Three Advance passengers, one (non) seat reservation ticket

[trainophile]

Hope this isn't presumptuous of me, starting a thread when I only joined today.

Reason is that I recently booked online three Advance tickets for Hereford to Southport in December, and same for returning, so six tickets in all. Anyway I found at the time of booking that the system no longer allocates seat reservation numbers, although it does state the precise train that has to be travelled on for the Hereford to Chester leg on Arriva Trains Wales, which is obviously part of the deal for Advance tickets.

On collecting the tickets at Hereford station, the machine issued three tickets for the whole journey, but only one showing the timed train from Hereford to Chester, which presumably has to cover all of us.

Although we hope to sit together, at that time of year it is quite possible we will have to split up to find seats, so whoever has custody of the timed reservation will be okay, but if a jobsworth ticket inspector (sorry no offence, I realise they have a job to do) asks for proof from the two people who only have the full journey ticket, this could cause embarrassment, especially if we have had to sit in different carriages.

I note via Twitter that ATW are discontinuing seat reservations completely from 10th December, except for tickets purchased at a station. Therefore this might become a regular situation if more than one person is travelling in a party.

Not sure what I am asking really but I wondered if anyone has any views.

 

[transportphoto]

Have you a scan of the tickets so we can have a look at them?

What I think you have is 4 coupons, 3 tickets and one mandatory seat reservation, they may be numbered like this:

XXX01 - Ticket 1
XXX02 - Mandatory Seat Reservation
XXX03 - Ticket 2
XXX04 - Ticket 3
(replacing the X's with digits, this is for example and the digits may be different set of consecutive numbers)

The Seat Reservation will show three seat numbers, the orange bar at the top showing 'Only valid with ticket: XXX01'.

HTH

 

[trainophile]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Sorry I don't have a working scanner, but looking at the tickets (there are five in total for each way), there are three STD ADVANCE numbered 90362, 90363 & 90364; one Mandatory Reservation Coupon headed "Valid only with ticket 90362" but itself numbered 90365 and stating the time of the train, and one Collection Receipt numbered 90362-90365. So there is only one item actually showing the time of the train we're meant to be on, so only one of us can show it if we are sitting separately.

I just thought that even if they don't allocate an actual seat, they should print out one Mandatory Reservation coupon for each passenger journey ticket.

 

[Mojo]

This is common now where multiple seats or people are carried on one coupon. I think one ticket can carry something like 4 seat reservations, as when 5 of us used one in the summer we had two coupons, one with 4 and another with 1 seat reservation.

If it's an issue (unlikely) then you'll have to tell the guard where the person is who has the reservation. If he doesn't like it then I'm sure he'll get over it quite quickly.

 

[imagination]

So long as you are sitting reasonably close the people without the coupon should be able to point out the person who has the coupon (or if that person is checked first then they should be able to say that you are with them).

 

[trainophile]

Yeah, thanks again for the comments. I don't envisage any problems, but was just curious as to the reasoning behind not issuing one per person. Saving the planet I suppose :?.

 

[imagination]

Saving money more likely.

 

[talltim]

It's to be hoped XC don't start doing similar, otherwise you could theoretically end with your reservation ticket on the other half of the train to you!

 

[sheff1]

The Seat Reservation will show three seat numbers, the orange bar at the top showing 'Only valid with ticket: XXX01'.

The things is that ATW do not reserve seats with advance tickets wef 10th December so there are no seat numbers to show.

I can certainly see this causing problems as, without an allocated seat, the group can (and will maybe have to) sit separately.

I assume that if connecting trains are involved then a separate 'reservation' coupon will be issued for each train, but only one per train no matter how many tickets were booked in one transaction ?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Upto 4 persons, one coach and one reservable train per reservation coupon. If reserved seats are in seperate coaches then more than one coupon should be issued.

 

[transportphoto]

Sorry sheff1, in this case the seat numbers will be shown as asterix, for example in place of 01F it would be *** and also in place of the coach letter it will also be a * .

If this is the case, the reservation will show the date and time as normal.

 

[dave4jackie]

should have booked at a train station,then would have been no problems

 

[trainophile]

should have booked at a train station,then would have been no problems

That's fine if the cheapest tickets are available for the journey you want, which you can easily check online.

 

[MKB]

It's not happened yet, but I've worried about something similar happening.

My partner and I often drive (separately) after work to the station where we are booked on a train, each with an Advance ticket. We know that if one of us doesn't make it in time, that person will have to get the next train and buy a new ticket.

On a few occasions, the seat reservation has been issued on a single ticket card, so one of us has had to carry just the ticket itself without the reservation card. Luckily, that person has yet to miss the train.

Surely, it can't be right that a TOC can force you to travel together, i.e. if one person misses a train, the other person has to miss it too?

I want to force the booking system to reserve two seats that are adjacent, but to issue the seat reservations on separate ticket cards. Are there some companies or machines that will do this automatically, or rules that govern why I'm sometimes given one reservation card and other times two?

 

[142094]

Only quick way I can see around that is to do two seperate bookings for each ticket - that way you'll both have a seat reservation ticket, and if you want to sit together then you more than likely will be able to (quite a few times I have sat in a different seat to one I have been reserved in and not been told to move).

 

[Flamingo]

It's not happened yet, but I've worried about something similar happening.

My partner and I often drive (separately) after work to the station where we are booked on a train, each with an Advance ticket. We know that if one of us doesn't make it in time, that person will have to get the next train and buy a new ticket.

On a few occasions, the seat reservation has been issued on a single ticket card, so one of us has had to carry just the ticket itself without the reservation card. Luckily, that person has yet to miss the train.

Surely, it can't be right that a TOC can force you to travel together, i.e. if one person misses a train, the other person has to miss it too?

I want to force the booking system to reserve two seats that are adjacent, but to issue the seat reservations on separate ticket cards. Are there some companies or machines that will do this automatically, or rules that govern why I'm sometimes given one reservation card and other times two?

One carries reservation, one carries print-out of e-mail of same? Personally I would accept this, especially if the passenger approached me before or shortly after boarding and explained it, rather than me finding them.