Cancelling seat reservations

[endecotp]

Hopefully simple question: is there a way to cancel a seat reservation that won’t be used, bought with a flexible return, given the printed reservation and ticket? And to book another reservation for a later service?

 

[alistairlees]

Hopefully simple question: is there a way to cancel a seat reservation that won’t be used, bought with a flexible return, given the printed reservation and ticket? And to book another reservation for a later service?

Yes: you could tweet the retailer from which you bought your tickets, to cancel the unrequired reservations; and the train operator(s), to make new reservations.

 

[endecotp]

Tweet? Seriously?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Tweet? Seriously?

Yep, that's the most convenient way of making quick contact over something like this.

Which TOC is it?

 

[endecotp]

It’s LNER, with a KGX-EDB reservation for tomorrow. Their website suggests I can change it for free before 6pm today or £10 after that, but I’m unsure if that‘s just for advances or if it’s different for a flexible return. I bought the ticket from their website and collected it as paper tickets. I may not have the credentials needed to log in to the website with me, hmm. Extra complication: I’m not yet sure when I would like to change it to…

No I’m not going to join Twitter!

 

[Bletchleyite]

LNER is an easy one. Ignore the reservation you have and make a new one on the website or app, there is an option to make a standalone reservation on both.

 

[Haywain]

It’s LNER, with a KGX-EDB reservation for tomorrow. Their website suggests I can change it for free before 6pm today or £10 after that, but I’m unsure if that‘s just for advances or if it’s different for a flexible return. I bought the ticket from their website and collected it as paper tickets. I may not have the credentials needed to log in to the website with me, hmm. Extra complication: I’m not yet sure when I would like to change it to…

No I’m not going to join Twitter!

Don't try to cancel the reservation on your account in the website as that will probably lead to you refunding the ticket as well. Follow the advice above and just ignore the reservation.

 

[endecotp]

LNER is an easy one. Ignore the reservation you have and make a new one on the website or app, there is an option to make a standalone reservation on both.

OK, will do. I was hoping that I could release the ticket for the benefit of another deserving passenger….

 

[Bletchleyite]

OK, will do. I was hoping that I could release the ticket for the benefit of another deserving passenger….

There'll always be someone with a walk up ticket and no reservation, they can sit there.

 

[Adam Williams]

The industry should probably make it easier for customers to cancel their reservations in a self-service fashion, to be fair.

 

[Flying Snail]

The industry should probably make it easier for customers to cancel their reservations in a self-service fashion, to be fair.

A 1 reservation per ticket restriction would certainly be useful, as long as it was made easy to cancel the reservation in order to make a new one.*

I have no idea how many people make multiple "just in case" reservations on trains they might wish to travel on but it would partially explain why there are always numerous seats with reservations and no-shows on busy trains.

* Of course there is no way the industry would implement something like this correctly or consistently so it's probably just best left as is.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I have no idea how many people make multiple "just in case" reservations on trains they might wish to travel on but it would partially explain why there are always numerous seats with reservations and no-shows on busy trains.

A lot of it is people making reservations to go with flexible tickets because the system now forces you to do so. Originally tickets online were only sold with reservations unless they had all gone, then they were made optional to reduce this problem, now they're required again and the problem has returned.

 

[Benjwri]

A lot of it is people making reservations to go with flexible tickets because the system now forces you to do so. Originally tickets online were only sold with reservations unless they had all gone, then they were made optional to reduce this problem, now they're required again and the problem has returned.

Exactly this, and it makes trains seem far more crowded than they are. People are afraid to sit in so called reserved seats, and so they stand and leave the seat empty. I'd say perhaps 50% of seat reservations being used on GWR services is a faily gererous estimate.