Virgin East Coast First Class

[MonsooN]

Hi everyone

I'm a regular traveller on both VTEC and Cross Country for work and I always travel standard class and I always have a reserved seat.

On Sunday, I'm travelling on the 12.00 from Newcastle to Kings Cross and I noticed on the confirmation email sent by the travel booking company that I'm in Coach M - which is First Class.

When I collected my tickets from the machine at Newcastle station today, it only printed the ticket itself and not a seat reservation card. I do have a document from the booking company with the seat number confirmation on it which I printed out, but it's not on the orange ticket.

Does anyone know if this will be acceptable as a proof of reservation? What's the best way to check?

Also, if it is valid, what complementary services can I enjoy in First Class?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Without seeing exactly what you have, it's difficult to say if you have everything you should have. You could check with a ticket office and if you haven't got everything they may be able to print off the parts that are missing.

 

[ainsworth74]

Agree with the above. Check with the booking office unless you want to post a picture of what you've got in which case we'll be happy to confirm if you've got a problem or not. It's possible you've collected a ticket in the new style which has reservations on the same coupon as the travel ticket so the machine would on print the one coupon.

 

[najaB]

As to your second question: on a weekend you get as much tea, coffee, juice and soft drinks as you can reasonably want, lashings of sandwiches and crisps along with free Wi-Fi.

 

[Segedunum]

Agree with the above. Check with the booking office unless you want to post a picture of what you've got in which case we'll be happy to confirm if you've got a problem or not. It's possible you've collected a ticket in the new style which has reservations on the same coupon as the travel ticket so the machine would on print the one coupon.

Having used the machines on Tuesday in the main station Portico area, it would seem that they're reverted to the old style for some reason.

 

[yorkie]

As to your second question: on a weekend you get as much tea, coffee, juice and soft drinks as you can reasonably want, lashings of sandwiches and crisps along with free Wi-Fi.

When I did a 4 hour journey last month, it was a case of an acceptable quantity of drinks, one item of fruit, one muffin and and a choice of a pain au chocolat or yoghurt (but not both; "it's one or the other"). I'm guessing your "lashings of" remarks are being sarcastic? Or maybe genuine and you only get the Scottish based crews and don't have to suffer any surly crews? The service is so erratic, it's hard to tell from your post!

I much prefer the evening trains out of King's Cross; the evening Newcastle based crews are consistently great.

 

[MonsooN]

Thanks for the help and advice so far. I might pop into the ticket office anyway on Sunday just for peace of mind.

Here's the doc along with the tickets:

Normally we never get First Class with work (Even if it's cheaper!) but this was a last minute job, so it's slipped through.

All advice much appreciated

 

[Romilly]

So far as I can see, you have clearly got only a Standard Class ticket. It looks as if, when the ticket was booked, a reservation was made for London-Bristol but not for Newcastle-London (see "2 Coupons" on the collection receipt). It looks as if a reservation was then made separately for Newcastle-London, but mistakenly was made for 1st rather than standard class. I do not believe that that reservation enables you to travel in 1st class with a standard ticket, unless you pay for weekend 1st upgrade on the train at £25 if available.

Edit: maybe the midday train from Newcastle to London this Sunday is going to be very busy - it is not possible as of now to reserve standard class seats on it, and there are no Newcastle-London Advance tickets left for that train. But there are still about 30 first-class seats left.

 

[AlterEgo]

This is definitely a Standard Class ticket that's been bought.

They may have purchased a separate upgrade for you, but this seems unlikely. In any case, you don't have the upgrade coupon so you must either pay to travel in First Class or slum it in Standard.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Having used the machines on Tuesday in the main station Portico area, it would seem that they're reverted to the old style for some reason.

Tuesday of this week? I printed a quantity of tickets in one of the machines in the portico on Tuesday too, and they were all in the 'new' style which have the ticket and seat reservation combined on just the one coupon. And they were also first-class 'advance' tickets for travel on VT East Coast.

Having said that, I completely agre with the others who confirm that your ticket is for travel in standard class and there is no seat reservation for the Newcastle to London leg of the journey (and none is necessary).

 

[Segedunum]

Tuesday of this week? I printed a quantity of tickets in one of the machines in the portico on Tuesday too, and they were all in the 'new' style which have the ticket and seat reservation combined on just the one coupon. And they were also first-class 'advance' tickets for travel on VT East Coast.

Having said that, I completely agre with the others who confirm that your ticket is for travel in standard class and there is no seat reservation for the Newcastle to London leg of the journey (and none is necessary).

Indeed Tuesday of this week. Seems that different machines are printing different styles then. This was an Advance Purchase ticket from Newcastle to Manchester Picc and return, with 6 coupons issued.

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[najaB]

When I did a 4 hour journey last month, it was a case of an acceptable quantity of drinks, one item of fruit, one muffin and and a choice of a pain au chocolat or yoghurt (but not both; "it's one or the other"). I'm guessing your "lashings of" remarks are being sarcastic? Or maybe genuine and you only get the Scottish based crews and don't have to suffer any surly crews? The service is so erratic, it's hard to tell from your post!

I much prefer the evening trains out of King's Cross; the evening Newcastle based crews are consistently great.

I've not traveled weekend first for a while, but last time I did it I had more sandwiches than I could handle. This was in East Coast days though.

I agree that the Scottish crews seem more generous. I've seen a few 'you can have the rest of the bottle' when there's only been one or two glasses of wine poured so far.

 

[yorkie]

... I do not believe that that reservation enables you to travel in 1st class with a standard ticket...

When mistakes occur with the issuing of fares, the correct action for a Guard would be to withdraw the tickets and issue replacement tickets and complete a ticket irregularity report (TIR). The customer should not be penalised for issuing errors.

I suppose a counter argument to the above could be that there isn't an issuing error and that it's just the confirmation itself that is an error and therefore the above would apply, if so I suppose the customer could be asked to move to standard class and no TIR issued and the customer asked to take it up with the issuer themselves.

 

[MonsooN]

Thanks everyone for your help.

I think my best bet might be to pop into the ticket office at Newcastle station before my journey tomorrow and explain what's happened and ask them very nicely if they'll allow me to travel in first class anyway.

This has been a mix up on the part of the booking company and by the time I collected my tickets it was too late to contact anyone to query it. I'm an innocent victim as it were.

Just for the record, I'm more than happy to travel in Standard Class. I just need a table seat so I can get some work done - if I take my chances in Standard, especially if the train is fully booked, I probably won't be able to get one.

My other option would be to pay the £25 upgrade fee and see if I can expense it (doubtful!)

 

[CyrusWuff]

When mistakes occur with the issuing of fares, the correct action for a Guard would be to withdraw the tickets and issue replacement tickets and complete a ticket irregularity report (TIR). The customer should not be penalised for issuing errors.

I suppose a counter argument to the above could be that there isn't an issuing error and that it's just the confirmation itself that is an error and therefore the above would apply, if so I suppose the customer could be asked to move to standard class and no TIR issued and the customer asked to take it up with the issuer themselves.

Looking at the scan provided by the OP, the ticket and reservation between Paddington and Bristol were sold at 16:17 (from the Collection Receipt), but the reservation between Newcastle and Kings Cross (per the confirmation) was made in a separate transaction nearly 25 minutes later at 16:41.

From East Coast's point of view, the combination of those facts is going to set alarm bells ringing, even though it's likely to be a cock up by their Travel Management Company.

 

[MonsooN]

Looking at the scan provided by the OP, the ticket and reservation between Paddington and Bristol were sold at 16:17 (from the Collection Receipt), but the reservation between Newcastle and Kings Cross (per the confirmation) was made in a separate transaction nearly 25 minutes later at 16:41.

From East Coast's point of view, the combination of those facts is going to set alarm bells ringing, even though it's likely to be a cock up by their Travel Management Company.

Our Office administrator booked the tickets for me through a 3rd party company on Friday afternoon. I also booked some tickets from Bristol to Birmingham, Birmingham to Tamworth and Tamworth to Newcastle for later in the week and all of them had a seat reservation. It looks like it was a simple oversight on their part.

When I noticed, I emailed our admin who then contacted them and asked for a seat to be reserved. It looks like they've booked me a seat in the wrong section

 

[Wallsendmag]

I believe that VTEC are looking into this inconsistency


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[MonsooN]

Just checked with the ticket office and they said I'd have to pay for the upgrade, but they said the train won't be busy so I shouldn't have any problems getting a seat in standard class - which I'm quite happy to do.

Hopefully I can get a table seat so I can get a bit of work done.