How do SeatFrog First Class Upgrade Auctions work?

[eoff]

Having tried SeatFrog for the first time (as suggested by Cross Country staff) I'm interested to know how the process works and I'm assuming limited seat availability.

Imagine I want to bid for Edinburgh to York on a specific service. At overlapping times people may be bidding for Edinburgh to Kings Cross and York to Kings Cross.
How is that resolved? Bids for later in the journey could be pointless if the overlapping journey bid is accepted before those auctions finish.
Are SeatFrog going to prioritise multiple bids for segments of the same service to get multiple platform fees? To do that they would have to not take the winning bid from earlier segments.

Any thoughts?

 

[occone]

My understanding (from playing around with bidding on different journeys on the same train) is that when you win, you take that seat out of action for the whole journey even if you only use it for part way. It'll be unreserved for the rest of the journey.

Please correct me if you have seen something different - but in my experience the value for money increases greatly for longer journeys, it'll be £15 from A to B, and £15 for A to C.

 

[mickey]

My experience is sort of a hybrid of the two above. Seats do tend to be the same price regardless of distance (which isn’t a bad thing as it removes their incentive to restrict to the most profitable itineraries), but if a shorter one has already been sold then it could be booked again later for another part of the journey. So for example, the seat is open to anyone between Bournemouth and Manchester, but if Reading-Brum sells, then Brum-Manc may also then get sold… but they don’t split it in two to begin with (if that makes sense!)

 

[KNN]

If you do it on Avanti be careful you don't accidentally get Standard Premium. I've heard of an example where someone thought they were bidding for First and ended up paying more than the upgrade price for Standard Premium.

 

[Skiddaw]

If you do it on Avanti be careful you don't accidentally get Standard Premium. I've heard of an example where someone thought they were bidding for First and ended up paying more than the upgrade price for Standard Premium.

Yes, you do need to watch out for that. It's often flagged on SF as first when it's actually SP. On the other hand, it's useful if you're after a guaranteed SP upgrade without having to take a chance on a seat being available.

 

[paninaro]

Bids for later in the journey could be pointless if the overlapping journey bid is accepted before those auctions finish

I haven't used Seatfrog but I see their site says they can close auctions early for "operational reasons" including "onboard availability is reduced" which I think would apply here

 

[AlterEgo]

If you do it on Avanti be careful you don't accidentally get Standard Premium. I've heard of an example where someone thought they were bidding for First and ended up paying more than the upgrade price for Standard Premium.

If they paid more for SP than the usual upgrade price then it is a clear example of mis-selling.

 

[eoff]

Elsewhere in the forum there is an example of the ORR pushing SeatFrog to be more transparent on the full costs as required by consumer regulation so if there is a real issue here perhaps it should be reported.

 

[KNN]

If they paid more for SP than the usual upgrade price then it is a clear example of mis-selling.

I don't know if it was a bug, but I just downloaded the app and there is a pop up about Standard Premium Vs First and also a fixed price to buy it without the auction (presumably the standard upgrade price), so it would be your fault if you did it now I think.

 

[Haywain]

If they paid more for SP than the usual upgrade price then it is a clear example of mis-selling.

Isn't that much the same as selling a first class ticket when an on-board upgrade might be available? The difference being that you can reserve a seat or have some priority for available seats.

 

[frodshamfella]

I've used it a few times from Liverpool or Runcorn to Euston, and its worked and ive got an upgrade to first and more resent in standard premium . They charge on top of your bid price a " platform" fee, of £6.00 I think. This is not very obvious when you place the bid, and its something I don't recall seeing in the past, so I think this must be a more recent addition.

 

[davp]

It’s £3 per seat, so £6 for a return upgrade.

I agree it’s not obvious. It’s missing off the bid overview page and could be overlooked on the bid confirmation.

The instant upgrade prices on the overview include the platform fee so I’m not sure why that couldn’t apply to the bid too.

 

[Watershed]

It’s £3 per seat, so £6 for a return upgrade.

I agree it’s not obvious. It’s missing off the bid overview page and could be overlooked on the bid confirmation.

The instant upgrade prices on the overview include the platform fee so I’m not sure why that couldn’t apply to the bid too.

It's just SeatFrog engaging in drip pricing which they've always done - not to mention reducing the Delay Repay you'd get (since the platform fee isn't shown on the ticket). It's open to challenge under the DMCCA but it's a lot easier for the CMA or ORR to get them to make wide scale changes than an individual consumer.

 

[tutacre]

Worth noting the ORR already looked at Seatfrog in 2025. They made the changes requested and ORR went away happy.

https://www.orr.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-03/2025-03-04-correspondence-with-seatfrog.pdf

Seatfrog has implemented the actions necessary to address our concerns. As your systems and processes evolve over time, we expect you to continue to provide appropriate transparency about fees to your customers.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 14:14 ==

If they paid more for SP than the usual upgrade price then it is a clear example of mis-selling.

My experience of Standard Premium is that it is often full, or near full - although I travel at naturally busy times. I have seen people unable to upgrade via the Train Manager because there is simply no space - whereas Seatfrog does generally have between 2-4 SP seats with guaranteed seat reservations. I believe this is why the price keeps being raised for SP - it was massively underpriced originally, which built up demand, and now people are aware it's there - and it's popular, even at the higher price points.

 

[Watershed]

Worth noting the ORR already looked at Seatfrog in 2025. They made the changes requested and ORR went away happy.

The ORR are absolutely useless when it comes to consumer rights. They have done nothing about operators acting in blatant breach of their PRO obligations for years, despite it having been reported to them multiple times.

I don't think you can read anything into the fact that they dropped this.