New LNER booking site?

[sheff1]

I'm not liking the new LNER booking site, for a regular journey it now defaults to initially offering an any permitted variant of the ticket, when there is a far cheaper one for a particular route which is the fastest anyway (which it used to be the initial offer). It also rather hides the option to use any partially used vouchers on your account.

Yes this and some of the other things mentioned above are very poor in my opinion. Once I have used up my outstanding vouchers I will be switching elsewhere for most purchases.

 

[Haywain]

I'm not liking the new LNER booking site, for a regular journey it now defaults to initially offering an any permitted variant of the ticket, when there is a far cheaper one for a particular route which is the fastest anyway (which it used to be the initial offer). It also rather hides the option to use any partially used vouchers on your account.

Yes, I looked at it earlier and was rather perplexed at the priority given to the Anytime fare, and that was for a journey on a Saturday! It isn't an improvement.

 

[Trainbike46]

I don't know whether the previous LNER website recognised Belfast as a valid station, but the current one does not anymore. That's kind of a problem because it is a valid national rail station for ticketing purposes, even if station is in fact a ferry port!

When I've used eVouchers in the past, it has been hard (impossible - i've not managed it) to ensure it fully uses up one eVoucher and then pay the balance with another eVoucher. Selecting more than one eVoucher is possible, but there doesn't seem to be any way to control how the fare is split between them.

 

[Haywain]

I don't know whether the previous LNER website recognised Belfast as a valid station, but the current one does not anymore.

I don't believe it has recognised Belfast in the past either.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I don't know whether the previous LNER website recognised Belfast as a valid station, but the current one does not anymore. That's kind of a problem because it is a valid national rail station for ticketing purposes, even if station is in fact a ferry port!

When I've used eVouchers in the past, it has been hard (impossible - i've not managed it) to ensure it fully uses up one eVoucher and then pay the balance with another eVoucher. Selecting more than one eVoucher is possible, but there doesn't seem to be any way to control how the fare is split between them.

The LNER site hasn't sold Ferry tickets for as long as I've been involved with it.

 

[OscarH]

The LNER site hasn't sold Ferry tickets for as long as I've been involved with it.

What did poor old SailRail do to hurt you

 

[Trainbike46]

The LNER site hasn't sold Ferry tickets for as long as I've been involved with it.

Sounds like a potential improvement for a future update.

I know passenger numbers to from Belfast (and Dublin?) aren't massive, but for what other stations would it be acceptable for a ticketing website to simply not recognise it, even if passenger numbers are low?

 

[Haywain]

for what other stations would it be acceptable for a ticketing website to simply not recognise it, even if passenger numbers are low?

Lots of places with bus connections and through ticketing.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yes, I looked at it earlier and was rather perplexed at the priority given to the Anytime fare, and that was for a journey on a Saturday! It isn't an improvement.

It very much seems to be designed for the "fare increase trial" structure, not walk up fares. This might be the long term future, but doing such a shoddy job of selling fares on other TOCs is a bit off until such a structure rolls out nationally.

 

[OscarH]

Lots of places with bus connections and through ticketing.

Understandable, they're really bloody annoying!

 

[ainsworth74]

Understandable, they're really bloody annoying!

Justice for the bus connection and other through ticketing destinations!

 

[OscarH]

Justice for the bus connection and other through ticketing destinations!

If there was actually a list of which codes were working through bus connections, and which ones were TOC accounting location codes like PENALTY FARE it'd be fine, but currently there's many thousands of entries to manually sift through!

 

[ainsworth74]

If there was actually a list of which codes were working through bus connections, and which ones were TOC accounting location codes like PENALTY FARE it'd be fine, but currently there's many thousands of entries to manually sift through!

God I love this industry. Never misses an opportunity to try and hack its way around an issue using systems in ways they were never intended for

 

[H F Stephens]

Bumping this thread, but there is another little "feature" of the new site - the "basket" functionality has been removed, so only individual tickets can be booked (confirmed by call to the LNER call centre, where I was apparently the call handler's 3rd caller in 2 hours to complain).

For my specific niche use case (booking for someone else, need "proper" tickets to both get across London and due to the foibles of the passenger, journey not a straightforward return), this is both inconvenient and TOD is not a great option.

This was noted in post #5 above, but a workaround existed (post #10) until last week.

The other general downside of the seat selector is that it doesn't have any indication, bar the door pocket seats, of which seats lack a decent window view, nor looking at the image above which are the priority rows.

The new website could be one of the finest examples of Hanlon's Razor* at work in the UK rail industry's relationship with its customers.

That, or perhaps another example of the industry's arrogance.

Either way, we now have a website which:

• Does not permit multiple purchases in the same basket (ironically only permitting, at best, a simple return in the same booking, when the company's obsession is with with wild and varying one-way options)
• Does not permit a basket's contents to be deleted/removed once selected (ironically, given the company's obsession with quota-control - and note that editing a basket does not release inventory prior to the next search results being returned)
• Does not permit a user to view even a single carriage of seats on one screen, nor shows restricted view or priority seat annotations
• Does not permit a user to immediately compare Standard and First Class fares on a given service, without toggling tabs
• Does not cope sensibly with ticket types which do not fall into LNER's narrow world-view based on how they set their own ticketing structures up

And, all this an 'enhancement' (Trademark: British Airways) that has done nothing to address long-standing issues with mis-describing ticket availability, sold-out claims, claiming other operators' services are fully-booked and that passengers will need to stand, inaccurate/untrue seat allocation error descriptions, and an impossible to easily track 'Perks' loyalty programme.

Has anything been missed there?

*Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

 

[Wallsendmag]

If there was actually a list of which codes were working through bus connections, and which ones were TOC accounting location codes like PENALTY FARE it'd be fine, but currently there's many thousands of entries to manually sift through!

Especially trying if you reference data has a habit of disabling or enabling itself.

 

[bubieyehyeh]

I don't know whether the previous LNER website recognised Belfast as a valid station, but the current one does not anymore. That's kind of a problem because it is a valid national rail station for ticketing purposes, even if station is in fact a ferry port!

When I've used eVouchers in the past, it has been hard (impossible - i've not managed it) to ensure it fully uses up one eVoucher and then pay the balance with another eVoucher. Selecting more than one eVoucher is possible, but there doesn't seem to be any way to control how the fare is split between them.

The old site, let you choose which voucher or vouchers to use, but you couldn't specify how much on each voucher, but it did use up oldest vouchers first when you used two vouchers with different expiry dates.

The new site does not let you choose which of your existing vouchers to use, it seems to be picking the one with the largest balance in the group of oldest vouchers (bought at same time). Its not yet touched the vouchers with a later expiry date yet. I'm waiting to see what it does when the balance of each of the 4 oldest group of vouchers all have a balance less than the price of the ticket.

 

[Trainbike46]

The old site, let you choose which voucher or vouchers to use, but you couldn't specify how much on each voucher, but it did use up oldest vouchers first when you used two vouchers with different expiry dates.

The new site does not let you choose which of your existing vouchers to use, it seems to be picking the one with the largest balance in the group of oldest vouchers (bought at same time). Its not yet touched the vouchers with a later expiry date yet. I'm waiting to see what it does when the balance of each of the 4 oldest group of vouchers all have a balance less than the price of the ticket.

Glad to hear that it seems to be using up the oldest vouchers first

 

[Deerfold]

Jut been using the new site.

Apparently they forgot to add the functionality to buy more than one journey at a time but it should be coming soon! It also resets the number of passengers and railcards every time you use it. I'm sure that'll catch me out.

https://x.com/LNER/status/1955015312660742357

My apologies Nathan, right now you can only make one booking at a time. This feature was missed when updating the website; however, the Web Team is aware of the demand to bring this back and are looking to do that in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Bletchleyite]

They probably didn't forget but rather released the "minimum viable product" as is the norm in the industry, then you iteratively add to it based on how much people shout about missing features (and if there are features that cost money and people don't miss they don't return).

 

[35B]

When I rang, I was specifically told that it had been done intentionally; something to do with stopping people inadvertently just putting stuff in the basket or some such.

I am awaiting a response to the formal complaint and, because of the circumstances of when I fell foul of the removal, look forward to seeing the response to the FOI request I've raised.

 

[H F Stephens]

The LNER website and App are currently unable to retail any tickets.

Coincidentally (?) a new 'browser check' has been introduced prior to accessing the desktop site.

EDIT: update to confirm retail system now working again.

 

[35B]

Bumping, credit where credit is due to LNER for responding to feedback. I've had a good email from the Customer Relations Team, including offer to pay the duplicate postal charge. It included the following explanation of what had happened, and the actions being taken:

I have discussed the points you raised with members of our Digital Team, and they have confirmed that both the basket function, and the ability to add journeys to a calendar are features which are being brought back in future updates for the website.

The basket was removed to prevent passengers from making duplicate bookings, not realising tickets were already saved in a basket. Following feedback from customers, the function is being redesigned so that passengers do not end up with duplicate bookings, but those booking multiple journeys at once can do so.

 

[Wallsendmag]

When I rang, I was specifically told that it had been done intentionally; something to do with stopping people inadvertently just putting stuff in the basket or some such.

I am awaiting a response to the formal complaint and, because of the circumstances of when I fell foul of the removal, look forward to seeing the response to the FOI request I've raised.

Interesting hypothesis

 

[williamn]

Does anyone know if the functionality to book multiple tickets is indeed coming back? Trying to do so now and still can't see any way to do it.

 

[yorkie]

Does anyone know if the functionality to book multiple tickets is indeed coming back?

It is supposed to be coming back eventually, but I don't think anything has been announced.

Trying to do so now and still can't see any way to do it.

Is there a particular reason why you need to use the LNER site?

Our site won't charge more than LNER's site; we may even charge less, and we also offer a seat selector.

If you're after cashback, then we don't have access to taxpayers money to pay for this unfortunately, so it's a question of convenience vs cashback if so.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Yes it is

 

[williamn]

It is supposed to be coming back eventually, but I don't think anything has been announced.

Is there a particular reason why you need to use the LNER site?

Our site won't charge more than LNER's site; we may even charge less, and we also offer a seat selector.

If you're after cashback, then we don't have access to taxpayers money to pay for this unfortunately, so it's a question of convenience vs cashback if so.

Yes cashback and the 2% on LNER Perks, hard to overlook 5% off on tickets to North East Scotland!

 

[yorkie]

Yes cashback and the 2% on LNER Perks, hard to overlook 5% off on tickets to North East Scotland!

You can still earn perks on tickets bought from other retailers, and it's also worth bearing in mind that LNER can charge a lot more than 5% more than the forum's ticketing site does for longer distance journeys.

 

[Deerfold]

Jut been using the new site.

Apparently they forgot to add the functionality to buy more than one journey at a time but it should be coming soon! It also resets the number of passengers and railcards every time you use it. I'm sure that'll catch me out.

https://x.com/LNER/status/1955015312660742357

It seems they didn't manage to allow people to book more than one journey at a time.

They're also claiming you can only change your seat reservation if you booked direct through them.

https://x.com/LNER/status/2008171136593367493

Hello, you can only amend your seat reservation if you booked direct with LNER. To do this you would just need to log into your LNER account and go to 'Manage my booking'.

 

[Tester]

It seems they didn't manage to allow people to book more than one journey at a time.

They're also claiming you can only change your seat reservation if you booked direct through them.

https://x.com/LNER/status/2008171136593367493

To be fair, that's pedantically correct, and has always been that way.

You can however make a new reservation (but can't cancel the old) regardless of who you booked through.

Silly but true.