ensuring that those travelling alone don't end up sharing a cabin with a stranger of the opposite sex.

The tricky part is finding a clerk who knows what they are doing.

 

[Nanahcub]

Any ideas as to how far in advance you can make a sleeper reservation to Glasgow? Online I understand it states 22 weeks but listening to the automated phone message 12weeks. Online would therefore be ideal but no way of indicating that you are rail staff - any one out there who are rail staff who have any experience of doing so recently? Cheers and apologies if this has been covered in past threads.

 

[barrykas]

Any ideas as to how far in advance you can make a sleeper reservation to Glasgow? Online I understand it states 22 weeks but listening to the automated phone message 12weeks. Online would therefore be ideal but no way of indicating that you are rail staff - any one out there who are rail staff who have any experience of doing so recently? Cheers and apologies if this has been covered in past threads.

This page (usually updated on a Thursday) shows how far in advance the various TOCs are taking bookings.

In the case of the Caledonian Sleepers, they're open 'til the 2nd of July, and for the Night Riviera it should theoretically be the 14th of July, as fGW don't specify them separately from the day trains.

HTH,

Barry