Help in buying a ticket

[mullin]

Hello,

I'm hoping someone a little more knowledgeable than myself can help me with my queries.

I want to travel on the 30th from Parbold to Euston via Bolton (takes me through Manchester for cheaper fares) arriving in Euston before 4.30pm.
Using a 16-25 railcard, it's £7.90 single.


There's a train from PBL at 12:41 arriving MAN 13:35, then a change to Virgin for the 13:55 arriving in Euston at 16:04.

Any attempts at booking this train brings back the following message on the ticket sites
No Reservation was possible, please search again

So I'm guessing an advance ticket forces you to have a seat reservation? That can't be right, can it?
Even with all the criteria set to 'no preference' I can't buy this ticket.

The national rail website allows me to extend the time change between stations, so instead of catching the 13:55 out of Manchester I can catch the 14:15 arriving at 16:23, yet the National Rail site poorly passes my criteria to other train company websites (no via Bolton and no increased time to change trains at Manchester)???

Is it actually possible to buy tickets this way online or do I need to go to a ticket office? Why are these features there if we can't use them??
Guessing I am simply better off spending a little extra and buying 2 separate tickets for £10.70?
PBL --> MAN
MAN --> EUS



Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed any light to the above questions for me

 

[yorkie]

You cannot buy tickets from the NRES website; you must use another site instead.

There are two types of site: those operated by Thetrainline (but avoid the 'main' Trainline site which has ridiculous fees), and those operated by Atos Origin.

For example Virgin use Thetrainline and East Coast use Atos Origin. Try both types of site. If neither works, it could be that the reservation system is down. Or perhaps the quota has sold out (but if this is the case it should offer the next price up), it could also be that someone has lots of reservations in their 'basket' (if they do not purchase then they'll go back to being available after a certain period of time).

I would try again later.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I think they were just in the process of selling out of the £7.90 ticket when you checked.

I have searched using East Coast and I get this:

Depart:
Parbold dep. 12:41
Change at:
Manchester Piccadilly arr. 13:35
dep. 13:55
Arrive:
London Euston, 16:04
Changes: 1 Duration: 3h 23m
Passengers
1 Adult
Railcards
1 16-25 Railcard
Advance£11.20

 

[mullin]

Many thanks Yorkie!

It does seem that the prices changed over night, I've just booked the 12:41 ticket for £11.20, although it has forced me to sit in the quiet zone, no music for me then

 

[A60K]

Many thanks Yorkie!

It does seem that the prices changed over night, I've just booked the 12:41 ticket for £11.20, although it has forced me to sit in the quiet zone, no music for me then

You can still play your music, just not so loud that the hissing noise comes out of the headphones and everyone can hear. Which, being polite, you wouldn't do anyway

 

[shinkansen1966]

Many thanks Yorkie!

It does seem that the prices changed over night, I've just booked the 12:41 ticket for £11.20, although it has forced me to sit in the quiet zone, no music for me then

I cannot remember the last time that I actually took the seat I was allocated. When you board the train, just find an unreserved seat that you like.

Always done this and never got any bother from the guard.

 

[Dreadnought]

I cannot remember the last time that I actually took the seat I was allocated. When you board the train, just find an unreserved seat that you like.

Always done this and never got any bother from the guard.

Same here, especially when you buy Virgin Advance tickets and you always get allocated the pillar to sit next to even when specifying a window seat!

 

[yorkie]

Many thanks Yorkie!

It does seem that the prices changed over night, I've just booked the 12:41 ticket for £11.20, although it has forced me to sit in the quiet zone, no music for me then

You're welcome! What site did you book with? If you use the East Coast site, it rarely books the quiet coach unless you ask for it, and you can see what coach it has allocated before making the purchase (and you can change it, but I believe that may risk the quota temporarily being unavailable if you do it too many times)

 

[shinkansen1966]

As a piece of advice, generally I use the web site of the company who will actually be providing the service. So Virgin www, for their Virgin service from Euston and the NW, and East Coast for trains out of Kings Cross. When you do this, all your money stays with that rail company - see below.

Indeed, it really doesn't matter whose web site you use. They all link to the same central computer selling the reservations. If you buy a ticket from one company's web site for a service on another, the company selling the ticket gets a commission - which you don't see.

The easiest thing would be have one national web site selling tickets for all the companies. The multiple train web sites creates the illusion of choice.

Of course, it does help if you know who will providing your service.

 

[mullin]

Well my money has gone to First TransPennine Express

Didn't actually think about sitting in a seat that is not reserved

 

[tony_mac]

but I believe that may risk the quota temporarily being unavailable if you do it too many times)

I've got it to change seats in the past by starting another booking specifying an Anytime ticket with a seat reservation, so no risk of using up the quota of Advance tickets.

 

[142094]

I'd rather buy tickets from East Coast, as it is keeping someone in the office in Newcastle in a job.

 

[mathmo]

I cannot remember the last time that I actually took the seat I was allocated. When you board the train, just find an unreserved seat that you like.

Always done this and never got any bother from the guard.

I once got what I took to be a slight ticking-off from the Train Manager for not sitting in my allocated seat on a Virgin service! I was in First Class on a FC Advance too which I was a bit annoyed about! Fortunately someone was actually sitting in my seat so he couldn't do any more than tell me I was in the wrong seat. Most of the time they don't care at all though.