LNER - Off Peak Single Mandatory Reservations?

[Norther Monkey]

I recently booked a journey with LNER. There were no advances available for the trip so I booked an Off-Peak single. I was surprised when I looked at the e-ticket that it stated the itinerary was now 'Mandatory Reservations'.

Is this true? I'd always taken tickets of this type to be valid on any service (obviously subject to any peak and route restrictions).

Are flexible tickets no longer available with LNER?

 

[LA50041]

I recently booked a journey with LNER. There were no advances available for the trip so I booked an Off-Peak single. I was surprised when I looked at the e-ticket that it stated the itinerary was now 'Mandatory Reservations'.

Is this true? I'd always taken tickets of this type to be valid on any service (obviously subject to any peak and route restrictions).

Are flexible tickets no longer available with LNER?

whatever you do dont mention the origin and destination. LNER reps on this forum will block them as soon as you do

 

[81A]

I recently booked a journey with LNER. There were no advances available for the trip so I booked an Off-Peak single. I was surprised when I looked at the e-ticket that it stated the itinerary was now 'Mandatory Reservations'.

Is this true? I'd always taken tickets of this type to be valid on any service (obviously subject to any peak and route restrictions).

Are flexible tickets no longer available with LNER?

I believe this is due to the "reservations compulsory" flag being applied to the service you selected, rather than a ticket specific restriction. As far as I know, the only truly "reservations compulsory" service is the Caledonian Sleeper. The reservations compulsory flag on other trains is (I believe) only set to try and control online/planner ticket machine sales and is unenforceable in practice.

 

[Norther Monkey]

I believe this is due to the "reservations compulsory" flag being applied to the service you selected, rather than a ticket specific restriction. As far as I know, the only truly "reservations compulsory" service is the Caledonian Sleeper. The reservations compulsory flag on other trains is (I believe) only set to try and control online/planner ticket machine sales and is unenforceable in practice.

If that's the case the ticket is (deliberately?) misleading and could easily cause people to believe they have to stick to the originally planned itinerary or, if plans change, buy an unnecessary additional ticket to use alternative services on the same day.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 May 2026 ==

whatever you do dont mention the origin and destination. LNER reps on this forum will block them as soon as you do

There's obviously a back story here - could you give me more information?

 

[LA50041]

If that's the case the ticket is (deliberately?) misleading and could easily cause people to believe they have to stick to the originally planned itinerary or, if plans change, buy an unnecessary additional ticket to use alternative services on the same day.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 May 2026 ==



There's obviously a back story here - could you give me more information?

LNER only want advance and 70 min flex available on their trains. They go out of their way reading forums such as this to try and block every off peak ticket on LNER trains

Expansion of LNER 70-min flex trial area ("Simpler Fares")

Mod note: split from existing thread https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/lner-to-pilot-removal-of-off-peak-tickets.261183/ Expansion of 70-min Flex for journeys made from 30-9-24...

www.railforums.co.uk

a long thread but they are actively looking for loopholes to block flexible tickets from being used

 

[Bletchleyite]

There's obviously a back story here - could you give me more information?

They look to block workaround tickets to the fares trial. This is not one.

 

[Haywain]

LNER only want advance and 70 min flex available on their trains. They go out of their way reading forums such as this to try and block every off peak ticket on LNER trains

Complete and utter cobblers. Most journeys on LNER are well outside the fares trial area and the OP's journey is likely to fall into the same category.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 May 2026 ==

I recently booked a journey with LNER. There were no advances available for the trip so I booked an Off-Peak single. I was surprised when I looked at the e-ticket that it stated the itinerary was now 'Mandatory Reservations'.

Is this true? I'd always taken tickets of this type to be valid on any service (obviously subject to any peak and route restrictions).

Are flexible tickets no longer available with LNER?

If your journey is not between London and Newcastle/Berwick/Edinburgh none of the shovel will apply to you.

 

[yorkie]

I recently booked a journey with LNER. There were no advances available for the trip so I booked an Off-Peak single. I was surprised when I looked at the e-ticket that it stated the itinerary was now 'Mandatory Reservations'.

Is this true? I'd always taken tickets of this type to be valid on any service (obviously subject to any peak and route restrictions).

Are flexible tickets no longer available with LNER?

What journey was it?

Did you try looking at our ticketing site to see if we were able to find any Advance splits?

 

[Norther Monkey]

What journey was it?

Did you try looking at our ticketing site to see if we were able to find any Advance splits?

Yes, I looked at your site for splits. On this occasion the savings were marginal and, with that being the case, I opted for what I believed was a flexible fare (2 x Off Peak Singles) to give me more options.

It was, therefore, surprising to see the word  mandatory applied to the reservations/itinerary. Am I correct in thinking this was misleading and an off-peak single is valid on any service (route and peak restrictions obviously still applying)?

In this case it wasn't an issue as the original plan suited.

 

[Haywain]

Am I correct in thinking this was misleading and an off-peak single is valid on any service (route and peak restrictions obviously still applying)?

It is correct that the tickets retain flexibility. The mandatory reservation is that LNER have set up the trains to require a reservation but this has no impact on that flexibility.

 

[Adam Williams]

I've said it before, but I don't at all agree with how Vix have implemented this in their E-Ticket generation code.

My view is that E0006 (the field that contains the itinerary heading) should always be "Itinerary - Optional Reservations" for a walk-up, even if the selected itinerary involves timetabled services that have the mandatory reservation flag set.

The customer is not required to follow these reservations with a walk-up ticket (and - all this debate about TOCs misusing the timetable flag aside - even if it was genuinely a service where reservations are required, like a seated Caledonian Sleeper leg, they could still ask the TOC or retailer to make new standalone/adhoc reservations and travel on the alternative service using their existing walk-up ticket and that would be an entirely valid thing to do), and the implementation here could mislead the passenger into thinking they actually have an Advance ticket.

 

[Wallsendmag]

There was talk of adding an extra option in that field but that was five or six years ago now.

 

[Adam Williams]

It doesn't need a new option, it just needs LNER to stop living in fantasy land

It's a walk-up, it's flexible and valid on multiple services. The reservations are not mandatory.

 

[sheff1]

It doesn't need a new option, it just needs LNER to stop living in fantasy land

It's a walk-up, it's flexible and valid on multiple services. The reservations are not mandatory.

Quite. I recently boarded a LNER train on which apparently 'no seats were available". Entering coach C I saw a sea of green lights and a wide choice of seats in which I could sit with my flexible ticket. I chose a table seat facing direction of travel and no one joined me at the table for the totality of my journey.