Reserving return portion

[Late Trains uk]

I have bought an open return via Virgin trains.
The online reservation system allows you to reserve your out journey at the seat you wish on the Virgin Train only, yet it will not give you the option of reserving the return journey/ I could only do this if I selected the return journey which then calculated it as two separate tickets and doubling the price.
How do you reserve the return journey?
If you do not have a telephone with you when you decide to return or the station you are returning from is unstaffed or operated by a different Railway company?
Most days it will not be an issue but Cross Country services on Sunday are very busy and reserving a seat is often essential to get a seat but if you are on an open return and want the freedom to travel back when you wish and as far as I know operate very few/if any stations how can you reserve a seat?

I have noticed on Virgin Trains that they often can have about two thirds of a carriage reserved with only a few reserved seats occupied and the carriage itself about 30% full. Leading to passengers embarking on a long walk through the train looking for an unreserved seat.
I even wondered if the seats were genuinely reserved and were a tool used by Virgin to encourage passengers to reserve seats in the future as I cannot believe that up to 75 % of passengers on that train had failed to turn up or had all sat elsewhere a very small number would have moved to a better unreserved seat as many seemed unconcerned about sitting in one without a view.
Could Virgin and others encourage on train staff to remove reservations if the seat is not occupied or allow it to become reserved later ONLY if it's unoccupied?
I recently had an unreserved seat become reserved after I had sat in it luckily there were two and the(very attractive) passenger was happy to sit next to me. Shouldn't a seat become yours once you have sat in it and for the duration of your journey?

 

[yorkie]

I have bought an open return via Virgin trains.

Ouch, that will have been expensive!

The online reservation system allows you to reserve your out journey at the seat you wish on the Virgin Train only, yet it will not give you the option of reserving the return journey/ I could only do this if I selected the return journey which then calculated it as two separate tickets and doubling the price.

Use any other booking site next time.

How do you reserve the return journey?
If you do not have a telephone with you when you decide to return or the station you are returning from is unstaffed or operated by a different Railway company?

If you do not have access to a telephone, and your journey is from an unstaffed station then you can't. However if is "operated by a different railway company" and that company has access to the central reservation system from that station, then of course you can.

Most days it will not be an issue but Cross Country services on Sunday are very busy and reserving a seat is often essential to get a seat but if you are on an open return and want the freedom to travel back when you wish and as far as I know operate very few/if any stations how can you reserve a seat?

Are you talking about CrossCountry now? You can use their text service. No use if you don't have a phone though!

I have noticed on Virgin Trains that they often can have about two thirds of a carriage reserved with only a few reserved seats occupied and the carriage itself about 30% full. Leading to passengers embarking on a long walk through the train looking for an unreserved seat.
I even wondered if the seats were genuinely reserved and were a tool used by Virgin to encourage passengers to reserve seats in the future as I cannot believe that up to 75 % of passengers on that train had failed to turn up or had all sat elsewhere a very small number would have moved to a better unreserved seat as many seemed unconcerned about sitting in one without a view.

These will be real reservations. It would be nonsensical to put fake ones up on the displays.

Could Virgin and others encourage on train staff to remove reservations if the seat is not occupied or allow it to become reserved later ONLY if it's unoccupied?

Those TOCs who have paper reservation labels will often do this, where applicable/appropriate.

I recently had an unreserved seat become reserved after I had sat in it luckily there were two and the(very attractive) passenger was happy to sit next to me. Shouldn't a seat become yours once you have sat in it and for the duration of your journey?

That would be on CrossCountry. It's been debated numerous times before, and not everyone will agree on this matter. The display says something like "This seat may be reserved"

 

[DaveNewcastle]

. . . Shouldn't a seat become yours once you have sat in it and for the duration of your journey?

'Should' ? No.
'May' ? Yes.

A 'reserved' seat is reserved for a designated passenger, for all or a portion of a train's journey and for that period of time that the person chooses to occupy it.
Another passenger (that's 'you', in your example) has no right to occupy that seat during the portion of the journey that it is reserved to another passenger, and if that other passenger does occupy it, then they should be very prepared to give it up at any time. But in the event that the passenger with the reservation does not present themselves, then it would be acceptable for the other passenger (that's you, again) to occupy it in their absence.

Just remember the important point that the person who had reserved the seat may appear looking for their booked seat later in the journey for a number of reasons, none of which undermine their entitlement to occupy their reserved seat.

 

[Starmill]

Just remember the important point that the person who had reserved the seat may appear looking for their booked seat later in the journey for a number of reasons, none of which undermine their entitlement to occupy their reserved seat.

This is but one of a number of opinions on the matter, which has been discussed in the past without consensus.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The online reservation system allows you to reserve your out journey at the seat you wish on the Virgin Train only, yet it will not give you the option of reserving the return journey/ I could only do this if I selected the return journey which then calculated it as two separate tickets and doubling the price.

Erm, no it doesn't. If you are finding it does, can you post screenshots to show that?

What you need to do is to select the Off Peak Single for the outward, and the Off Peak Single for the return. It shows them as singles, but the prices are half the return fare. What you actually get is an Off Peak Return.

How do you reserve the return journey?

As above, but you can also obtain a reservation from any ticket office.

 

[Late Trains uk]

Erm, no it doesn't. If you are finding it does, can you post screenshots to show that?

What you need to do is to select the Off Peak Single for the outward, and the Off Peak Single for the return. It shows them as singles, but the prices are half the return fare. What you actually get is an Off Peak Return.



As above, but you can also obtain a reservation from any ticket office.

I selected the return which then came up as two individual journeys costing double the price. After reserving the out journey(which it has also done for the non Virgin part of my journey) it wouldn't allow me to choose my return seat. I have done this since by phonening.

 

[najaB]

I selected the return which then came up as two individual journeys costing double the price.

That's very odd, I've never had that happen for me. I wonder what caused it? Was this the Virgin Trains East or West Coast site?

 

[Bletchleyite]

That's very odd, I've never had that happen for me. I wonder what caused it? Was this the Virgin Trains East or West Coast site?

And what precisely was the journey? (from, to and time of day, and which service did you select which revealed the problem?)

 

[Late Trains uk]

And what precisely was the journey? (from, to and time of day, and which service did you select which revealed the problem?)

I've reserved the return now including on other operators I will be most likely using that day. And what does knowing to/from and when I'm travelling matter it's a return where I can choose to travel back when I wish. I wanted to reserve the return journey in the same way I booked the out journey, the option to reserve a seat did not appear.

 

[najaB]

And what does knowing to/from and when I'm travelling matter it's a return where I can choose to travel back when I wish.

Either you want to know why the website behaved the way it did or you don't. If you want us to be able to help you get answers to your questions then you need to help us. If you don't want any help, please say so.